RN Bookmark

Prior to becoming Read Naturally’s Educational Consultant, Karen Hunter was a reading specialist, special education teacher, and teacher trainer for 30 years in California. Karen is always brainstorming ways to teach valuable skills to students, and she has a knack for developing creative and motivating tools. This past year, our blog featured three posts by Karen, each one including a free resource she developed. Readers couldn’t download the content quickly enough. In case you missed them, we wanted to share them again. Read more

A Valuable Independent Word-Learning Strategy

As you know, vocabulary is a key component to success in reading. There are many benefits to having a large vocabulary, but none is more valuable than the positive contribution that vocabulary size makes to reading comprehension (Nagy, 2005).

So how many vocabulary words should you aim to teach your students per year? Read more

Splat-O-Nym, our new iPad app, is a fun and effective way for your students to build vocabulary. Students master synonyms, antonyms, and words-in-context as they learn thousands of useful new words. They have so much fun “splatting” words, accumulating points, and moving from level to level, they often forget that they’re learning! Read more

When we developed Read Naturally Encore and Read Live, we placed a special emphasis on vocabulary development. Students using these tools now have more vocabulary support than ever, and their reading comprehension is benefiting. Read more

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” Ask your students what this famous Shakespeare line means, and many will tell you Juliet is wondering where Romeo is. As you probably know, she’s not. She’s wondering why he is. The confusion about this quote is not surprising. Wherefore in the world does wherefore mean why? It’s just one of the many puzzling nuances of the English language. Read more

You pick up a magazine and read an article, start to finish. You put the magazine down and realize you can’t recall anything about the article—not because you couldn't comprehend what you read, but simply because you didn't. This happens to even the most fluent readers. Comprehension may be the purpose of reading, but it’s never a guarantee. Read more

Every word has a story. The more pieces of the story you know, the more likely you are to remember the word’s meaning. For example, during this high season of political discourse, consider the word ballot. This word originated in Italy and translates to “small ball or pebble.” Italians once voted by casting a small ball or pebble into a box, which explains why, in English, a ballot is a device for casting a vote. To students learning the word ballot, the story of the ancient Italian voting system, as well as the connection to the word ball, will likely help them retain the meaning of the word better than if they were asked to simply memorize the definition. And wouldn’t it be fun to teach them these little clues and bits of trivia? Read more

Read Naturally has another solution for enhancing students’ vocabulary in the critical middle grades. Take Aim at Vocabulary – Group Format is a new instructional model for our original Take Aim program. This product is an ideal solution for small groups of students whose assessment scores indicate a weakness in vocabulary or who need support in learning the meanings of unknown words in text. Read more

Did you know that chelonian is another word for turtle? Or that cordate means heart-shaped? Next time you leave a scrap of food on your plate, call it an ort and see who’s impressed.

If you’re a word nerd, you’re in good company here at Read Naturally. Even if you’re not, you can probably relate to the sense of accomplishment that comes from learning new words. The benefits of vocabulary development cannot be overestimated. It’s critical to the comprehension of text, it helps us communicate better, and it enables us to enjoy a broader range of material. That’s why, when we developed Read Naturally Live, we wanted to incorporate a fun and engaging way for students to learn useful new words. Enter: Wordtastic. Read more