Read Naturally - heard of it?

I’ve heard of it — it uses teacher modeling and repeated reading to build student progress so that they can see and measure their improvement. So for fluency for a kiddo who could decode but needed practice, it would be helpful — but it would be a mistake to use it instead of teaching the kiddo to read accurately.

It is not designed to be used in place of decoding work- but rather as a supplement. All of the things I have read have been very positive and the results look good.
Robin

I have about $500 worth of it…LOL I agree with all the above posters. I use it for fluency, and it does build self-confidence as they compete against themselves and see their reading speed improve. I have noticed improved reading when kids are breaking out of decoding piece by piece and into bigger chunks of information.

Thanks for the feedback. My son’s academic language therapist has suggested we use it as a supplement to the Alphabetic Phonics program she is using. I tried the placement package with him today. He could read at a range of 85-100 words/minute on the grade levels 3.0 - 4.5. He is in the 4th grade. He had only 2-3 mispronounced words per passage. Sometimes, he would add a word or two. The big probem is that he was averaging only 1-2 of the 5 comphrehension questions correctly. When he would retell the story, he would usually remember 1-2 things that were part of the story, but miss the main point or add new details not in the story. Pattim and others, what do you think about this?

Rosie,

Does your son have a speech and language impairment? If so, this may be why he isn’t getting the comprehension questions. He may not have the vocabulary necessary for comprehension. Or he may be reading so fast that he is just going for speed and doesn’t care about the comprhension. Does he do the exercise before he reads, to set the tone, to write down what he knows about what he is going to read and what he thinks it will be about so that he can read for comprehension?

I would have him read the story once for a base time. I would ask him if there are words in there that he doesn’t know. I have kids list on a piece of paper, that has on the top words I don’t know how to pronounce or I don’t know what they mean. After I do that, then I would guide him through the 2nd time sentence by sentence helping him create a mental image of the vocabulary of what he has read. I would do lots of questioning and responding to what he has to say. The whole idea is that I am trying to connect the new information into his background knowledge so that he can comprehend what he is reading and also add new information to his background knowledge.

This usually solves the comprehension problems. Let me know if this helps you..

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, my son does have a very weak vocabulary. I actually scan his textbooks for words I suspect he does not how to read or pronounce so that we can review them before we read together.

I’m not sure I really understand what “fluency” means. It is just the speed and smoothness of reading. My son does take awkward pauses while reading or does not stop for sentence ends. He also adds in words while reading.

I’m still pondering whether Read Naturally is a program I should buy. I like the idea of having the audiotapes and that he can work somewhat independently. However, I wonder if I should just use the same approach using his actual textbooks and try to get the books on tape from Recording for the Blind and Dsylexic. What do you think of this?

Also, would you be interested in selling your old copies of Read Naturally (grade levels 3.5 -4.5) at a discounted price? I can’t recall whether you use them just for your own child or if you tutor other children and still need them.

I also just recently bought the LeapPad Pro product which is virtually the same as the LeapPad for little kids, but updates a little for older kids. I thought this program might be motivating for him to listen to the chapter books being read.

Thanks again for your comments.
Rosie

What I want to add, and I use this and another fluency program, is that we have found that reading rates do improve on the particular passage the student is practicing, but the improvement does not generalize. I am using fluency programs with several students this year and I will be tracking whether or not there is real, transferrable progress. Bottom line is these students need to READ at least 30 minutes (preferably an hour or more) every day from text at their independent level, short drills won’t likely make the kind of difference we are looking for.

Nonetheless, they are “programs” so we can implement a “program” to address this need on their IEP.

Is generalizing a problem for most the kids you serve? My son’s reading speed has improved from 35 to 70 over the past 9 months due to various things I have done with him. The school is now using a reading fluency program with him and is delighted at how much his speed is improving. Do you think they are wasting their time? We have moved him into harder material at home because his decoding skills became worse as we had him stay at the same level to improve his fluency.

I must say your idea of 60 minutes a day to improve fluency is discouraging. I could never get my son to read that long. We do 20-30 minutes a day—and that is with Buddy reading.

Beth

Rosie,

I am an educational therapist, I use my Read Naturally tapes all the time..and I can’t part with them…What you can do is call Read Naturally and ask them if they have some of the older versions of RN at the discounted price.

There are several areas involved in Fluency. One that we think most often about is reading accurately without errors, but the other layer is comprehension fluency. I have excellent reading accuracy, I can decode things ‘til the cows come home. But I have lousy fluent comprehension if I am reading a textbook on pharmaceuticals and law books but I have fluent comprehension on areas that I have background knowledge in, i.e. reading, speech and language pathology, etc.

Your son is having problems with both areas of fluency, the comprehension because he lacks sufficient background knowledge and the reading accuracy because he is still shaky on the decoding piece. You can get some of the homework booklets by Instructional fair for reading. The consist of 40 two page high interest stories, with some language/vocabulary building exercises… they would be similar to RN but you have to make the tapes yourself. The other thing you can do is real time echo reading with him, you read along with him. I think the books for the blind and dyslexic take special tape players….

