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Overview
Program Description1
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.
Research2
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.3
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.
| Reading fluency | Writing | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating of effectiveness | No discernible effects | Potentially positive effects |
| Improvement index4 | Average: –6 percentile points |
+13 percentile points |
| na = not applicable | ||
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.