Read Naturally
Read Naturally was founded in 1991 by Candyce Ihnot. The program is meant to help students become better readers by building their proficiency through five essential components of reading, Phenomic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension. It uses three main strategies to achieve this, Teacher Modelling, Repeated Reading and Progress Monitoring.
There is a large selection of different programs that can be purchased depending on the student needs. They follow similar steps. The student selects a story, and read the key words. Afterwards they write a prediction and practice reading the story while listing to it. This can be repeated several times. There are charts and graphs to show the student’s progress as they proceed. Afterwards there are timed readings and tests to complete the programs.
Candyce Ihnot developed Read Naturally during her Master’s degree in Special Education. It was launched in 1991 and has received mostly positive reviews and a variety of distinctions from various publications. Her husband Tom Ihnot has helped with the developing of materials. The program was initially used in the classroom before expanding to the WWW where it has become a success.
Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
khenry 5:08 am on October 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi David,
Thank you for your post. It shows how ventures can arise through courses of study and research, for example at masters and doctoral levels, and are somewhat attainable. Many of the ventures I looked at are a lot more complex and seem to have founders and CEOs with many years of research and development as well as held CEO/head positions in other firms, departments, et al. prior to their venture.
This type of venture seems more practical to the educator and new and/or ‘small-time’ entrepreneur. That being said I would like more info on her partners if any, advisors if any and just how her venture is being sustained. On a side note, please include a link to the site.
Kerry-Ann
Everton Walker 5:35 pm on October 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This venture is right up my street. I get really excited whenever I see anything about literacy. However, I need more information about this venture. Does it work with all age group and spans all the major languages? How long should a student be exposed to this technique before competence is usually developed? Is it more suitable for beginning readers?
Keisha Edwards-Hamilton 2:05 pm on October 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This is an excellent innovation. It seems very practical and caters to the needs of almost every learner. Reading is an essential part of one’s life and any innovation that attempts to help people to become better readers is an excellent one and is sure to be successful.
Keisha