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I've spent the past five years obsessed with the creation of Funēmics, and I've talked about it quite a bit with my family members, who collectively speak five languages and have lived in six different countries on four continents.

I grew up as an American in Saudi Arabia, and my family was part of a global community called ex-patriots—whatever that means. For us, it meant that when my sister Erica graduated from college, she moved to Florence, Italy; when my brother Patrick fell in love, it was with a Swedish girl in Rome; and when my Dad remarried, it was to a beautiful woman from Ecuador. More conventionally, I found a hockey player from northern Minnesota, but he happened to live in Aschaffenburg, Germany. Read more

Sight words are extremely challenging. Often they’re hard to conceptualize, and they don’t follow typical phonics patterns. But sight words come up again and again in the English language. It’s essential that students learn these high-frequency words as soon as possible in order to become successful readers. Read more

Over the last several years, technology has changed the way we teach in the classrooms. Over the next nine weeks, Read Naturally will be presenting and/or exhibiting at five upcoming education technology conferences. If you're planning on attending one of these shows, please stop by our booth and visit with us. Read more

Congratulations to Star Student Samantha S., a second-grade student from Agoura Hills, CA! Samantha’s teacher, Shelley Marshall, had this to say about her: It's therapy day.  Here comes Samantha - bubbly, bright, insightful and expressive.  Initially, Sammy... Read more

Imagine a tennis teacher holding the tip of your racquet to trace the arc of your swing. Imagine a dance teacher walking through the steps of a routine along with a class of students. Modeling is necessary for mastering just about any complex skill. When we work alongside someone who has mastered a skill, we’re in a much better position to master it ourselves. Read more

If you know a student with access to an iPad, you’ll be thrilled to learn that Read Naturally now offers FOUR great iPad-compatible tools. iPad tools for Read Naturally Live, One Minute Reader, Funēmics®, and the all-new Splat-o-Nym are sure to boost your students’ reading achievement using research-proven methods and innovative technology. Read more

Over the past couple years, our blog has featured several posts on the ways Read Naturally programs align with the CCSS. In case you missed them, here are the highlights... Read more

What happens to a third-grade student who fails a standardized reading test in the spring? In some states, that student may be required to repeat the third grade. Fourteen states enacted policies in 2012 that either require or strongly recommend that schools hold back third-grade students who fail standardized reading tests. How do such policies impact our students and schools? 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

Read Naturally is packing and hauling our entire headquarters to a new office, still very close to the original location. The move will take place September 11 and 12, 2014. The Read Naturally office will close for a short time in the late afternoon/evening of September 11 but will otherwise remain open for business during its usual hours. Read more