Read Naturally is a fluency intervention.  This year I am beginning the year with all 1st through 3rd grade students using Read Naturally.  Kindergarten students who successfully complete SIPPS will move on to Read Naturally later in the school year.  Read Naturally has an "at home" component.  In order for students to be successful in the program, parents must ensure that their student reads the passage at least one time each night.  On Friday, students will complete a "hot read" on the passage and graph their improvement.  This is very exciting for the student; please ask your child how he or she did on the hot read and celebrate the improvement. 

Fluency is the rate at which students read words - calculated as a Correct Words Per Minute score.  Research suggests students who are able to decode fluently and with automaticity are better able to comprehend what they are reading and are less frustrated. 

I have also used Read Naturally to build the confidence of students who do not yet see themselves as readers. 

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Join us in welcoming your child to Lexia Reading – an exciting, fun software program that provides the individualized, targeted practice students need to master their reading skills! Our school has implemented Lexia Reading as part of our curriculum in reading and language arts.

Here’s how this award-winning, computer-based reading program works:

• Students will be placed into Lexia Reading based on their individual reading needs.
• Students will spend time several days per week working on a Lexia Reading program.
• Lexia Reading automatically paces each student by providing reinforcement activities when they need additional time on task. Students practice, apply and proceed with the skills they have mastered.
• Lexia Reading focuses on critical reading skills that have been identified by national reading experts.
• Various levels of activities provide extensive practice in everything from basic phonological awareness to advanced word-attack strategies and vocabulary development based on Greek and Latin word roots.
• Students systematically progress through the software and gain a sense of achievement, confidence, and independence.

Lexia Reading has helped thousands of students across the United States to develop fundamental reading skills, in a fun and dynamic way. Our school is making the commitment to make this a part of your child’s reading curriculum – please share in our excitement!

Enjoy participating in your child’s reading growth and success!

Best wishes,

Early Emergent Reader 

• Acknowledges messages, words, and letters in the environment
• Understands the differences between letters and words
• Participates in reading familiar text
• Retells favorite stories or rhymes
• Understands that the print carries the message
• Knows most letters and sounds
• Understands that the illustrations illuminate the meaning of the text
• Can show the front/back/spine of book
• Knows L-R directional movement
• Recognizes some sight words (high frequency/high utility words)
• Rhymes and plays with words

Emergent Reader

• Relies less on illustrations and more on information from the print
• Has increasing control over early reading strategies
• Rereads
• Reads for meaning
• Self corrects
• Decodes new words
• Knows several sight words (high frequency/high utility words)

Transitional Reader

• Has full control of early reading strategies
• Has a large core of sight words (high frequency/high utility words)
• Retells main idea of story
• Reads longer more complex texts
• Uses multiple strategies while reading for meaning
• Recognizes simple punctuation conventions

Beginning Fluent Reader

• This list of behaviors can be used as a guide in selecting learning goals for the beginning reader.
• Reads a wide range of text (fiction/nonfiction)
• Regularly uses spelling pattern to decode
• Reads independently
• Reads for meaning, solving problems
• Reads more complex text
• Retells stories with beginning, middle, and end
• Makes predictions

Fluent Reader

• Reads with phrasing and fluency
• Reads with confidence and expression
• Reads much longer more complex text
• Reads a variety of genre
• Reads for meaning, solving problems in an independent way
• Reads silently for leisure, pleasure, and information