Thanks again to everyone who responded here. Transfering improved skills in fluency from the RN short paragraphs to reading textbooks is a concern. Incidently, the tapes from Recording for the Blind and Dsylexic are on 4-track tapes for copywrite reasons. But, with proof of a dsylexia diagnosis, I can borrow a recorder for free from a local organization. So, I am going to go ahead a get his textbooks on tape. I got his a Hank the Cowdog audiotape from Earful of Books today, and he wanted to listen to it straight through, all 2 1/2 hours worth. I could never get him to read that long. 20-30 minutes max. is about what I can realistically expect when we are buddy reading together. His favorite trick is to pretend to act sleepy when he reads. I wish wish wish I could get him to practice reading for an hour a day. But, he has a terrible time just keeping his eyes focused on a page. He has tendencies like ADD-inattentive where he “daydreams” alot. Reading from a book rarely gives him enough stimulation to keep him engaged. I’ve been buying old comic books (Superman, Spiderman, etc…) I’d like to find more books that could be read on the computer, on video, or some other motivational device. I did buy the LeapPad Pro for Christmas. Hopefully, that will provide some positive experiences for him and encourage him to want to read more. He doesn’t hate reading, but it is a boring activity in his book.

Has anyone tried the computer version of Read Naturally versus the workbooks. I’m thinking I’ll just order one level and see how the RN program is working for my son. His problems with comphrehension seem really rooted in his weak vocabulary and delayed language skills. He has always had trouble with abstract concepts and words with multiple meanings. We use to think his weak decoding skills were why he had so much struggle with comphrehesion. The theory was that he was using all his mental energy to decode, and none was left for comphrehension. But, now I wonder if that is really the case. His decoding skills are not bad. He was reading at 90-100/minute with only 2-3 errors at the 4.0 and 4.5 levels. He is in the 4th grade. But, he was only averaging 1-2 of the 5 comphrehension questions correct, and could not retell the story clearly. Of course, my son can’t tell or retell most any story clearly, even things from his own experiences. His lanugage is very disorganized and he suffers word retreival and memory retreival problems. I wonder if I should be looking more for a program that focuses on comphrehension and vocabulary instead. Any suggestions?

Thanks, Rosie

Rosie,

Everything you have mentioned in your last post points to problems with executive functioning. Have you looked into that piece of the puzzle?

Patti,

How are the tapes used in Read Naturally? I thought I recently read that sustained oral reading is the only thing that will help improve fluency, so I am wondering about the use of the tapes and thought you might explain for me!

(One more question…ADD/ADHD is executive function?)

Janis

Sorry, my post above came up at the wrong place because I was reading the threads in “flat view”.

Janis

(Re-posting this in the right place)

Patti,

How are the tapes used in Read Naturally? I thought I recently read that sustained oral reading is the only thing that will help improve fluency, so I am wondering about the use of the tapes and thought you might explain for me!

(One more question…ADD/ADHD is executive function?)

Janis

I worked for a fairly long time with a boy with Kleinfelter’s Syndrome and his younger brother who had some as-yet-unnamed problem with executive functions. The older boy, with Kleinfelter’s, could order things physically just fine, nut could not order verbally to save his life. This was the kid who could not tell you if you put on socks before or after shoes, but could disassemble and reassemble a bike just fine. The younger brother (whom the school “psychologist” tried to brush off by saying he was working entirely at the level of a three-year-old — not true) had incredibly disordered language. When I first met him, it seemed that he was just gabbling. It was hard to pick out meaningful words and there were no discernable sentences. But after I listened to him for a while, I figured out that there really was someone at home in there — he just was working through a thick fog that distorted everything both going in and coming out. He was also physically all turned around — eyes moved away from a ball he tried to catch, not towards it; couldn’t follow directions and form a letter; clothes all awry, and so on. If you just let him go on talking for a few minutes however, somehow a coherent story emerged.

No simple answers, no easy answers, no pre-made programs that I know of. I did get really good progress in six months of fairly intensive (three hours a week) one-on-one tutoring. He was age 8 and when I first met him, was in EMR class, lower group with the unqualified aide (higher group got the qualified teacher) and he was supposedly “integrated” into a Grade 1 class half a day, which meant he sat in the back and twiddled his thumbs. At first, he barely knew the alphabet and could not write at all. I taught him how to read and he made normal progress for Grade 1, from non-reader to 150 word vocabulary in six months. I worked on his writing — the only way to do it was to hold his hand and teach him the shapes of the letters by feel, but that did work, until after six months when I saw some of his printing I thought for a second it was mine. The school managed to put him in an LD class at Grade 3 level the next year, a huge advance from where he started. As we were doing the reading, a lot of oral reading using books with normal language patterns, his independent speech also ordered a bit better — still immature, but sentences were emerging.

Anyway, this experience makes me think that you can help a lot with executive function by intensive one-on-one work in a very quiet and non-distracting atmosphere, using a lot of direct modelling and repetition.

The tapes are played with the student listening and reading along orally with the tape. So they are reading with their eyes, listening with their ears, orally saying the words it is a neural impress technique for rapid improvement in reading fluency. The kids really like Read Naturally, it really is kind of a fun and painless way to improve reading fluency. You are correct about your last statement regarding exective functioning and ADD/ADHD. These terms are interchangeable but the Executive Functioning doesn’t have the stigma that the diagnosis of ADHD does.

Thanks, Patti. That sounds good. At what reading level does a child need to be in order to use the program (Read Naturally)?

Janis

At almost First grade level and up they have a phonics series with 5 phonics levels that include 24 non ficiton stories in blackline masters with 12 cassett tapes with one story per side and a teachers manual with word familes and short vowel sounds, .8 grade level word families and long vowel sounds 1.3 blends and digraphs 1.8 , short vowel 2.6 grade level and long vowel sounds 2.7 grade level. They even have it in espanol.