This is part 3 of a series on decodable texts. If you haven’t read parts 1 and 2 yet, go do your homework! 🙂
In Part 1, I discussed what decodables are and why we need them. In Part 2, I discussed criteria for evaluating decodable texts, instructional implications, professionally developing staff, and potential limitations or considerations.
You likely already have some decodables in your classroom or building, or know where you can get access to them. Be sure to carefully consider the criteria outlined in post 2 to determine if and how you can use them to promote student phonics learning. You might very well decide it’s time to say goodbye to a beloved resource that will no longer serve you or your students.
Over the course of this post, I will discuss the following popular resources:
UFLI decodables
Benchmark Flagship Decodable Readers
Decodable Fluency Readers
Pioneer Valley “Phonics Storybooks” Decodables
Little Blossom
Beanstalk
TCM Teacher Created Materials
Lerner Books
Reading Rocket suggestions
UFLI suggestions
UFLI decodables – these are free and online! Check out their Toolkit Resource page here and the Phonics S&S here. You’ll see a menu of lesson resources. Beginning with lesson 8, you’ll see you can click to download a decodable passage that is aligned to a phonics concept. Below is a screenshot of a lesson on short o. Notice how it is cumulative and includes short a and i, learned in lesson 10. UFLI is designed to be used universally, and you can purchase their manual for a very reasonable price (only $70!) for use with their generous and abundant free online presentations and resources.
Assets: Very instructive – clearly aligned to a research-based scope & sequence, paired with a targeted multi-sensory lesson and word work (ladders/chain). HIGH percentage of decodable words; the only words you need to pre-teach are the sight words ‘is’ ‘a’ and ‘the’ for this text. And they’re free!
Considerations: This story is not very comprehensible – there is no story structure, and some sentences are just plain silly (A man is not a fan?). It’s definitely not engaging – no illustrations, exciting or even cohesive topic upon which to build a discussion. However, the box is provided for students to illustrate and label (yay writing!) to show their comprehension, which is a very productive and engaging task. This text is very short.
2. Benchmark Flagship Decodable Readers or “BEC Decodables” – Yes, these are written by the guru himself, Wiley Blevins. The books are sold as a set – 39 Kindergarten books and 72 First Grade books. They are available in digital format (free with purchase), Spanish, and as take home B&W consumables (extra cost). There are several titles aligned with each phonics skill, which means students can have multiple practice opportunities. Bottom line: I think these belong in every single Kindergarten and First Grade classroom across the nation. These would be best used for universal instruction and tier 2 intervention.
Assets: Very instructive – there is a very clear scope and sequence provided here, which provides the phonics target skill as well as aligned HFWs you’ll want to pre-teach. The clarity of the S&S means you can easily align it to your existing curricular resources. Each book is at minimum 85% decodable. Very engaging – the topics are fun, illustrations are beautiful and high quality, and the story structures are easy to identify. The inclusion of science and social studies topics means you can provide background knowledge and cross curricular support, as well as have worthwhile material for comprehension and discussion.
Considerations: The Kindergarten books will include a rebus to support students in reading story or content words (like ‘airplane’). In the First Grade set, you’ll encounter more story or content words that students will need to figure out, either with picture support or instruction.
Example of rebus found in K books
Beautiful illustrations. This is from a 1st grade book on r-blends. You can see some text features you may need to instruct or explain – quotation marks, dollar sign, and the ‘Mr.’ abbreviation. The majority of the words are decodable and fair, with only a few HFWs to teach or review. All short vowel sounds and l-blends are reviewed. I am a little confused about the word ‘says,’ which is an irregular word that is not mentioned in the S&S. This is from We Live in Space, which focuses on soft c and g. Like above, you’ll see decodables push the envelope with text features, like representing time. We’ve got some story words here (astronaut, float) that are supported with illustrations. Long vowel sounds like the final e pattern, as well as -ing suffix, are cumulative and previously taught. The book lists ‘far’ and ‘too’ as the HFWs to be taught, but I don’t see ‘away’ or ‘change’ listed – these could be tricky.
