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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

For me, summer break means a break from the reading lab—but it doesn’t mean a break from teaching! I’ve been blessed with eleven grandchildren, six of whom are still in grade school and live very close to me. It’s great to work with them throughout the year on their reading and math, but I love the extra time I get to spend with them in the summer. As with many kids, it can be more difficult to motivate them over the break. Can any of you relate? Read more

How will your students spend their last day in the reading lab this year? While this might not be their most productive day ever (we all know how the last few days of school can be!), there’s still an opportunity to make it count. A great goal for this day is to set students up for summer success. Consider the following ideas. Read more

Teacher Appreciation Week is just around the corner! Here are five meaningful ways students can honor their teachers during this special week. Read more

We're approaching the end of another challenging school year. Your students have worked hard to accelerate their progress in reading, despite learning disruptions due to the pandemic. As you know, they can't afford anymore setbacks in their reading. Avoiding the summer slide is more important than ever. Read more

Teacher Appreciation Week officially begins on May 8. Let's celebrate with a bunch of free resources for you. These resources include phonics games, vocabulary exercises, cue cards to help emerging readers with visually confusing letters, a system for mastering the most frequently misspelled words, and more--all free! Read more

We’ve reached the time of year when many of you are filling up your summer calendars, making plans to keep your children’s minds and bodies busy. Quiet time to read might not earn a spot on your family calendar, but it should be highly prioritized nonetheless.

Here are some tips for boosting your children’s literacy this summer: Read more

​​​​​​​If you’re a Read Live user, we hope you’re taking advantage of FREE One Minute Reader Live access this summer to accelerate your students’ gains and ensure they don’t lose the progress they’ve made this year. OMR Live is completely independent and ideally suited for summer learning. Teachers typically have just one concern: How can we trust that the students will put in the time and effort on their own? Rest assured, OMR Live is inherently rewarding, and kids love it! Beyond this, consider boosting their motivation by implementing a fun incentive program. 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