These are my recommendations for struggling readers.

This page will guide you in helping your child meet 3rd-grade reading expectations. These recommendations are based on the science of reading.

Parents and Teachers! Check out the skills children need in their grade!

Home support plays a critical role in a child’s academic success, especially during the early years when they develop foundational skills. By actively engaging in your child’s learning journey, you can reinforce what they are taught in school, boost their confidence, and help create positive learning habits. The resources here will empower you with practical tools to make learning fun, effective, and meaningful at home.

1. Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

Master phonological and phonemic awareness. These activities can be done with eyes shut—no print should be in front of the child. Print and follow this! If children cannot hear and manipulate sounds in their heads, they won’t be able to read and spell!

Blending and segmenting are the most essential phonemic awareness activities because these skills directly correlate to reading and spelling. You can find these activities by following this link, but you can blend and segment any word! For example, ask your child to blend these sounds into a word:  /c/ /a/ /t/.  To segment, have your child separate the individual sounds. For example, the word “plant” can be segmented into the sounds /p/, /l/, /a/, /n/, /t/.

2. Phonics

Check out phonics by grade level.  Also teach syllabication rules. These are fun and will help your child sound out any word. If you are ambitious, check this out!

Please also read my Wilson Fundations page to learn about third-grade phonics expectations. Your child’s school may use a different curriculum, but all curricula tend to cover the same content.

Here is another phonics by grade level. 

3. Tapping, Blending, Spelling

Teach tapping out and blending sounds into words. Here is an AMAZING activity! Watch the video clip below. (This is not my video.) Word lists are also below.

• Say it
• Stretch it
• Spell it
• Change it

Research shows decodable texts are the BEST way to learn to read!

Tips for Struggling Readers

• If your child struggles to decode, always have them read each short story three times to improve fluency and accuracy.
• If your child is still learning to read, having them point to each word with one-to-one correspondence is essential because students tend to guess or memorize simpler texts.
• Your child should figure out unknown words independently by sounding them out. Not all words can be perfectly sounded out, but most words have at least parts that can!

• No more than 10 errors per 100 words, including words you had to tell your child, are acceptable.
• The child must also demonstrate comprehension. Third graders should retell, state the author’s lesson, describe the most important event, and explain why it is significant.
• Reading at an appropriate rate (words per minute) is essential. When fluency is achieved, comprehension can occur.

  Words Correct Per Minute for Grade 3

To calculate words correct per minute, follow this formula.

___ words in the passage read correctly divided by ___ seconds it took to read X 60 = __ WCPM

For example, say your child read 207 words correctly. The child read it in 3 minutes and 25 seconds, which is 205 seconds. 207 divided by 205 is approximately 1.0 words per second x 60 = 60 WCPM!

What Counts as an Error?

• Mispronounced words

• Skipped words

• Words read out of order

• Substitutions

• Words not self-corrected within 3 seconds

Do NOT count:

• Repetitions

• Self-corrections (if within a few seconds)

This table shows approximate percentile ranks for correct words per minute at 3 points during the school year. The average third grader should read 83 words correctly per minute in the fall, 97 in the winter, and 112 in the spring.

5. Master Sight Words

Master a few sight words each day for reading and spelling. Third graders should know all of the sight words. Sight words are best learned in context. They should read, reread, and reread:

220 Dolch Words in One Story

To provide more practice, create simple sentences using all of the Dolch words for your child to read.

Here are more sight word stories.

6. Vocabulary for 3rd Graders

Third graders need to know the meanings of these words, which are taken from the Marzano list.

And the meaning of these words, taken from WORDS TO KNOW BY GRADE LEVEL.

7. Spelling

Teach decoding and spelling in this reading and spelling order. Please ensure each column is mastered before proceeding to the next. This order corresponds with the progression of decodable texts.

Students should recognize and spell the sounds of the 44 phonemes.

8. Are you looking for a tech option?

• Making Connections—Links background knowledge and examples from the text to enhance comprehension.
• Questioning—Asks and answers different questions; finds evidence in the text to support questions and answers.
• Visualizing/Sensory Imagery—Demonstrates multi-sensory images that extend and enrich the text; demonstration may be through any modality or medium.
• Determining Importance—Identifies at least one key idea, theme, or concept, linking it to the text’s overall meaning. Uses supporting details from the text to explain why it is essential.
• Monitoring Comprehension—Identifies difficulties. Articulates the need to solve the problem and identifies the appropriate strategy, first by sounding out, then by using meaning, visual, and structural cues. (Sound out words when stuck!)
• Predicting/Inferring—Independently makes predictions and interpretations and draws conclusions; clearly explains connections using evidence from the text and personal knowledge, ideas, or beliefs.
• Retelling/Summarizing/Synthesizing—Retells text elements in a logical sequence with some extension to the overall theme, message, or background knowledge; refers to characters by specific name and uses vocabulary from the text.

Here are Grade 3 Common Core State Standards question stems to start a conversation. These stems are used in school.

We administer the free DIBELS 8 test 3 times a year. Each section is a 1-minute test, but the MAZE is 3 minutes.

• Read 3-letter short vowel nonsense words. These can be sounded out, for example, “sil,” “tob,” “paj,” “zev,” and “nud.” The goal is for the child to recognize these chunks automatically.
• Read actual words—sight words.
• Oral reading fluency: Can the child correctly read 114 words in a story with at least 96% accuracy by the end of the school year?
• Maze Comprehension: This test is 3 minutes long. The student reads a story that is missing words. Each time a word is missing, the student selects the correct missing word from three words.

The minimum scores to pass: 

Here are other free literacy assessments to assess your child!

Copyright 05/04/2012

Edited on 07/08/2025

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