Free K-3 Reading Fluency Resource: Why I Created It And I’d Love Educators To Review It
The crumbs of my after-school peanut butter granola bar stuck to the corner of my laptop trackpad last Tuesday, as I stared at three running records I’d finished grading that day. Mia, Javi, and Ty—all three ended the first six weeks of third grade reading a full year below benchmark, and none of the fluency resources I’d pulled from the district resource closet were working. Mia got frustrated when the pages were covered in tiny text and said it “hurt her eyes”; Javi raced through the worksheets just to be done and got half the answers wrong; Ty refused to even start most days because all the stories were about kids going to the beach or soccer practice, things he’d never done. I closed my browser, grabbed a spiral notebook from my teacher bag, and started sketching something new.
I’ve been teaching third grade at a Title I elementary school for seven years, and I’ve lost count of how many afternoons I’ve spent this way. The district-adopted curriculum hits the needs of most kids, but it never quite fits the 10 or so kids every year who need extra, targeted practice that meets them where they are. The commercial intervention programs I’ve tried are hundreds of dollars, require 20 pages of prep that I don’t have time for after planning lessons, grading papers, and responding to parent emails, and the passages always feel disconnected from the kids I teach.
So over four weeks, I built this resource slowly, testing one passage a week with my small reading group to see what stuck. I made the text 14-point font, double-spaced, with simple black and white line art that kids can color when they finish—nothing fancy, just enough to break up the text for kids who get overwhelmed by dense pages. I wrote 36 short passages, all about small, everyday moments kids I know actually experience: feeding a class pet, losing a tooth during math, getting a new pair of hand-me-down sneakers, waiting for the bus in the rain. Each passage comes with three quick comprehension questions and a list of 4 target sight words to practice before reading. I left blank note pages at the end so you can add your own target words for your kids, if the ones I picked don’t match what they’re working on. Best of all, it’s no prep beyond printing: you don’t need to laminate, cut out game pieces, or organize anything. Just grab the printable and sit down with your reading group for 10 minutes a day.
I uploaded the whole thing to a free Google Drive folder last month, linked it on my small teacher Instagram, and didn’t think much of it. Then a first grade special education teacher from Chicago DMed me a week later. She said she’d printed the first three passages for her small group, and a student who almost never agreed to read out loud had asked to take his passage home to read to his grandma. It made my whole month—seriously, I taped that message to the edge of my desk. But she also added one note that stuck with me: she said the sight word lists at the end of each week are ordered alphabetically, and it would be much easier if they were grouped by spelling pattern, so she could connect the practice to what she’s already teaching that week.
That’s when I realized I needed more feedback. I made this resource for my kids, in my classroom, and it works for us right now. But I’m only one teacher, working with one specific group of kids. I don’t know what it’s like to use this in a special education classroom with smaller groups, or a homeschool setting with one kid, or a first grade classroom where most kids are just starting fluency practice. I don’t know if the blank pages I added are useful, or if the font is still too small for kids with visual processing needs, or if the passages get too hard too fast for some groups. I don’t even know if the file downloads correctly for everyone, because I’ve only ever opened it on my own laptop.
That’s why I’m reaching out: I’d love any educator (or parent working with a struggling reader at home) who downloads this resource to leave a quick review or send me a short note with your thoughts. You don’t need to write a long essay. I just want to know two things: what worked for you and your kids, and what didn’t. If the first passage was too easy for your second graders, tell me. If your kid loved the tooth passage and asked for more like it, tell me. If the file didn’t download right, tell me that too. Even a one-sentence note is more helpful than nothing.
I know teachers are stretched thinner than ever right now, and giving feedback on a free resource probably feels low on your to-do list. I get that. When I was a first year teacher, I spent $180 of my own money on resources that didn’t work for my kids, and most of them ended up in the trash at the end of the year. I don’t want other people to have to waste their time or money on resources that don’t fit their needs. This one is free, always will be, and I’m going to update it at the end of this semester with every bit of feedback I get, then put the new version back up for free for everyone.
Right now, the resource works for my three struggling readers. Mia asked to color the goldfish passage last week, and Javi slowed down enough to get 8 out of 10 words right on his last practice. Ty even read the whole sneaker passage out loud to the group last Friday. It’s not perfect, but it’s working for us. With a little input from other educators, it can work for a lot more kids. If you’ve got 10 minutes to spare after trying it for a week, I’d be so grateful for your review. I’ll be reading every note, and every piece of feedback will go straight into making the resource better for the next person who needs it.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » Free K-3 Reading Fluency Resource: Why I Created It And I’d Love Educators To Review It