3. Benchmark Decodable Fluency Readers – Another product from BEC vetted by the guru himself, Wiley Blevins. There are 30 titles for Kindergarten, and 54 titles for 1st grade. Just like the Flagship decodables, they are sold only in sets. They are available in digital format (extra cost), and as take home B&W consumables (extra cost). Each title comes with a Teacher Card that outlines phonemic awareness activities, HFW activities (read, spell, write), and discussion questions (literal, inferential, making connections). These would be best used for universal instruction and tier 2 intervention. Why are these called “fluency” readers? From what I surmise, the premise is that strengthening phonics skills via decodable practice (and supporting activities) will help students master and transfer these skills from controlled text to authentic reading. If done well, I believe that is the purpose of all decodable books, so this term “decodable fluency readers” seems redundant. Bottom line: I’d also gladly purchase these for each Kindergarten and First Grade classroom. If I had to choose between these and the Flagship Decodables above, I’d go with the Flagship.
Assets: Very instructive – there is a very clear scope and sequence provided here, which provides the phonics target skill as well as aligned HFWs you’ll want to pre-teach. The publishers claim it is “aligned to the Science of Reading research.” The clarity of the S&S means you can easily align it to your existing curricular resources. Engaging illustrations with a story premise, characters, and a problem.
Considerations: You have to buy the entire set, and can’t pick individual books. These are not available in Spanish, as were the Flagship Decodables. They don’t feel as comprehensible as the Flagship books – a bit looser in terms of premise and story elements. I feel the Flagship books could be used for intervention in 2nd grade and beyond, but these Fluency Decodables are best developmentally for K/1st.
The red book is from the Kindergarten series, and the blue is from 1st grade. Each book comes with a Teacher Card (shown).Note the progression of content from Kindergarten (bottom) to 1st grade (top). Much more text per page, and more story content for discussion.
4. Pioneer Valley “Phonics Storybooks” Decodables I’ve already grown to know and love the Pioneer Valley books. They have such beautiful illustrations, high quality books, varying styles, engaging topics, series with familiar and repeating characters, chapter books, and we can count on them to be accurately leveled. Books are available online with Digital Literacy Footprints, which includes accompanying resources like running records and guided reading lesson plans. If you already know you love PV, then you’re going to love these decodables.
The decodables are organized into 4 levels: Level 1 Ready, Set, Go! – Novice Readers Phonics Skill Focus: Initial and Final Consonant Sounds and Short Vowels. Helps novice readers develop concept of print, one-to-one matching, return sweep. Level 2 On Our Way – Beginning Readers Phonics Skill Focus: Short Vowels, Initial/Final Digraphs, and Initial Blends. Level 3 Building Up – Early Readers Phonics Skill Focus: Final Blends, Long Vowels, and Vowel Teams Level 4 Moving On – Transitional Readers Phonics Skill Focus: Vowel teams, Vowel–r Combinations, Trigraphs, and Diphthongs
Considerations: I’m going to start with considerations first, because they will influence the assets that I want to focus on. I really enjoyed levels 1 & 2, and found them to be very clear, consistent, aligned, instructive, and comprehensible. I would be very glad to purchase these to use in my classroom library or sets to use as a shared resource for small group instruction. However, levels 3 & 4 no longer felt like phonics readers. Many even seemed to be the same books I already use from their main library, just relabeled as a decodable with a few phonics words as the focus. As you can see in the picture below, the leap from level 2 (middle) to level 3 (top) is huge, with much more text, punctuation, and content. Out of 85 words on the page, only 4 words (5%) contained the target ‘oo’ phonics skill. The rest appeared to be fair play words – previously learned phonics skills, sight words, and a few story/content words (i.e. “principal”). There is balance or trade-off in all things; to get this highly engaging, quality illustrations and storyline, it is at the cost of phonics practice opportunities. However, you do get a longer controlled text for practicing fluency, as well as review. Consider your goals. Finally, the only genre offered is fiction.
Assets: (Speaking only about levels 1 & 2) Very instructive – there is a very clear scope and sequence which will allow you to easily match up texts with your phonics S&S. The sight words are clearly listed and are cumulative. The illustrations and storylines are very engaging, and readers will appreciate the familiar characters and attention to comprehensibility. Books are also available in digital format, which is great for home connection.
5. Little Blossom Stories – These decodables come from Cherry Blossom Press, which you may have heard of. There are 135 books in the set (which can be purchased individually, unlike all of the sets described above), and the publisher claims that the interest level of these books are Pre-K through 2nd grade. Each book has a Lexile level and a Guided Reading Level (A-C) which I actually find suspicious. As I mentioned in Part 1, decodables have an entirely different purpose and simply do not align to guided reading levels. Decodables are controlled texts aligned to a phonics scope and sequence and meant to provide phonics practice opportunities, whereas Leveled Texts are aligned to the developmental journey of the reader, and gradually become more challenging in terms of literary elements, text features, vocabulary, and longer and more complex sentences and plots. Decodables are meant to be rehearsal for Leveled Texts; they are not the same. I could not find the phonics S&S easily accessible online. The publisher claims that each book contains at least two vowels as the phonics focus. There is a 1-page “Teacher’s Guide” you can download at the top of this page here, which provides some extension activities. Note: I do not agree that making predictions is a best practice for building comprehension, so I disagree with that suggestion in the teaching guide.
