About
ReadingStride
Learn Spanish through stories written for your level.
What is ReadingStride?
ReadingStride is a collection of short stories designed to help you learn Spanish through reading. Each story is written for a specific level, so you're always reading something that's challenging enough to learn from but comfortable enough to actually enjoy.
How the stories work
Stories are organized into series where the same characters and vocabulary come back across multiple stories. This isn't random — it's by design.
Important words are woven through stories so you encounter them naturally, again and again. Research shows that seeing a word 10+ times across different contexts is what makes it stick. And spacing those encounters out over several stories works much better than cramming them into one.
Early levels (A1) stick to present tense, simple sentences, and lots of cognates — words that look similar in English and Spanish. As you move up, you'll start seeing past tenses, more complex structures, and a wider range of vocabulary.
Why short stories?
There's a ton of research behind something called "extensive reading" — basically, reading a lot of material at a comfortable level. It builds speed, intuition, and vocabulary in ways that flashcards and grammar drills just can't.
Short stories are perfect for this. They're satisfying to finish (which keeps you motivated), and completing many shorter texts beats struggling through one long one. The magic of graded readers comes from volume — not just one or two stories, but dozens.
Tips for learning
Read for the story, not perfection. You don't need to understand every single word. If you're following the plot, you're doing it right.
Don't look up every word. Try to guess from context first. Only look up words that are truly blocking your understanding of what's happening. Constant dictionary use breaks your reading flow.
Volume matters. The real gains come from reading a lot. One study found that a single month of extensive reading enhanced 65% of target vocabulary. Keep going — every story counts.
It's okay to re-read. Going back to a story you've read before at a higher level is a great way to reinforce what you've learned and notice new things.