Using Read Naturally Programs as RTI Reading Interventions

Read Naturally intervention programs provide research-based practice and intervention for students being served in a tiered model of service delivery. The following table matches Read Naturally programs to best practices to illustrate why they are appropriate as RTI reading interventions:

Reading Instruction — Best Practices	Read Naturally Program	How This Program Supports an RTI Model
Fluency: Core programs should have strong, easy-to-manage components for developing fluency. Programs typically provide passages at the grade level—one size fits all—suggesting borrowing from lower grade levels if necessary.	Read Naturally Live Read Naturally Encore	Use with students served in Tiers 2 and 3 as a fluency intervention at appropriate readability levels.
Fluency: Research supports the value of assigning meaningful homework. It is often difficult for teachers to provide targeted homework that struggling students can complete with a high degree of independence.	One Minute Reader Live One Minute Reader books with audio	Use with all students as a school-to-home program to encourage reading and with students served in Tiers 2 and 3 who need fluency practice at their reading levels.
Fluency & Phonics: All core programs teach phonemic awareness and phonics with connected, decodable text to build fluency and provide an intervention component. Struggling and beginning readers may need more systematic, explicit instruction in small groups.	Read Naturally GATE	Use with all students as a reinforcement, with students served in Tier 2 as an intervention, and with beginning readers served in Tier 3 for intensive replacement instruction.
Phoneme Awareness: For long-term reading and spelling success, students need to develop phonological awareness skills. All core programs have a phonological awareness component, but some students may need more support.	Funēmics	Use with pre-readers and with students served in Tiers 2 and 3 who need reinforcement and intervention in phoneme awareness skills.
Phonics & Decoding: To become fluent readers, students must be able to decode words quickly and efficiently—with automaticity. Struggling readers need abundant, targeted practice.	Word Warm-ups	Use with all students for independent work to develop automaticity in decoding and with older students served in Tiers 2 and 3 for reinforcement and practice to build automaticity in decoding.
Spelling & Phonics: To successfully spell words with predictable spelling patterns, students must learn the sound-letter correspondences that can be taught as phonics rules. Students must learn to read and spell the most frequently used words, many of which have irregular spelling patterns.	Signs for Sounds	Use with all students to teach regular and irregular patterns and with students served in Tiers 2 and 3 who need to master sound-letter correspondences in words.
Vocabulary: To comprehend text, students in grades three and up must possess both fluent word recognition skills and average vocabulary (or above). Explicit instruction in vocabulary has been shown to increase comprehension. All core programs have a vocabulary component, but some students need more support in vocabulary development.	Take Aim! at Vocabulary Splat-O-Nym	Use Take Aim with all students to develop vocabulary and with students served in Tiers 2 and 3 who read at a fourth-grade level or higher and need a specific vocabulary intervention. Use Splat-O-Nym with all students to develop vocabulary.

Read Naturally Strategy Programs

Differentiate instruction easily in a tiered model of service delivery using the Read Naturally Strategy, a powerful intervention that accelerates reading achievement. Students become confident readers by developing fluency, phonics skills, comprehension, and vocabulary. Read Naturally’s time-tested programs yield powerful results by engaging students with leveled, high-interest, nonfiction stories.

The Read Naturally Strategy combines three powerful strategies—teacher modeling (reading along with audio support), repeated reading, and progress monitoring.

 Learn more about the Read Naturally Strategy

The teacher begins by placing the student in an appropriate instructional level and goal. As the student progresses through the audio-supported, structured steps, the student learns to read each story fluently and to understand it well. After the student completes a story, the teacher assesses the student, and the teacher (or the computer software) records the student’s performance. As the student improves, the teacher challenges the student by increasing the level or goal, or by adjusting the options to customize the program to meet each student's needs.

The Read Naturally Strategy is available in multiple formats:

• Read Naturally Live, which is part of Read Live—Read Naturally's web-based intervention software program (accessible through computers, Chromebooks, or iPads).
• Read Naturally Encore, which is the paper-based version with reproducible masters and audio CDs.

Choosing the right Read Naturally Strategy program

Because students are individually placed at an appropriate level with an appropriate goal, the Read Naturally Strategy programs meet the needs of students served in Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3. The programs provide targeted supplemental instruction or intervention for students served in Tier 2 or Tier 3 to accelerate development of fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and phonics skills. Once students have been trained in the step-by-step procedures, they work mostly independently. The structure of the programs motivates each student to work toward a specific goal while highly engaged in the task of reading.

Read Naturally GATE

Read Naturally GATE (Group and Tutoring Edition) combines the research-based Read Naturally Strategy with systematic, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics. GATE adapts content from the Read Naturally Phonics series for small groups of up to six students who are not yet ready to work independently in one of the other formats of the Read Naturally Strategy. Students working in GATE improve their fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary; develop phonemic awareness; master the sounds of letters and letter combinations; decode phonetically regular one- and two-syllable words; learn to read high-frequency words with automaticity; read words with inflected endings; and spell short, regular phonetic words.

Learn more about Read Naturally GATE

In an RTI model, GATE is an appropriate reinforcement for all beginning readers served in Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3. GATE is an excellent supplemental program or intervention for beginning readers served in Tier 2 or Tier 3 who need targeted intervention in phonemic awareness and phonics in addition to building fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary.