Assets: There is a word list at the end of each book to check for identification in isolation. The entire text is rewritten on one-page at the end, which is great for fluency practice, older students who might be embarrassed to read a book with illustrations, or a quick running record for accuracy and WPM rate. The illustrations are adorable, and you could have a discussion around the book.
Considerations: I do not find these books instructive in that I cannot locate a scope and sequence. If you were going to purchase these to support your Phonics S&S, you’d have a lot of work to do to align the materials. There seem to be quite a few non-phonetic and story/content words used to help create a more engaging plot. I cannot comment on sight words as I was unable to locate a schedule for them. The pages are very thin and stick together.
6. Beanstalk Science Decodables – So many decodables are fiction, so it’s kind of exciting to see some intentional nonfiction! After all, students really love learning content, which is a major driving factor for learning to read. There are 60 different science-based titles, which are organized by “Phase” (explained further here). These books should take you through Phases 2-6 as follows: 2. letter sounds (short vowels, most consonants, and double ff, ll, ss), 3. “phonics” (less common consonant sounds, digraphs, common vowel teams), 4. blends (CCVC, CCVCC with short vowels, CCCVC and CVCCC with long vowels) 5. “vowel sounds” (more vowel teams, silent e, diphthongs), 5.5. sound families (more vowel teams, multiple spellings of a sound, r-blends) and 6. affixes. This doesn’t match up to any S&S or developmental progression that I am familiar with. However, each phase set includes 12 books and is only $29.99, so it wouldn’t break the bank to buy several sets and Frankenstein together the books you’d need to cover your own curricular progression. Be careful to match up what’s provided and where your gaps are, as it’s possible that not all of your phonics elements will have an accompanying decodable. Bottom line: I wouldn’t use this as my primary source of decodables, but these would be great additions to my collection. I’d love to see them in student’s book bins, or I might use them for small group instruction and extended practice, especially for Tier 2/3 in upper elementary.
Assets: Science content! Very engaging to students, and could be used to support cross-curricular science learning. This makes great content for discussion and building language. These books provide an excellent opportunity to teach Tier 3 content specific vocabulary. Inside the cover of each book, you’ll find the phonics elements that are the focus of the book, a list of “tricky” words (which can be sight words, HFW, vocabulary terms…), and some instruction ideas for engaging in discussion or language building. These decodables would be very high interest for upper elementary students.
Considerations: Instructive… question mark? I’m not fully on board with the phase organization system. You’ll have to carefully vet the books and cross walk them with your own curricular progression to know where books will line up or where you could find some alignment. I could not find a document that outlines each book with a phonics focus and “tricky word” schedule. You’ll have to be on your toes! But if you are only planning to use these for independent reading, specially designed instruction, or intervention, then this may not be as important to you. This series is limited to the nonfiction genre.
7. Targeted Phonics by TCM Teacher Created Material. This series contains a kit for each grade Pre-K through 2nd grade. You are purchasing more than just books here – you get a student practice workbook and basically an entire Phonics Block. Each kit contains 21 books.
In their own implementation research study, the developers explain that levels Pre-K and K are meant to be used as universal instruction, and 1st and 2nd are designed to be used as intervention (this surprises me, as you would think you’d still be teaching universal phonics at those grade levels, right?). They explain that their kits are aligned to a systematic phonics S&S. Instead of the phonics schedule I’ve come to expect where each skill is aligned to a book title, I was able to find a broader explanation of how kits are designed and progress from easier to more complex elements (kind of reminds me of Beanstalk and their phases).
A specific breakdown of the phonics elements covered in each kit can be found starting on page 18 of this document. The lesson plans provided include phonemic awareness, letter formation activities, ideas for your literacy centers, comprehension activities at higher levels (i.e. retelling, connection, prediction, literal and inferential questions), discussion and oral language practice, vocabulary activities, some grammar and punctuation instruction at higher levels, repeated reading for fluency, and extension and differentiation ideas. The high frequency words come from Dolch and Fry lists, which are listed within the book and in lesson plan. They truly are decodables in that the vast majority of the words are decodable, and there are some story/content words which they call “challenge words.”
