AndreaCongratulations to Star Student Andrea C. from Latimer, IA! Andrea is a third-grade student at CAL Elementary School. Andrea’s teacher, Jennifer Waddle, had this to say about her:

I had taught Andrea in a resource room setting for three of her school years: kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. When she was in second grade, I purchased the GATE program to try with my students. Andrea excelled tremendously. She began to understand the vocabulary words. She also increased her words per minute and her ability to summarize. Some true data that shows Andrea’s growth was from her MAP (Measurable Annual Progress) assessment scores. In the fall of 2012, Andrea scored in the 4th percentile on the reading section. In the spring, Andrea scored in the 54th percentile! That kind of growth is not seen very often. The greatest thing that came from using the GATE program with Andrea was that she gained confidence in her reading. Although her family is Spanish-speaking at home, she would bring the GATE stories home and read the stories to her family. In a meeting I had with her mother, she said she noticed how much Andrea’s reading had improved and was happy with the work she had done. I am so proud of the hard work she put in to becoming a better reader.

The Read Naturally Star of the Month program is designed to celebrate students who work hard to improve their reading skills. Each month, we select one student to feature in our newsletter. The selected student will win a $20 Barnes & Noble gift card, and the school or teacher who nominated the student will receive a $200 gift certificate for Read Naturally materials.

If you entered the drawing and your student did not win this month, he or she will remain in the selection pool for future months!

To nominate your deserving student, visit the entry form.