One Minute Reader

One Minute Reader, based on the same Read Naturally Strategy used in the classroom programs, is an award-winning program that can be used to extend learning at school or at home. A student using One Minute Reader develops fluency, comprehension and vocabulary while reading nonfiction stories. The engaging content expands readers' knowledge base and taps into readers' curiosity, so they want to find out more. One Minute Reader is organized into six levels based on the difficulty of the text: E (emerging), 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. One Minute Reader is available in two formats:

• One Minute Reader Live is a component of web-based Read Live for supplemental, independent reading.  This engaging program guides the student through audio-supported, structured steps as the student learns to read each story fluently. One Minute Reader Live can be assigned to students during independent work time at school.
• One Minute Reader books with audio CDs is an engaging, structured reading program with full-color books and audio CDs. One Minute Reader can be assigned to students during independent work time at school, used for a school-to-home checkout program, or purchased directly by parents/guardians for home use. The student works through the audio-supported, structured steps of the program and learns to read each story fluently.

One Minute Reader is designed to help all students improve their fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary by reading more. One Minute Reader complements Read Naturally’s other classroom strategy programs and accelerates reading success. In an RTI model, One Minute Reader is an effective and motivating resource for extending learning during or beyond the school day, especially for students served in Tier 2 and Tier 3.

Funēmics

Funēmics is a systematic phonemic awareness program for small groups of pre-readers or struggling readers. Students gain awareness of words, syllables, rhyming, phonemes, and phoneme manipulation. Each lesson builds on skills taught in previous lessons, adding a few elements at a time. Six Funēmics levels all have the same basic design with strategic differences.

Teachers or aides present scripted lessons. Interactive exercises displayed on an iPad or Macintosh computer engage students with brightly illustrated pages and interactive widgets. Pre- and post-tests can be used for recording progress. 

 Learn more about Funēmics

Since Funēmics is pre-grapheme, it offers both developmentally appropriate instruction for early learners and easy alignment with any reading curriculum when used as an intervention for struggling readers. Funēmics is an effective phoneme awareness program for all pre-readers in Tier 1 and for struggling students served in Tier 2 or Tier 3.

Word Warm-ups

Build mastery and automaticity in phonics and decoding easily using the research-based Word Warm-ups intervention. Audio-supported lessons guide students working in this individualized program, enabling students to work mostly independently at their own pace.

Word Warm-ups provides differentiated instruction for students who need additional phonics instruction. Each student is assessed to determine the appropriate level and lesson. Students listen to brief audio lessons featuring the most common phonics and syllable patterns and then use the patterns to practice decoding words with regular spelling patterns that become increasingly difficult. For further reinforcement, the student spells several words with the phonics or syllable pattern. Students are motivated to keep improving by graphing their own progress.

Three levels are available—Word Warm-ups 1 (focusing on one-syllable words), Word Warm-ups 2 (focusing on compound words, two-syllable word patterns, and simple prefixes and suffixes), and Word Warm-ups 3 (focusing on multisyllabic words including words with prefixes, suffixes, open and closed syllables, the schwa sound, and Greek and Latin roots).

Learn more about Word Warm-ups

Word Warm-ups helps students served in Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 develop mastery and automaticity in decoding words with common phonics and syllable patterns. Because students can be individually placed based on specific needs, Word Warm-ups is an appropriate intervention for older students served in Tier 2 or Tier 3 who are not yet proficient in decoding skills.

Signs for Sounds

Signs for Sounds is a research-based spelling program for beginning and developing spellers and readers. Signs for Sounds provides systematic, explicit phonics instruction to teach students how to spell words with regular spelling patterns (sound-out words). By mastering the correspondences between sounds and letters, students can successfully apply what they have learned in order to spell unfamiliar words. Signs for Sounds also provides a systematic strategy for teaching students how to learn to spell high-frequency words with irregular spelling patterns (spell-out words).

Two levels are available. Signs for Sounds 1 teaches first-grade-level phonics skills needed by beginning readers and spellers. Signs for Sounds 2 reviews the skills taught in level 1 at a faster pace and then continues on to present second- and third-grade-level phonics skills.

Learn more about Signs for Sounds

Signs for Sounds is an effective spelling program for all beginning and developing readers and spellers served in Tier 1. It is an appropriate spelling intervention for older students served in Tiers 2 or 3 who have not yet mastered the skills taught, because it can be used to provide differentiated spelling intervention for small groups or for individual students.

Take Aim! at Vocabulary

​Take Aim! at Vocabulary is a vocabulary program designed to boost students' vocabulary knowledge in the critical middle grades. Students work mostly independently to learn sophisticated, high-quality words in a set of audio-supported lessons. Take Aim is built on a foundation of vocabulary research.

Two levels are available. The Goldenrod level is designed to increase the word knowledge of students who read at a fourth-grade level or higher. The Indigo level is designed for students who read at a fifth-grade level or higher.

Learn more about Take Aim! at Vocabulary

Take Aim is appropriate for students served in Tier 1 who read at a fourth-grade level or higher and who lack understanding of most of the target words taught in a level. Take Aim is also appropriate for students served in Tiers 2 and 3 who (1) have been identified as needing vocabulary intervention, (2) lack an understanding of most target words taught in a Take Aim level, and (3) can read at a fourth-grade level or higher.

Splat-O-Nym

​Splat-O-Nym is an iPad app that builds vocabulary and makes learning words FUN! This engaging, independent vocabulary game helps students learn synonyms and antonyms through four fun activities: Synonym Splat, Antonym Attack, Context Contest, and Lightning Round. Students enter the game in level one of the Synonym Splat activity and move up and down through the 24 levels and between the four game activities based on their performance. The game keeps track of total points, saves the level and points for up to six students between sessions, and generates a Results report that provides a snapshot of a student's performance. Student results can be emailed to teachers or parents. Students can switch to listening mode and tap on words they would like to hear read for them. 

Learn more about Splat-O-Nym

Splat-O-Nym is appropriate for students in grades 1–8 who are served in Tier 1 and need to build vocabulary. Splat-O-Nym is also appropriate for students served in Tiers 2 and 3, because students move up or down through the levels based on their performance.