There is a lot of research and supplemental materials presented on their website, which means you’ll have access to an entire instructional program. They’re really done their homework, truly. In their Research Base, they cite all of the gurus and seminal works, from Ehri and Blevins and Yopp to ILA and Shanahan and Duke & Cartwright. They’ll also provide correlation studies to your own state standards by grade level.
Assets: It’s a whole program, not just the books. it is very instructive, and carefully researched and designed. The language of the books is aligned to what they claim – the majority of the words are decodable, there are a few clearly identified sight or HFWs, and some story/content or “challenge” words to help drive the plot. The books are colorful, cheerful, and engaging in that there are characters and actions and that connect into a story. A classroom kit is around $900, which isn’t as much as some other comprehensive kits.
Considerations: Books are only sold in kits. This would replace any other phonics materials you have, so you would only need to align this to your reading and writing materials. The books themselves have a lot of repetition and patterned sentences, which you may feel flavors a students ability to decode without relying on context. The lesson plans include running record protocols for your use, which have an MSV error analysis (and you might have big feelings about the cueing system, in which case you could just ignore that part). These really are for early and emergent readers, and won’t be well-tolerated by upper elementary.
8. Lerner “Phonics Fun” Books: These caught my eye as I thought about particular students and the kinds of books they enjoy reading. First of all, please know that there are only 8 books (however, peruse Lerner and you’ll find many more phonics and decodable options). An entire set of paperback will cost you only about $70. You can also buy hardcover and e-book multi-user versions. The books are meant to be funny, silly, and engaging with cute rhymes. They focus only on short vowel patterns, and they are only available in fiction. This would not constitute a comprehensive series of decodables to build your curriculum or intervention by any means. However, these would be affordable and cute books to add to your classroom library and book bins. I see these appealing to students universally in grades K-1, and in small group or intervention in grade 2. Below is their published S&S.
Lerner publishing offers many free teaching resources you could peruse to support instruction.
Assets: Engaging – silly, funny, highly appealing to specific students, probably even striving readers in 2nd and beyond. Colorful, high quality books. Instructive in that they accomplish what they promise – highly decodable and focused solely on the phonics patterns listed. Lots of picture support. There are plenty of teaching resources if you have the time to peruse and choose. The title is a pretty accurate communication of which phonics skill you’ll be learning about.
Considerations: There are only 8 books, so this is meant to be seeded into your classroom library and book bins. These aren’t systematic or sequential, as they are not really a program. You’ll get to align them and fit them in as they best suit you and your students’ needs.
9. Reading Rocket suggestions – On their website, RR shares a list of “Decodable Text Sources” that might be worth checking out. I see BOB books top of the list, which are very popular among family libraries at home. The list is organized by age, which is very useful. Check it out!
10. UFLI suggestions – On the UFLI website, the very generous researchers have provided this google sheet to help you find resources and see how they align to their own phonics scope and sequence. Need more resources on the /sh/ digraph? Just head on down to row 60 (item 45) and you can find about 16 different publishers that have materials to suit your needs. I will list all of the resources below that I haven’t already covered in this blog post, and add a star if they are also referenced by Reading Rockets in the list shared above. You may want to check them out!
I hope this review has given you some food for thought and some direction to help you make some purchases. If you are a classroom teacher, perhaps you’ve found some ideas above for using your classroom budget to seed your classroom library, and/or collaborate with your peers to build a collection of shared resources. If you are in a leadership position, hopefully you’ve found some inspiration to foster a clear universal phonics program that includes carefully vetted and intentionally selected decodables that align with your S&S, philosophy, and student needs.
Hopefully, you’ve read my previous post about the purpose and features of decodable texts. You get it, you’re on board, and you’re ready to make some choices and purchases, or just weed your own collection.
Evaluation Criteria
Decodables have come a long way in the past 5-ish years, even though we’ve known for a long time that the products on the market have needed a serious spit-shine. Back in 1985, in “Becoming a Nation of Readers,” the Reading Commission acknowledged that “American people ought to expect and should demand better reading primers for their children” (p. 48).
In fact, the report identified three essential features of Reading Primers (decodable texts). They must be: 1) interesting 2) comprehensible 3) instructive
These seem like very straightforward and simple criteria. Let’s break them down: I’ll assume “Interesting” is self-explanatory. “Comprehensible” means that the books should tell ‘complete, interesting stories.’ The report explains that, given the limited word selection in a typical early phonics reader, comprehension can also be built through the use of pictures, information that the teacher supplies, and through discussion (I’m taking this to mean lots of inferencing, guided reading questions, and thoughtful extension questions). “Instructive” implies that the book contain an abundance of words that showcase learned phonics patterns, giving students ample practice opportunities with the target skill.
