Reading Program: Read Naturally®

Reading Program Overview


Intervention: Read Naturally®

Program Description

Read Naturally® is designed to improve reading fluency using a combination
of books, audiotapes, and computer software. The program has three main
strategies: repeated reading of text for developing oral reading fluency, teacher
modeling of story reading, and systematic monitoring of student progress by
the students themselves and by teachers. Students work at a reading level
appropriate for their achievement level and progress through the program
independently. The program has two versions. In one, students use
audiocassettes or CDs in conjunction with hard-copy reading materials.
In the second version, students use only the Read Naturally® computer
program.

Research

One study of Read Naturally® that falls within the scope of the Students
with Learning Disabilities review protocol meets What Works Clearinghouse
(WWC) evidence standards. The study includes 20 students with learning
disabilities from the 4th to the 6th grade in one parochial elementary school in
Washington State.



Based on this study, the WWC considers the extent of evidence for Read
Naturally® for students with learning disabilities to be small for reading fluency
and writing. The one study that meets WWC evidence standards did not
examine the effectiveness of Read Naturally® for students with learning
disabilities in the alphabetics, reading comprehension, general reading
achievement, math, science, social studies, or progressing in school domains.

Effectiveness

Read Naturally® was found to have no discernible effects on reading
fluency and potentially positive effects on writing for students with learning
disabilities.


1 The descriptive information for this program was obtained from a publicly
available source: the program’s website (http://www.readnaturally.com/,
downloaded December 2009). The WWC requests developers to review
the program description sections for accuracy from their perspective.
Further verification of the accuracy of the descriptive information for this
program is beyond the scope of this review. The literature search reflects
documents publicly available by December 2009.

2 The studies in this report were reviewed using WWC Evidence Standards,
Version 2.0 (see the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Chapter III),
as described in protocol Version 2.0.

3 The evidence presented in this report is based on available research.
Findings and conclusions may change as new research becomes available.

4 These numbers show the average and range of student-level improvement
indices for all findings across the study.

Teachers, Parents and Administrators:
Please Give your Input on Read Naturally®

WWC is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's

Institute of Education Sciences, the WWC:

Produces user-friendly practice guides for educators that address

instructional challenges with research-based recommendations for

schools and classrooms; Assesses the rigor of research evidence

on the effectiveness of interventions (programs, products, practices,

and policies), giving educators the tools to make informed decisions;

Develops and implements standards for reviewing and synthesizing

education research; and

Provides a public and easily accessible

registry of education evaluation researchers

to assist schools, school districts, and program

developers with designing and carrying out

rigorous evaluations.

All reports are reprinted from the

US Department of Education website

WWC for informational purposes.

Complete Reports Can Be Found

@ http://ies.ed.gov/