Children are natural learners. They learn to walk and talk, eat and be sweet, play and obey, through an experiential process of watching and doing.

Reading comes just as naturally for many kids. Thus, adults and big brothers and sisters who enjoy reading — even the backs of cereal boxes at breakfast — are modeling reading behavior and teaching reading.

As literacy coach at Rice Elementary School, Shelly Butcher has seen firsthand the positive effects that consistent, one-on-one reading with and to children has on improving their fluency and comprehension.

But how can one person provide personal attention to a school of 320 young readers?

Enter a software program called Read Naturally.

Due to the wonders of technology and a $4,837 SPIE (Supporting Partnerships in Innovative Education) grant from the Poudre School District Foundation, Butcher and the Rice faculty will now be able to provide additional aid to readers at all levels.

“It’s like getting more staff,” Butcher said. “We’ll be able to do much more easily and effectively.”

More than $58,000 was awarded last month to 17 applicants in PSD. Butcher was very pleased and shocked to be one of the winners. “I honestly didn’t expect to get it,” she said.

Principal Karen Koehn agreed she thought the request was a long shot since Rice had already received two foundation grants in as many years, thanks to Butcher.

“I was so excited, so excited,” she said. “Shelly is always looking for a way to bring more to the way we teach kids.”

Both educators were familiar with what Koehn termed the program’s “phenomenal” results at Putnam Elementary, where they both worked and used the paper version of Read Naturally.

“We believe in it,” Butcher stated. “Karen is always thinking outside the box about creative ways to make schools work with limited resources.”

Launched in 1991, Read Naturally combines teacher modeling and repeated reading with monitoring individual assessment and progress.

“Students with fluency problems read slowly, haltingly, word by word,” according to www.ReadNaturally.com. “Instead of focusing on the meaning of what they read, they struggle to figure out the words and risk falling further behind in school.”

While intervention with struggling fourth-grade readers is the primary focus, Butcher said the software is available to every teacher.

“Everyone in the building is interested,” she said. “We can’t let kids struggle with reading. Reading is everywhere. Being able to sit down and read and feel successful means being able to read and understand and comprehend.”

According to its web site, Read Naturally supports and reinforces the essential components of reading as outlined by the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Derek Decker has been teaching fourth grade at Rice Elementary since the school opened three years ago. Butcher called him an “upbeat and willing guinea pig” as the two introduced the program to three of Decker’s students a couple of weeks ago.

“I knew the gist of it,” Decker said. “It was a natural flow. With 14 mini-notebooks (laptops) in my classroom, my teaching partner and I are always looking for different ways to utilize them. It was a no-brainer.”

Decker said Read Naturally will be used during a 30-minute intervention and enrichment period during which they are already working on loving reading.

“The goal is that they enjoy reading,” he said. “They know reading is not always easy, but they also recognize reading can be fun.”

Students choose from 12 different Read Naturally stories, which Decker said helps further engage them since they are already enthused about working on the mini-notebooks.

Nine-year-old Trevor Jordan wanted to read about vampire bats. Great white sharks appealed to Cody Flannigan, also 9, while 10-year-old Jordan Castaneda picked Old Faithful as his subject matter.

Each boy logged in with his lunch number and read aloud a timed segment of the story in order to get a beginning assessment. The next section, “Key Words,” defined with pictures and words four key vocabulary words.

After typing predictions about what they expected to occur in their respective storylines, the boys each read aloud cold. They highlighted words they didn’t understand, practiced reading some more, and then took a quiz.

The next step is for them to summarize what they’ve read, after which they read aloud to their teachers, who hopefully pass them on to select another story.

Butcher said it will take students about a week to work through the whole program. They cannot pass until their teacher feels confident they are ready.

A fan of mysteries, Trevor said it was interesting how the computer read along with him. “I didn’t realize vampire bats liked people’s blood, too,” he declared.

Cody is a fan of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series. He thought highlighting unfamiliar words made reading “a lot easier.”

Jordan said the pictures of the geyser in Yellowstone National Park helped him choose the story about Old Faithful. A lover of the spine-tingling “Goosebumps” books, Jordan believes the program will help him read faster.

Decker recalled fond memories of reading in elementary school.

“I had a handful of teachers I connected with,” he recalled. “They made reading fun.”

Decker, who prefers fictional history but called whatever he’s currently reading his favorite thing to read, is role modeling on another level. He said at the beginning of each school year, students often tell him that he’s their first “boy teacher.”

The “solution” to the decades-long debate about the best way to teach reading may indeed be simply quite natural.