The report urges decodable authors to use not only familiar and high interest topics, but also familiar sentence structures that mirror speech (Goodbye weirdly constructed sentences like “See the van.”). We should also reasonable expect familiar story elements such as characters, setting, and a problem. Since children very quickly pick up on story structure, even before formal schooling, this is also what makes the decodable texts “interesting.”
Before you begin to review decodable books, I urge you to consider sit down with your team and discuss what qualities and criteria matter most to you (and perhaps align to district initiatives or your personal philosophies). Do you feel strongly about equity of representation? How important is it to balance fiction and nonfiction selections?
Wiley Blevins has created a thorough and SoR aligned rubric for evaluating decodable texts, which is published through Benchmark Education. You can find the rubric here. Check out section II on the 2nd page: Phonics/Decodable Readers. We see that the categories are designed around the 3 criteria established in the “Becoming a Nation of Readers” report: Comprehensible, Instructive, and Engaging. Blevins has also added some ‘good’/’bad’ examples for comparison.
If you and your team are interested in using this rubric as a starting point, but want to add additional criteria, I’d really encourage you to develop an extended rubric that considers the following:
Does the sequence of phonics patterns ‘mostly’ align with our current materials, and/or can we adapt and adjust to any misalignments? (nothing will ever be perfect, but look for any red flags)
Is the series cumulative (all prior patterns are fair game), and does it have spiraling and repetition? Is that something we desire?
When we compare the phonics scope of the text set with our main instructional resource, are there any gaps or phonics patterns that are overlooked or missed?
Does the sequence of sight words / HFWs ‘mostly’ align with our current pacing, and/or are we going to need to adapt and adjust to any misalignments? (note: decodables do tend to push up the schedule and introduce words faster in order to make stories more natural and comprehensible)
Is there a balance of fiction and nonfiction texts? Is that something we value?
Do the topics and representations align with our philosophies for equity and developmentally appropriate content?
How will this text set best fit in our instructional practices? Will this resource be valuable as an addition to our classroom libraries, useful for small group instruction, earmarked for intervention, or added as a shared building resource?
How Many Decodable Books Will We Need?
This will largely depend on how and with whom you are going to use them (and how much budget you have!). Additionally, some publishers allow you to mix and match and buy individual books, while others sell books in a set or series.
If I were purchasing for myself to use as a classroom teacher, I’d first choose a product that I know would be great for small group instruction, and I’d aim to order around 5 of each book. I’d also like an additional series that I could flex into my classroom library to become part of book shopping. Typically, I like to see my early readers have a book box with at least 7 books in them, and I’d love it if at least 2 (ideally more) of those could be decodables. Since I like my students to book shop weekly to biweekly, and there are 40 weeks in the school year (times 25 ish students)… this purchase order adds up really quickly! You likely won’t be able to purchase all that you want in one go, but think about how you can slowly seed your collection over time (or collaborate with your colleagues and contribute to a grade level collection in a common space).
If I were purchasing for my entire building and I had a Caviar Budget, I’d aim to purchase a variety of sets that included a) sets that can be incorporated into classroom libraries in Kindergarten and First Grade b) sets of 5 to support small group instruction for Kindergarten through Second Grade c) a specific earmarked set only to be used in reading intervention if one doesn’t already exist and d) additional copies of everything that lives in a shared resource space accessible by special educators and other support staff such as ESL, Speech and Language, etc.
Professional Learning
After purchasing your decodable texts, you will need to professionally develop your team around the new resource. You will need to consider the following as you design your PL series:
What is a decodable? How do they compare to other texts we use? (leveled readers, trade books, guided reading or shared reading books)
Why are they experiencing renewed importance?
What is the end goal of using decodables? How do they contribute to student reading success?
When should we use them and with whom? How do they fit in with our universal curriculum and intervention?
What criteria do we value when selecting decodables?
