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We made it to June! Congrats on wrapping up another fantastic school year. We hope you get the opportunity to look back at all you accomplished this year and celebrate a job well done. One of our traditions here at Read Naturally is to look back at all the blog posts we wrote this year and see which ones were the most popular with our readers. This provides a great opportunity to highlight content you may have missed during the busy school year. Read more

Congrats to Bradyn M., our June Star of the Month! Bradyn is a 5th grader at Brock Elliott school in Manteca, CA. He's done fantastic work using Read Naturally programs this year! Here is what his teacher, Ms. Morris, has to say about him: Read more

As another year in my Read Live reading lab winds down, I've noticed an uptick in my third graders' motivation. Many of them had been "saving" certain story topics for last, patiently waiting to read the stories that interested them the most. They're thrilled that the time has finally come. The Exploding Toads story, in particular, has been worth the wait! Read more

The Read Live School of the Year Award recognizes schools whose students have substantially improved their reading skills with Read Live. Thank you to everyone who participated! We received dozens of excellent nominations.  Read more

Congrats to our May Star of the Month, Yusuf, who has made great progress in reading this year! Yusuf is a fifth grader at Freedom Hill Elementary School in Vienna, VA. Here is what Yusuf's teacher, Ms. Baden, had to say about him: Read more

​In my last post, I shared the many assessment mistakes I’ve made over the years. Blunders aside, I actually love spring assessments for one simple reason. The spring assessment gives me an opportunity to show my students the big picture and remind them that the best reward of all is taking ownership of their own progress. This is usually just a short conversation, but it’s one of the most important talks I will have with them. Read more

​Is it really assessment season again? It feels like yesterday that I opened the lab at this new school, met my students, and screened them for reading difficulties using benchmark assessment. The winter assessment window seemed to arrive just a short time after that. And now it’s springtime already, and spring assessment window is almost here. It is time to prepare to assess the students yet again. Read more

In order to know whether a student has made enough progress to exit a Read Naturally program, you need to assess the student with grade-level material. It is important to celebrate your student’s daily growth from cold to hot timings in a story, the student’s goal being increased and the student moving up a level. It is also exciting to see a student’s cold-timing scores increase from story to story. These are all indications that the student’s reading skills are improving and that he or she is making progress in the program. But it is essential to keep the long-term goal in mind. Read more

​​​​​​​Congrats to our April Star of the Month, Katie, who has made great progress in reading this year! Katie is a fifth grader at Brookside Elementary in Nicholasville, KY. Here is what Katie's teacher, Ms. Schulz, had to say about her: Read more

As a mother of four young children who are drawn to the iPad like moths to a flame, it’s a little hard for me to write a blog post about the upside of screen time. Mostly I see the iPad as a frequent source of conflict in my house. My kids want to play games or watch shows on it, and I want them to do things I’ve deemed more meaningful—read books, play outside, build with Legos, or, dare I even dream it, pick up their room. Indeed, plenty of research confirms the negative consequences of too much screen time, which is why so many parents find themselves fighting this battle with their children day after day. Read more