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Students using Read Naturally Live have completed more than 1,000,000 stories! Since being released in June of 2011, thousands of teachers have used Read Live with tens of thousands of students. We have received fantastic feedback from teachers and students, and it’s clear Read Naturally Live is the best version of the Read Naturally strategy ever. I have a feeling two million stories isn't that far off. Read more

Have you ever looked at your to-do list and wondered when it became so unwieldy? Lists seem to have an affinity for lengthening instead of shortening. It’s true of to-do lists, and it can be true of student lists in Read Live.

New students are added to your Read Live database each year. Additionally, many administrators import their entire student body into the database, even though some students don’t use Read Live. While these features offer convenience, they can also result in excess “clutter” to sort through when working with students or generating student reports. Thankfully, there are quick and easy ways to shorten your student lists to show only the students with whom you are working. Read more

Wouldn't that be wonderful! In reality, many students are impatient for your help. Fortunately, Read Naturally has a few tricks up its sleeve to keep your students engaged as they wait.

When students reach their goal on a Read Naturally story, they should read the story again, answer the comprehension questions, and continue practicing until you’re able to pass them. After completing these tasks, students should work on wait-time activities. Read more

As students work through Read Naturally stories, their progress monitoring graphs motivate them to put forth their best effort. From the beginning of the story to the end, motivation plays a key role. But this motivation shouldn't end with the story. How can you keep your students motivated to work through an entire level of stories, and the next level after that? Read more

Last week, we discussed the importance of using the Read Naturally placement passages to place your students in Read Naturally. Yet even if you follow that procedure to a tee, some students will perform unexpectedly. Therefore, the next step in the placement process is to evaluate each student’s initial placement to ensure it was correct. Read more

Years ago, Read Naturally cofounder Candyce Ihnot asked a little boy named Christopher about his experience shopping for new shoes. “How many pair of shoes do you usually try on?” she asked. Christopher responded by rattling off several numbers, which helped Candyce make her point. In order to find the best fit, kids often need to try on a number of different styles and sizes. Similarly, students new to the Read Naturally program need to “try on” a few levels to find the fit that’s exactly right for them. We call this process placement. Read more

Since the original study in 1989, independent researchers across the country have conducted well-designed control group studies using the Read Naturally strategy. These studies validate the effectiveness of the Read Naturally strategy on improving students’ fluency. A recent study published in the National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal (Volume 28, Number 1) is no exception. This study, entitled “Response to Intervention: Increasing Fluency, Rate, and Accuracy for Students at Risk for Reading Failure,” conducted by Drs. Christine Tucker and Don Jones, concluded that at-risk students using a Read Naturally intervention made significantly greater gains than at-risk students receiving only general reading instruction. Read more

You've probably heard the words “Common Core State Standards” hundreds of times already this school year—and it’s only October! Are you exhausted trying to ensure your curricula align with these standards? When it comes to Read Naturally products, you can relax—we've done the work for you. Read more

Common Core State Standards tell us that students need to be given challenging text. I wasn't always sure this was the case for struggling readers; however, I have found it to be very true with my students. In fact, early in the year last year, one of our fourth grade students, Nick, finished all the stories in level 5.0. He wasn’t ready to exit the program since his fluency and comprehension scores were not where we needed them to be, but we were concerned that the stories in level 5.6 would be too challenging. Read more

Not long ago, Read Naturally writers could be found crafting new stories about everything from the first cellphone to a harrowing shipwreck survival. Meanwhile, they were updating previously published Read Naturally stories to reflect the most current research. But why stop there?

A cascade of content enhancements followed. Hundreds of new vocabulary terms were defined, and comprehension questions were added to be more consistent with standardized tests. New illustrations, improved audio, Spanish translations, updated manuals, and a fresh design made the content come to life. Teachers were deeply involved every step of the way, ensuring that all content was appropriate for struggling readers and compliant with Common Core State Standards. Finally, in early 2012, Read Naturally released the best version of its flagship product to date—Read Naturally Encore. Read more