Limitations of Decodables
Let’s consider some limitations of decodables. First, they are not leveled and will not align to a book leveling system. There are several different book-leveling systems (F&P, Lexile, RAZ, DRA, Rigby…) that take various criteria into consideration including quantitative features (ex: word length and frequency, sentence length) and qualitative features (ex: length, language conventionality and clarity, literary elements and text structure, supportive illustrations, knowledge demands, and development or maturity demands). Decodables are designed for a different purpose, and they simply will not align. You may be surprised to see more text per page, new punctuation types, a return sweet, and other features introduced in a decodable that you have not yet covered universally in the reading block. It is okay! Students will adapt and overcome, and you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised. You can either use this as an opportunity to gently recognize some new features or elements, or simply maintain focus on the mission at hand: practicing our phonics features.
Another limitation is that decodables are not designed to develop a student’s vocabulary or background knowledge. (Books have different purposes, and that’s the purpose of our trade books!) That is why we talk about decodables as structured practice and ‘rehearsal’ for the ultimate goal of reading engaging authentic texts. However, instruction with decodables doesn’t need to be a missed opportunity to learn new concepts and words! In his very instructive youtube video linked here, Wiley Blevins shares some innovative ideas for elevating vocabulary and discussion around a text. If you know you are going to be reading a decodable about frogs, let’s say, then why not pair it with a grade level informational text about frogs that you can read aloud to the class? In doing so, you are helping them (and hopefully guiding and modeling for them) to make deeper neural connections and build background knowledge across texts. Then scaffold them to draw upon that knowledge through the thoughtful discussion, follow-up questions, and language activities that you design. Wiley also suggests selecting an academic Tier 2 word to pre-teach and accompany the text set. For the book on frogs, he suggests perhaps ‘habitat’ might fit the bill. It’s not in the story, but can be used to talk about and reinforce the story. A story about a little girl going on a trip? Maybe this is a great opportunity to connect to the word ‘explore’ and make connections.
Instructing with Decodables
So you’ve chosen a decodable book that reinforces the phonics skill you just taught, and you’ve invited 4 students to your kidney table. Now what? What is the best way to go about reading and utilizing this tool? There are several instructional protocols and strategies I will share below. One element they all share are that students are going to have multiple exposures to the same book over a period of time. Over multiple reads, students can transition their focus from automaticity and accuracy to fluency and comprehension.
Achieve the Core is a nonprofit organization the provides resources and support for implementing standards-based best practices. You can download their protocol here. I read this graphic starting on the right end of the spectrum and moving left.
Depending on the needs of the students I’ve placed in my small group, I’d likely start with a book preview, but I’d skip the “Teacher reads, students follow.” I love Heidi Ann Mesmer’s perspective on her blog post “The Do’s and Don’ts of Decodable Books.” She explains, “If the texts are matched to knowledge, there has been some decoding practice, and a book walk is done, students should be ready to read.” Avoid the trappings of past practices, and let our students engage in productive struggle!
Wiley Blevins protocol contains many of the same elements, including:
Whisper Read (circulate and listen in)
Choral Read (together)
Echo Read (provide extra support and/or model an aspect of fluency, i.e. expression)
Reread to build fluency
Focus on comprehension (ask for an inference, find a detail and support with evidence, elicit the use a Tier 2 vocabulary word you’ve pre-taught)
Writing follow-up and Encoding (often a huge missed opportunity! Retelling, extend the story, write to a prompt about the story, complete a sentence stem that forces the use of the target phonics skill.)
Encoding: Use Elkonin boxes, word building with word ladders, and dictation)
A week schedule in Wiley Blevins class might look like this:
In a phonics system such as Orton Gillingham, decodable texts are part of the daily lesson plan. After each new phonics concept is taught, readers have the opportunity to read a short paragraph. There are no illustrations and, in my opinion, also a lack of story structure – it’s simply a contrived paragraph designed to provide the maximum opportunity to practice the target phonics skill. In the first read, the student is focusing on accuracy. In subsequent reads, they are focusing on improving their fluency and comprehension. There are follow-up questions for which the reader will need to revisit the story and possibly reread yet again, including completing a sentence stem with a word that showcases the target skill. There are also explicit questions that require the reader to draw upon details from the text, as well as inferential and connection questions. I would not consider the OG decodables to fit into the ‘decodable reader’ category of what you want to purchase for universal use with your students. It is part of an intervention system, not your classroom library. I do want to highlight for your consideration how phonics systems may align with the structures discussed above by Achieve the Core and Wiley Blevins in their shared goals of phonics application within a text, multiple readings, fluency practice, and comprehension.
