Challenges We Address
For over 30 years, Read Naturally's reading interventions have helped millions of students go from struggling to successful. Our programs use an evidence-based strategy and align with the Science of Reading. They are created by reading teachers who prioritize the needs of students like yours. Connect with us to learn more!
Our research-based programs address these areas of reading instruction:
Comprehension
- Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. To learn comprehension strategies, students need consistent modeling, practice, and feedback.
- Read Naturally uses research-based methods to support comprehension development in our Read Live, Encore, and GATE+ programs.
Differentiated Instruction
- Differentiated instruction makes student success more likely because students' individual needs are supported. Supplementing whole-group instruction with small group and individualized instruction allows each student to learn at an optimal pace. Individualized instruction is inherent in the process for all Read Naturally reading programs, making them excellent resources for differentiating reading instruction.
Distance Learning
- Distance learning is a viable alternative when in-person instruction is not available. As a web-based program, Read Live is ideally suited for use in a distance-learning model. Students work through the independent steps on their own and collaborate with a teacher remotely (or with a parent) on steps that require teacher involvement.
Dyslexia
- Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder in the U.S and represents roughly 80 percent of students identified with a specific learning disability.
- Read Naturally programs are recommended by dyslexia experts to help students with dyslexia overcome their challenges. Read Live, GATE+, Word Warm-ups, Encore, and Signs for Sounds are particularly effective for students with this learning difference.
ELL or Dual Language
- English Language Learners need extra support in learning to read in English, and an ideal program will support literacy in their native language as well.
- Our Read Naturally Live—Español program, which is part of the Read Live suite, helps readers develop Spanish literacy skills and fluency. This program may be used with Spanish-speaking students before or while they learn to read in English using Read Naturally Live or Encore. The program also helps native English speakers or others learn to read Spanish text fluently as an additional language.
Fluency
- Reading fluency consists of accuracy, expression, and rate. To become proficient readers, our students need to become fluent with text so they can pay attention to the meaning.
- The evidence-based Read Naturally Strategy was designed to build fluency. This strategy is the backbone of our Read Live, Encore, and GATE+ programs.
Homeschool Curriculum
- Read Naturally’s intervention programs are designed to be used in a traditional school setting, but our programs can also support literacy development at home. Whether you are a parent seeking to supplement your child’s classroom education at home or a parent committed to a homeschool model, Read Naturally wants to support you in your efforts to develop confident, competent readers.
Independent Reading Time
- Successful independent reading time often requires more than just books. Especially for struggling readers, it should be structured, motivating, and fun.
- Our One Minute Reader Live program, which is part of the Read Live suite, is a fully independent and motivating system that helps students develop fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary skills.
Phonemic Awareness
- Phonemic awareness refers to a student’s ability to focus on and manipulate sounds (phonemes) in spoken syllables and words.
- Funēmics is Read Naturally’s phonemic awareness program for small groups of pre-readers or struggling readers. Students gain awareness of words, syllables, rhyming, phonemes, and phoneme manipulation using a research-based, scripted curriculum.
- Teach phonemic awareness, phonics, and other foundational reading skills to beginning readers with Read Naturally GATE+'s explicit reading instruction.
Phonics
- Phonics is the relationship between the letters in written language and the individual sounds in spoken language.
- Read Naturally provides explicit, systematic phonics instruction in Read Live, the Encore Phonics Series, Word Warm-ups, and GATE+. We also offer a phonics assessment, Quick Phonics Screener.
Reading Motivation and Interest
- The evidence-based Read Naturally Strategy was innovative for its combination of teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring. The progress monitoring component, designed specifically to keep reluctant and struggling readers motivated and engaged, is incorporated into all Read Naturally programs.
Resources for Parents
- Parents are often looking for ways to support their children in reading at home. Students who read outside of school will progress more quickly than those who don’t. To stay motivated read at home, students will benefit from enjoyable reading material that also provides structured support.
- Our One Minute Reader Home program improves fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary while allowing students to work independently at home. Our Splat-o-Nym iPad app, which fosters the learning of high-utility vocabulary words, is another fun resource for students to use at home.
Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered System of Supports
- In a multi-tiered Response to Intervention (RTI) model, all students receive standards-based comprehensive reading instruction with differentiated instruction as needed. Universal screening identifies students who need additional diagnostic assessment and strategic supplementary instruction.
- Features of Read Naturally programs that make them well-suited to support core reading programs in an RTI model include well-designed instruction, research-based interventions at increasing levels of difficulty, high-quality instructional supports to empower self-directed learning, and systematic documentation of student performance.
Spelling
- A basic spelling vocabulary of 2,800 to 3,000 well-selected words should form the core for spelling instruction. Spelling instruction should teach students to take words apart sound-by-sound and write them down letter-by-letter.
- Read Naturally’s Signs for Sounds is a systematic spelling program that teaches students to spell both regular and irregular high-frequency words and reinforces phonics concepts.
- Spelling practice is also included in our GATE+ program.
State Standards
- A school's core reading program may address Common Core Standards, but no core reading program meets the needs of all students. Students often need intervention programs to accelerate their learning in specific skills to meet grade-level expectations.
- Read Naturally interventions support student instructional needs in order to move the student towards mastery of grade-level standards, as defined by Common Core. Read Naturally programs align to the expectations for Foundational Reading Skills and many Reading Anchor Standards for English Language Arts (ELA).
Vocabulary
- Research-based methods of teaching vocabulary include learning words before reading, repetition and multiple exposures, learning in rich contexts, incidental learning, and use of computer technology.
- Read Naturally teaches rich vocabulary using these key concepts in our Take Aim! at Vocabulary, Read Live, Encore, GATE+, and Splat-o-Nym programs.
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