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Read Naturally Software Edition
Communicating With Students and Parents
Communicating with students and parents will help you ensure that students are having a positive experience with Read Naturally and progressing at a good pace.
Parent Letter
When a student begins working in Read Naturally, it is helpful to send home a letter to his/her parents that explains the strategy so that parents are involved from the beginning.
To print a parent letter:
- Log in with your teacher password.
- From the Students tab, choose a student, and click Letters.
- Choose Parent Letter, and click OK. The parent letter opens in a separate window.
- To print the letter, choose Print from the File menu.
- Be sure to sign the letters before sending them home with students.
Super Reader Awards and Packets of Stories
You can use awards to keep parents involved in the learning process. After a student passes 12 stories in a level, you may want to staple printed copies of the stories together, attach the award as a cover letter, and ask the student to take the booklet of stories home to read and discuss with his or her parents. Parents can then sign the award, and the student can return the bottom portion to you.
To print a Super Reader award:
- Log in with your teacher password.
- From the Students tab, choose a student and click Letters.
- Choose Super Reader Award, and click OK.
- Choose the level for which the student has completed 12 stories, and then click OK. The Super Reader Award opens in a separate window with the student's name, the level, and the goal rate he or she achieved.
- To print the award, choose Print from the File menu.
- Sign the award, and add comments to personalize it for the student.
- Send the award home with the student, and include copies of the stories he or she completed (see next procedure)
To print the stories in a level:
- Log in with your teacher password.
- From the File menu, choose Print Stories.
- Select the level for which you want to print stories. Only licensed levels are shown.
- Select the stories you want to print.
- To select one story, click the story name.
- To select all of the stories in a level, click Select All.
- To select a group of stories that are listed together, click the first story, hold down the Shift key, and then click the last story.
- To select multiple stories that are not listed together, hold down the Control key (Windows) or Command key (Macintosh) and then click the stories you want to print.
- Click OK. The selected stories open in your default web browser.
- To print the stories, choose Print from the File menu.
Periodic Report and Student Graphs
If a student is making fluency gains, it is important to communicate this success with both the student and the student's parents. Sharing this success can be very motivating for the student. Read Naturally SE includes a Periodic Report, which is a letter that you can send to parents to inform them of the progress their children have made in the Read Naturally program.
You can also send home the student's graphs to provide parents with a visual representation of the student's fluency gains. Read Naturally SE includes a Fluency Details Report that includes charts showing the student's fluency gains.
Refer to the Read Naturally SE Teacher's Guide for descriptions of the Read Naturally SE reports and instructions for generating reports.
If a Student Is Not Making Gains
If a student is not making the gains you expect while working in Read Naturally, try the following:
- Call his/her home, and discuss the lack of progress with the student's parent(s). They may have information to help you better understand the student. They may also be willing to work with the student at home.
- Make suggestions to parents about how they can work on fluency with their child at home. For example, parents may be interested in purchasing Read Naturally's home product, One Minute Reader, or your school could set up a One Minute Reader school-to-home program to enable students to get more fluency practice at home.
