Looking for Reading Materials for a 2nd/3rd Grade Level

September 13, 2018 11:33 AM

Many decades ago, I remember classrooms had a file cabinet of "reading cards" which were a single page of text -- a story followed by some comprehension questions to check to make sure a student understood the story (or at least parts of it). What exists like this now?

I know there's an "accelerated reader" program that lets kids just go to the library and pick out almost any book and take a quiz on it after they've read it.... But I want short stories that a better curated. Any suggestions?

posted by mhh5 to Education (10 answers total)

Best answer: Those cards you remember were SRA Kits. They were great. My mom taught elementary language arts for nearly 40 years - I remember them well.

Looks like they still exist in a new and updated format. I don't know anything about the new version.
posted by phunniemee at 11:40 AM on September 13, 2018 [8 favorites]

I believe you might be referring to SRA Reading Laboratory cards, which have been around since I was in elementary school in the late 1960s/early 1970s. One classmate and I actually raced each other to finish the entire box of cards in 5th grade.

On preview, phunniemee has beaten me to the answer. You can still buy them.
posted by briank at 11:42 AM on September 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I immediately recalled these as SRA, and you can find old and new kits on ebay. You might also search Craigslist. There must be periodicals just for teachers with classifieds for materials for sale, as well.

I loved these because I loved to read and they were self-paced, so I could keep reading more and more complex material.
posted by theora55 at 12:03 PM on September 13, 2018

OH GOD I LOVED SRA! I haven't done a deep dive but you can check Lakeshore Learning and sort by grade and subject -- here's 2nd grade/language -- to see if they might have something similar.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:03 PM on September 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow! I thought I was the only one who loved these things! Came here to answer, but it’s already been. So I’ll just take a moment to bless the memories of the teachers with kindness enough in their hearts and enough classroom management skills to give me permission to do the SRA cards at will once I’d finished my work. Far better use of my time than sitting there pulling apart pencils to make birds and rockets and “flying” them all over the empty desk surface.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 12:15 PM on September 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

The best thing about them, IIRC was that the box was a cube: maybe 10" square cards (with the color tabs on top) filling a cubical box. I remember having to tutor weaker readers through the lower levels, and finding them surprisingly puzzling -- writing something comprehensible with an extremely restricted vocabulary is hard.
posted by LizardBreath at 12:17 PM on September 13, 2018

I remember the SRA cards vividly as well. Super great. Wonder if the new kits are any good.
posted by nkknkk at 1:49 PM on September 13, 2018

Best answer: Readinga-z.com has similar passages with questions, although you'd have to print them yourself.
posted by raspberrE at 6:41 PM on September 13, 2018

That brought back a few memories...
posted by lhauser at 7:47 PM on September 13, 2018

Best answer: Two resources I use frequently in the classroom are readworks and newsela. I attempted to insert links, but for whatever reason it isn't happening.

Readworks is fantastic because it has a wide variety of subject matter, genre, and reading level. The passages are short, and the questions are good. It is similar to some extent to the old SRA's, except in online format. Newsela is a news source where the lexile can be altered to suit a students needs without altering the text all that much. Like Readworks, Newsela also provides comprehension questions at the end of the story.
posted by Sequined Ballet Flats at 9:29 PM on September 13, 2018 [1 favorite]