Decodable Readers for Older Students, Grades 3-5

Give older struggling readers stories they can actually read — and feel proud of reading. This 80-page pack is made for grades 3 to 5, and it never talks down to its readers. Instead of babyish early-reader books, students get ten real stories: a championship game, a dive among seals and eels, a kite flight at night, a boat race on the lake, a band learning a new tune, a ship caught in a storm, a photo of a whale, a spring hike, a shark at feeding time, and a hunt for a lost medal. Every word in every story comes from the sound patterns taught in the pack or from words students already know, so readers can sound out each page on their own and finish feeling successful. The pack teaches in a clear order. It starts with a short vowel review, then moves through long a, long e, long i, long o, and long u, digraphs sh, ch, th, wh, and ph, consonant blends, and r-controlled vowels. Each pattern gets its own teaching page with a twelve-word list to say, read, and write. After the teaching pages come the stories, three questions after each one, with every answer stated right in the story text. Practice keeps going with three word sorts, fluency lists to read three times, read-and-draw sentences, true-or-false spelling checks, long-or-short sorting, onset-and-rime word building, missing-sound fill-ins, and a story-to-summary match. Two ten-question quizzes, a reading log, a word search, cut-and-paste word building, mixed review, sentence writing, and spelling dictation round out the student pages. Teacher-only answer keys cover every page, and a certificate on the last page celebrates each reader who finishes. Print the pages you need and start on page 3 — nothing else is needed but a pencil.