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Imagine you’re attending a class to learn to play the guitar. The students in your class display a wide range of abilities. Some are brand new to the instrument; some know a few chords; and some already play quite well. How would you learn best in this environment? Would it work well for the teacher to instruct the group as a whole for the duration of the class? Or would it make more sense to sometimes break the class into small groups, allowing the beginners to start with the basics while the more advanced students could fine-tune their playing? Read more

This parent-teacher conference season, we hope you have the pleasure of sharing great news about your students’ growth in reading. Many parents will wonder how they can help foster this growth at home. We have developed several handouts and programs specifically for this purpose, and conferences are a great time to offer these free resources to parents. Read more

Valentine’s Day, a holiday about love, seems to instead fill a large portion of the population with dread. If romance isn’t your thing, you feel doomed. If you’re unpartnered, you feel left out. If you’re a teacher, you’re bracing yourself for a day of mayhem and over-sugared students. And if you’re a parent of school-aged children, your living space is suddenly littered with dozens of valentines your children need to address. Does anyone actually love this holiday? Read more

The fact that so many students love working in Read Naturally programs brings us great joy. But we are most delighted when students no longer need our programs. The whole point of a Read Naturally intervention is to one day exit the program as a fluent and confident reader. The sooner this day comes for a student, the better! Read more

In my fourth-grade classroom, I sometimes felt like a circus ringmaster, trying to manage multiple groups of students at different ability levels while making sure that all 24 students were engaged in a productive activity. Anyone who has stepped inside a classroom has seen the evidence of... Read more

Do you ever wish you could invite Bill Gates or the late Steve Jobs to your home or school to show you exactly what your computer and its programs are capable of? Sure, it’s all buried in the manuals somewhere, but nothing beats personalized instruction from an expert. The ability to ask your questions, to learn the skills that are most beneficial to you, to discover how a device or program can meet your specific needs—this experience would increase user satisfaction by leaps and bounds.

This is exactly the kind of experience we offer through our personalized training options. Read more

Raise your hand if you've ever heard a child joyfully declare, "X is for Xylophone!"? Read more

Welcome to the home stretch! For most schools across the nation, winter break is just a couple days away. We hope your students’ time at home will allow them to get lost in the pages of a book beneath a cozy blanket. Last week’s blog post offers several free activities and ideas to help your students boost their literacy skills at home. Before you send them on their way, we want to reiterate the importance of just one: Reading aloud. Read more

In the literacy education landscape, one-minute timings often find themselves at the center of discussion—and sometimes misconception.  

Critics argue that these timings only foster stress and promote speed reading. It’s true that one-minute timings, when introduced without proper framing, can indeed lead to stress or a misguided emphasis on speed. But that isn’t the whole truth. When used in an appropriate way, one-minute timings can be a highly useful tool.  Read more

We've arrived at the season of giving thanks--but shouldn't that be every season? Research shows that grateful people are happier and healthier. Here are 13 easy ways to cultivate gratitude in your classroom all year long. Click on the links to download free printables! Read more