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As a mother of four young children who are drawn to the iPad like moths to a flame, it’s a little hard for me to write a blog post about the upside of screen time. Mostly I see the iPad as a frequent source of conflict in my house. My kids want to play games or watch shows on it, and I want them to do things I’ve deemed more meaningful—read books, play outside, build with Legos, or, dare I even dream it, pick up their room. Indeed, plenty of research confirms the negative consequences of too much screen time, which is why so many parents find themselves fighting this battle with their children day after day.

Innovations and developments over more than three decades have continuously enhanced the quality of the tools Read Naturally offers for teachers and students. In addition, Read Naturally remains dedicated to doing right by teachers and students. Our founder, Candyce Ihnot, still works tirelessly along with the rest of the Read Naturally team to strengthen its reading instruction tools and training.

Back when Read Naturally founder Candyce Ihnot would present at full-day seminars, she would often start by telling a story about her youngest child, Tommy. One day, Tommy came home from elementary school and angrily declared, “I hate school.” Tommy was the son of two schoolteachers—his declaration was basically blasphemous! When Candyce asked him to explain why he hated school, his lip started to quiver. He told his mom about independent reading time. “She doesn’t even know,” he said of his teacher, “I can’t read.”

Congrats to our March Star of the Month, Fernando, who has made great progress in reading this year! Fernando is a fifth grader at Carver Elementary School in Maplewood, MN. Here is what Fernando's teacher, Ms. Oberding, has to say about him:

​​​​​​​National Reading Awareness Month is an annual event held in the United States during the month of March. The purpose of this event is to promote the importance of reading and literacy, and to encourage people to make reading a part of their daily lives.

Read Naturally founder Candyce Ihnot likes to tell the story of a little boy who went from struggling to fluent using the Read Naturally program. When Candyce asked the boy how he got to be such a good reader, he said with a smirk, “It was nothing you did.” Rather than be offended by his brutal honesty, Candyce was delighted. The boy was taking due credit for his own accomplishment. He had come to understand that he’d possessed the tools for success all along. Having found the confidence and fortitude to master a huge challenge, he could now draw on those qualities again and again—without his teacher’s help.

Our teacher’s manuals are packed full of useful information about how to implement our programs effectively. They’re extraordinarily well researched and include hundreds of helpful suggestions. Have you read them recently? Cover to cover?

Don’t worry if the answer is no. We know how busy teachers are, and we want to make it easy on you to implement our programs with fidelity. That’s why we’ve created Fidelity Checklists. Download as many as you’d like—they’re free on our website!

Congrats to our February Star of the Month, Axel, who has made great progress in reading this year! Axel is a fifth grader at St. John Bosco Catholic School in Phoenix, AZ. Here is what Axel's teacher, Ms. Iniguez, has to say about him:

Welcome to the second half of the school year! Are you ready to see your Read Naturally students crush their goals and accelerate their progress? As you know, they will improve most rapidly when they’re working in the sweet spot of challenging but not frustrating material. Thanks to the detailed graphs and reports in Read Naturally Live, finding this sweet spot is easier than ever. The Students-at-a-Glance report is a particularly useful tool for quickly identifying students who are not working with optimal levels or goals, or students who need extra support in key areas.

Pop quiz! What do you do when you’re staring down a pile of winter assessment data?

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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