Some considerations or cautions for decodable instruction:
Don’t forget to review! We can get so micro focused on the phonics skill highlighted in this week’s lesson and decodable that we forget to hold ourselves accountable for all previously learned skills. In a phonics program like Orton Gillingham, each lesson includes an “Old Review” of the concepts learned 2 lessons ago, and a “New Review” of the concepts learned in the last lesson. This is a great framework to consider when designing your lessons! Whenever a previously learned phonics pattern pops up, think of it as an opportunity and a gift.
I have had the pleasure of watching a fellow reading specialist deliver a ‘short a’ phonics lesson that included application practice with a decodable text. The students were on one of their first of several rereads of the book, and I noticed they were making quite a few errors. The urge to stop and correct them was palpable – even I wanted to spring into action as an observer. And yet, the reading specialist was calm and quiet, and let students finish an entire sentence. Put yourself in the student’s shoes, and think about what it must do to not only your cognitive processes but to your confidence to be constantly interrupted and forced to recon with your many errors. Furthermore, these are students who have been pulled for an intervention, and the may have already built emotional walls with reading. The reading specialist explained to me that over the years, she has learned to suppress her urge to correct every mistake, and instead carefully listens and prioritizes her feedback to focus on the phonics skill at hand, or any egregious patterns that need correction (ex: consistently missing a HFW that you have taught, or forgetting to tap/swipe which results in missing words).
In my next blog post, I will put all of this learning into action as I share with you my insights about a few different decodable products that I’ve recently reviewed.
Have you noticed an uptick in the use of the word ‘decodables’ recently – whether in the media, your professional learning, or in the teachers’ lounge? You’re in good company! Decodables (also called Phonics Readers, controlled texts, basal readers, or primer readers) are enjoying somewhat of a renaissance in education, due largely to the prevalence of new research on how the brain learns to read and what this means for best practice in literacy instruction.
This topic is going to be covered across 3 blog posts. In the first post, I want to review the features and purpose of decodable texts, discuss why we’re hearing so much about them in media and research these days, and explain why they are such an important tool that we need to incorporate into our instruction. In the second post, I will discuss how you (and your team) can make a game plan for reviewing and selecting the best decodables to use in your classroom or add to your shared building resources. In the third post, I will share my insights about a few different decodable products that I’ve recently reviewed, and hopefully give you some ideas to make some thoughtful purchases.
Depending on how many years you’ve lived on this planet, or how many years you’ve been in education, I’m willing to bet you’ve had experience with decodables in the past. Perhaps you’ve read (or at least heard of) ‘Dick and Jane’ books like the sample below.
What are some words that come to mind when you think about decodables? For myself as an early reader, I categorized them as boring, contrived, nonsense, fake or ‘practice’ books. The words used were overused (“Why is every book about a cat? I don’t even like cats.”) or of low-utility to me (How often do you have the chance to use words like ‘hex’ or ‘jut’ as a 7-year-old?). I did not find them engaging, and I was much more interested in getting my hands on a colorful picture book. I know there are many attitudes and experiences that readers can have with decodable books, which can also elicit a positive sense of comfort and pride for emerging readers. Equally, classroom teachers can also have a wide range of attitudes, experience, and perceived value in using decodable texts in their instruction. For myriad reasons, decodables have taken a backseat in classroom instruction over the past several decades, and were no longer considered a standard resource.
The impact of Science of ReadingResearch
These past few years, the phrase “Science of Reading” has worked its way into every aspect of education from professional learning (I’m personally taking a “Science of Reading” book study seminar with my local Cooperative Educational Service Agency), and university course offerings (I’ve had to update and realign several syllabi and course objectives to align with new research) and resources (“Buy this Science of Reading aligned product!”) to movies (“The Truth about Reading”) and podcasts (“Sold a Story”), Facebook groups, and everything in between. I have friends who don’t have children or aren’t even in the field of education reaching out to ask me what I know and what I think about SoR. In short… unless you live in a remote village without wifi access, you’ve been punched in the face with the Science of Reading topic.
What the Science of Reading refers to is this new body of research about how the brain learns to read – it taps into findings from linguistics, cognitive and educational neuroscience, and educational psychology. It is not a program or a method or an agenda – it’s simply a body of knowledge that is engaging the field of education to reexamine what we believe and how we teach reading. It has drastically shifted our focus to the importance of systematic and sequential phonics instruction for early and emergent readers, from Kindergarten through about 2nd grade (and likely beyond).
