March is a great opportunity for students to learn more about the amazing women who have impacted our history. For biographies of notable American women, visit https://www.womenshistory.org/ or your school or public library.  

In the classroom, encourage your students to interview important women in their lives and learn more about their history, or create a women’s history wall, with images and brief descriptions of famous women. Your students working in Read Naturally programs will learn about many interesting women and the way they've shaped history. This month, initiate conversations with them about the women they're learning about. We've got stories about Helen Keller, Malala, Amelia Earhart, Diana Nyad, Jane Goodall, Indira Gandhi, Elizabeth Blackwell, and many more.

As a company founded by a woman, Read Naturally is proud to recognize Women's History Month. Let us know in the comments how you and your students plan to celebrate!

This is the kind of feedback we've been getting in the weeks since GATE+ started shipping. As soon as teachers look through it and realize how comprehensive, high-quality, and easy-to-teach it is, they can't wait to start using it. They love sharing their discovery with fellow teachers, too. 

So what is GATE+, and why is it flying off our shelves? GATE+ is a motivating and easy way to bring your students to phonics mastery. Aligned with the Science of Reading, this program provides explicit, systematic phonemic awareness and phonics instruction and also provides instruction in fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. 

GATE+ includes a one-of-a-kind flipbook, which features student lessons on one side and a detailed teacher's script on the other. To present the lessons, teachers read from the script and call on the students to respond as prompted. This format makes GATE+ a breeze to teach!  The script uses student-friendly language and was written by reading teachers and phonics experts. It can be used with minimal training by reading interventionists, classroom teachers, para-educators, or even volunteers. An optional PowerPoint slideshow for each lesson makes it easy to customize the program for large or small groups.

The three levels of GATE+ are:

• 0.8, Short Vowel Sounds
• 1.3, Long Vowel Sounds
• 1.8, Digraphs, Blends, and Suffixes

Check out this short video to see all that's included in a level of GATE+!

How does GATE+ look in the classroom? Watch this video to see the program being taught to a small group of students.

If you can imagine this program working well for you or a colleague, click here to learn more and place your order! We're confident you'll join the group of teachers who are blown away by this amazing program. 

Through March 31, 2024, current GATE customers can upgrade to GATE+ for 25% off! Email customerservice@readnaturally.com or call us at 800-788-4085 so we can look up your account and give you your discount. Click here for a summary of the differences between legacy GATE and GATE+.

Here is a summary of the major features and improvements for this product.

Legacy GATE and GATE+ both:

• Deliver explicit, systematic phonemic awareness and phonics instruction aligned with the Science of Reading.
• Are designed for beginning and struggling readers who need help in phonics and other foundational reading skills.
• Are designed to instruct a group of students.
• Feature 24 lessons per level that address all five components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
• Target a first-grade skill level.
• Target a first-through-third-grade intervention range.
• Include levels 0.8 (short vowels), 1.3 (long vowels), and 1.8 (blends, digraphs, and inflected endings).
• Include a unique lesson flipbook with a detailed teacher script and student-facing pages, making the program easy for teachers, paraprofessionals, or volunteers to administer.
• Include engaging student booklets and activities.
• Include a Teacher's Guide, assessments, and additional materials.

Updates to GATE+ include the following:

• Student booklets and additional resources are delivered as digital files teachers can print for ease of use (as opposed to Legacy GATE's blackline masters).
• Optional PowerPoint slideshows for each lesson (delivered as digital files) enable the program to be used with larger groups.
• Teacher's Manual is delivered as own booklet (as opposed to being part of the Lesson Flipbook).
• Numerous updates to the program content, including:
  • Updated activities for explicit phonemic awareness instruction.
  • New section on segmenting sounds into words with a sound box activity.
  • New section featuring decodable sentences.
  • Irregular high-frequency word instruction that draws attention to both regular and irregular sounds that students must learn by heart.
  • Updated and new stories.
  • New explicit vocabulary component.
  • New order of activities to build from decoding practice to fluency practice.
  • New progress check assessments to monitor progress.
  • Updated Science-of-Reading-aligned instruction in every section.
  • Additional activities including bonus word lists for extra practice and enrichment.
  • A complete Comprehension Builder supplemental activity.

Through March 31, 2024, current GATE customers can upgrade to GATE+ for 25% off! Email customerservice@readnaturally.com or call us at 800-788-4085 so we can look up your account and give you your discount.

If you're brand new to GATE, be sure to add GATE+ to your beginning reading toolkit. You'll be so glad you did!

