Read Naturally Case Studies
Case 9: Special Education Students, Upper Lake, Calif.
Diana Johnson, of Upper Lake Union School District in Upper Lake, California, implemented the Read Naturally program for use in her special education classroom, which consisted of eighteen second through fifth grade students. Read Naturally was implemented in February 2001, and she tracked the students’ progress for one report card period, until May 2001. They used the program for a half-hour each day, five times a week.
Diana evaluated her students’ progress using the Basic Reading Inventory. This test showed that the students gained up to five years in reading ability. The following chart (Figure 24) shows how many students showed each amount of reading growth.
Number of Students Showing
Each Amount of Reading Growth
The students that showed five year’s worth of growth went from a second grade to a seventh grade reading level. Diana also reported that, in all cases, the students’ classroom teachers noticed the improvement not only in their reading, but also in their ability to stay on task and to be more productive. Diana attributes her students’ wonderful growth to the Read Naturally program because it was the only change she made in her reading program during that time period.