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The school-to-home connection is more important than ever. The need for distance learning over the past year has created challenges for teachers, parents, and students. And, as the school year ends, we don’t want our learners to experience a “summer slide.” By having parents as partners, students who have been working in Read Live at school can have more support and continuity in their instruction. We want to share some tools and resources to help your students take advantage of reading opportunities with Read Live, even during the summer months, from home.

Developing readers need more than just books to build critical literacy skills. One Minute Reader Live transforms independent reading time into an exciting, guided reading experience. Utilizing the research-based Read Naturally Strategy in a fully independent and motivating system, One Minute Reader Live helps students develop fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary skills, and build confidence as learners.

Managing students' needs is always a work in progress. My latest challenge in my classroom has been to figure out the best Read Naturally Live level for my younger readers. In the past, most (if not all) of my second-grade students have seamlessly fit into the Phonics levels of stories. As they progressed, I would move them into Sequenced stories. Usually, their phonics needs would be well matched to their fluency needs in the Phonics series. These levels provided the right amount of challenge and comfort for their reading.

Student training is an important part of any curriculum implementation. Investing the time to teach students how to properly use a program will lead to much better results in the long-term. That’s why we’ve created A Student’s Guide to Word Warm-ups Live. This free resource makes student training easy, efficient, and enjoyable.

Read Naturally Live–Español is now available to all Read Live users! Here are some resources to help you get the most from the new program.

When I first started teaching, I knew that independent reading was important. I knew I wanted to give my students the opportunity to read something on their own that they loved, but I didn’t realize the need to be specific and intentional in this practice. Because of this, I would provide time for “free reading” or “DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) Time” on a regular basis. However, it didn’t always go as planned. From time to time, I would have students flipping through pages of the book (not reading). Some students played in their desks during this time. I even had a student or two fall asleep. As a new teacher, I knew I needed to provide opportunity for more focused reading, but I didn’t know how to make that happen. I was frustrated with myself and my students.

The word “troubleshooting” is the theme of this year’s Read Naturally lab! We’ve experienced a whole new way of teaching and making the best out of distance learning. At the beginning of the year, our school was lucky enough to be in session full-time, every day. This allowed for a somewhat normal Read Naturally schedule. However, due to the Covid19 situation, the school no longer allowed volunteers in the building. With 3 classes of 8-10 students, we were still in need of extra teachers. Zoom to the rescue!

We have just about made it through the first semester of the school year, and we want to make certain that we are teaching our students vocabulary skills to the highest level possible. Among the very common questions we contemplate throughout the school year, there are always those questions of how we can reach our students and increase their level of mastery. How can we have our students dig deeper and increase their level of mastery?

The most rewarding part of a Read Naturally intervention—for both students and teachers—is the progress students make. By this point in the school year, you likely have several students who have made significant gains in fluency, comprehension, or both. When you notice this growth, it’s time to assess whether the student needs an extra challenge in the form of a goal or level increase. Typically, you’ll make such a change after a student has completed 12 stories at his/her current level. Here are the signs it’s time to raise the goal or level:

Striving readers need systematic phonics instruction. Word Warm-ups Live was developed to help students improve word recognition, learn to use word patterns to decode rapidly, read words with featured patterns in connected text, decode increasingly difficult phonetically regular words, and reinforce featured phonics skills through spelling.

Make Your Student a STAR!

Read Naturally Star of the Month​Share your student’s success story—nominate him or her for our Star of the Month award. Win a Barnes & Noble gift card for the student and a Read Naturally gift certificate for your class!

pointer Submit a Star-of-the-Month entry

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