Check out this short video to see all that's included in GATE+:

Research has found that students who are more engaged in school tend to be more successful academically and more optimistic about their performance. Parents and teachers continue to be concerned with students’ levels of engagement, especially after observing the challenges of remote instruction.  

Teachers and students tell us that Read Naturally programs are highly engaging. Students enjoy choosing their own stories, the stories are about interesting topics, the progress graphs provide immediate feedback, and moving up in levels and goals is motivating. Yet even with these built-in features, some students need additional incentives to stay motivated, and that’s where our classroom experts come in! Here’s some advice from our teachers on how to keep your reluctant students engaged and motivated: 

Individual Folders With Stickers

Michelle Brenner, Assistant Director of Curriculum at Read Naturally, suggests setting up individual folders for students working in Read Live or Encore. In addition to the free folder materials described here, the folders can include a place for earned stickers. Each time a student completes a story or meets a comprehension goal, they earn a sticker for their folder. (Michelle recommends that students put their stickers on the inside of their folder to respect their privacy.) Each student has an individual "sticker goal," and when they meet it, they earn a small prize. When students consistently achieve their sticker goal, the goal can be adjusted. Involving the students in setting the goal is important, as they are then invested in the challenge. The goal should be challenging, achievable, and based on individual ability.  

Group Goals

Group goals are also fun! Michelle recommends looking at the average number of stories completed or the average comprehension score in the past week for the whole group and setting a goal for the upcoming week. Involve the students in determining this goal. At the end of the week, tally the results, share the averages, and talk with the group about whether the goal should stay the same, go up, or go down. Tie some sort of incentive to meeting the group goal, such as a story readaloud on “Favorite Book Friday.” The advantage of classroom incentives is that everyone gets to participate, but individual student data can remain confidential.  

Class Comprehension Grid

Read Naturally founder, Candyce Ihnot, helps run a Read Live reading lab that offers rewards for high comprehension. In this lab, they set a class goal of a certain number of perfect comprehension scores. There is a grid with open spots for the required number of perfect comprehension scores on the board. The students get to move a star into one of the open spots if they get a perfect comprehension score on their quiz. Once all the empty spots are filled, all the students in the class get a prize. The students get especially excited when there are only a few spots left! They are extra motivated to get their quiz questions correct so that they can help complete the grid.

Raffle Tickets

Raffle tickets can be used in a variety of ways to target a behavior or motivate an individual student (or the whole group). Think about what you want students to achieve, and then offer raffle tickets to those who meet the goal. Here are a few ideas to consider:   

1. If a student achieves 100% accuracy on the quiz on the first attempt, award a raffle ticket when doing the Pass step.   
2. If a student gets all of the spelling words correct on the first attempt in the Word List step in the Phonics series or in a Word Warm-ups lesson, award a raffle ticket. 
3. If a student writes at least four complete sentences that accurately retell the story, start with a capital letter, and end with appropriate punctuation, award a raffle ticket for the Retell step. 

Each time a student gets a raffle ticket for whatever criteria you have set for that day/week, the student writes their name on the ticket and places it in the raffle ticket box. On Friday, draw just three tickets, and award those students some type of appropriate prize or privilege. At the end of each week, put all of the unchosen tickets into a bigger container for another chance to win. At the end of the month, do a drawing from that bigger container and offer an appropriate prize or privilege. As students earn more tickets, the frequency of the raffle drawings may decrease until the incentive system is no longer needed! By that time, students will have learned to carefully complete the various steps.   

Student-Led Rewards

Sarah Jane Schonour, Read Naturally’s Director of Training Materials and behavior interventionist, suggests that having students choose the types of rewards they receive increases motivation. “Having a variety of rewards is helpful," she says. "In addition to stickers, pencils, bookmarks, etc., it’s nice to have some less tangible rewards such as a lunch or game with a favorite adult, a homework pass, or a positive note home. It is fun to ask the students what they would like to earn and mix it up over time so they stay motivated.” Sarah Jane also notes that purchasing rewards can get expensive, so ask for donations of books from families and other teachers. This is a great way to get books into students’ homes!

And More!

Check out this blog post from our training guru, Claire Hayes, for some additional ideas on how to motivate students to pass as many Read Naturally stories as possible. As you know, the more stories students pass, the quicker they will improve.

I hope these suggestions will help you manage your three-ring circus…I mean classroom! Please let us know what incentives you have found helpful in motivating your students and keeping them engaged.