Monthly Newsletter: September 2021

Fluency in the News

This US News & World Report article discusses when and how kids are learning to read, and how important reading out loud to build fluency is to that process.

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/when-do-kids-learn-to-read

This EdWEEK article discusses the latest NAEP Reading scores, the pandemic, and how fluency and other foundational skills are critical to success.

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/struggling-readers-score-lower-on-foundational-skills-analysis-of-national-test-finds/2021/04

This article on the Stanford study measuring lost reading instruction during the pandemic praises educators for finding methods and tools for developing reading skills in an uncertain time.

Reading skills of young students stalled during pandemic

Helping One Child at a Time

As educators, nobody knows more than you do about the individual challenges facing a child, whether it’s at home or otherwise. Having a tool that can help with the social-emotional impact of having a “safe place” to read, is near to our heart. 

Last month, a teacher shared an emotional story about the personal tragedies that a student at her school had endured a few years back, causing him and his siblings to relocate to another family members home. Recently, that family member had unexpectedly passed, causing more upheaval for this student. 

When asked, this little guy shared with us that his favorite thing about reading on FluencyRevTM is knowing that his teacher is hearing him, no matter where he is outside of the school day. 

We love to hear stories like this and think it is important to share with this community. If you have one to share, please drop us an email at support@fluencyrev.com.

Brand New Books Will be here Soon!

We have some big news to share from our content team at FluencyRevTM! There will be a new batch of books in our library very soon.

 Among the newest books for your students to enjoy soon is a series about our lovable Alpacas, like Grayson and his buddy, pictured above!

Our Online Teacher Training Library is Here!

Teachers and Administrators – we know how tough it can be to take time from the classroom for training on a new tool. That’s why we’ve worked hard all summer to create our online digital training library for you to train when you need it.

To access our training libraries, simply log in to www.fluencyrev.com and click on the “FluencyRev Training Materials for Teachers” library in our library section. Administrators, you will see an additional “FluencyRev Training Materials for Administrators” library.

There are five teacher modules, plus a resource library with downloadable/printable quick references, checklists and more. Administrators, you have another two modules that walk you through how to set up your site for the first time and how to maintain your site.

Click here for a video that walks you through how to use our training libraries.

FluencyRevTM Feature Highlight

Focused Practice Feature

Each month, we will highlight an area that we love and we think you may love knowing more about.

Did you know that as your students are reading in Level A-G books in our Foundation library, they have the ability to focus in and practice specific sentences, phrases or even a single word? They can do this by highlight the words that they’d like to practice again, and then click on headsets to model reading for only those words. They can then practice as many times as they want!

Here’s why we love the focused practice feature:

  • Early readers are building word fluency and vocabulary at the same time. Between visual pictures, modeling the way the word sounds, and then practicing out loud with feedback provides such meaningful vocabulary practice!
  • Where are all of my ELL teachers? This is SUCH a good feature to show off when talking to ELL educators. The same points as the bullet above are relevant, and so valuable to our English language learners.
  • Let’s challenge them! As your students explore books with more difficult words, what a way to enrich their independent reading by allowing extra practice for phrases or words that may not be familiar to them yet.

Click here for a video that walks you through our focused pract feature.

Like us on Facebook and share about us for a chance to win a $100 Visa giftcard!

We would love to connect with you on social media! This month, we offer you a fun incentive to share with your friends about FluencyRevTM on Facebook.

 To enter, like our Facebook page. Additional entries if you share with educator friends and families what you love about our tool! Winner will be announced in next month’s newsletter.

 Help us start a conversation about fluency!