In my tenure as an educator, I have seen the focus on emerging and early reading as primarily focused on using engaging, authentic books, language and conversation, and modeling reading strategies in a Workshop Model. The goal is to get books in student’s hands and to help them see themselves as successful, confident, skilled readers that can think about, talk about, and enjoy reading. And to that end, we’ve been using tools like highly engaging trade books with patterns ( “See the ___. See the ___.”) and teaching students to use initial sounds and picture clues (“Hmm.. it starts with /f/ and it’s green. What could it be? Yes, a frog!”) to help them get up and running with books and persevere past tricky parts. We teach students to automatically recognize the most useful “Snap Words” or High Frequency Words (“the” “and” “what”…) that they are likely to encounter in their books. As we learn letter sounds, we guide students in noticing the first letter and identifying the sound it makes to “get your mouth ready” to say the word. We model and guide their practice with strategies like previewing a text, making connections, asking questions, and retelling. (It should be noted that new research has shown us that using strategies like “Sammy Skip It” and come back to it, and over reliance on picture clues, is actually a harmful habit to teach students and should be avoided in reading instruction).
You might be thinking, “That all sounds great, but what about phonics instruction? Didn’t you just say that new research tells us it’s like… super important?” Yes! Children HAVE been getting phonics instruction all along. Reading, Writing, and Phonics study are a tripod – three legs that are balanced and hold up Effective Literacy. I still strongly support the workshop model as described above, and I believe the ultimate goal of reading IS to get students talking about and loving great books that challenge and excite them. I ALSO understand and agree with the movement to incorporate more deliberate, systematic, and sequential phonics instruction into literacy. Through workshop, students are introduced to phonics patterns that are then deliberately reinforced during Reading and Writing blocks.
In order to get the most leverage out of our phonics skill practice, we need students to linger in the transition between phonics and reading where they can apply what they’ve learned with controlled texts (decodable books) and encoding practice (phoneme grapheme mapping, spelling) of that same skill. This rehearsal or sheltered practice must happen BEFORE they are able to be successful with any other kind of book (authentic, trade, or leveled book). The goal of reading engaging authentic texts has not changed, but the path must become reinforced with more deliberate phonics practice.
Features of Decodables
What are some features of controlled texts or decodables? How are they different from other kinds of books? There are three categories of words that readers encounter in a decodable, ranked in order or prevalence: 1) phonetically regular words that are able to be sounded out based on phonics skills that have been taught (ex: CVC words, final e words…) 2) high frequency words (HFW) or sight words that have irregular patterns (ex: what, you) 3) story or content words (ex: chair, bicycle). You’ll see a lot of different opinions on the ratio or percentage of the categories of words in a book, but all researchers agree that the majority should be from category 1: phonetically predictable words that follow the focus pattern. This gives students the maximized opportunity for practicing the target skill.
It seems reasonable to expect that a decodable series would follow a clearly defined scope and sequence of phonics features – typically this means starting with short CVC words with short vowel sounds (cat, tin, mop) and progressing to digraphs (ch, th, sh) and so on. Each book should focus on only one target phonics skill. Many series are cumulative, meaning any previously learned phonics feature is fair game in all subsequent books. These books are intentionally designed to promote phonics mastery, and are intended to be used for a limited time during structure lessons.
By now, it should be pretty clear why decodables are a MUST for emerging and early literacy instruction.
They offer students extended practice and application with a phonics skill.
They discourage students from developing habits such as guessing based on pictures or context.
They follow a systematic progression that is mutually reinforced by the reading and writing curriculum.
They hold students and teachers accountable for for transferring and practicing phonics skills in a structured, supportive context.
They are an critical rehearsal step on the road to fluent reading of authentic texts.
They build student confidence and self-efficacy and enjoyment of reading.
Incorporating Decodables into the Curriculum
For what grade levels are decodables helpful and appropriate? Most decodable books or systems will say they are designed for universal instruction in Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms, at a minimum. Some extend to 2nd grade. Outside of universal instruction, they can also be used to support small group or Tier 2 / 3 interventions for higher grades, as long as the content is developmentally appropriate (not too babyish and won’t cause emotional harm). I really appreciate this image from Wiley Blevins that shows us how decodable texts are most critical in the early grades and phase out as students are more independent and successful with transferring their skills to authentic leveled texts. And all along, we see the importance of trade book read alouds at every grade level. We must always be reading high quality, rigorous grade level material to our students to model and instruct with reading strategies, provide language and thinking practice, and develop cognitive and executive functioning skills agnostic of phonics mastery.
I’m in! Now what?
I’m sure we can all agree that decodables have a primed and welcomed space in our classrooms. And yet, there’s a very real reason why they quietly seemed to disappear from our consciousness over the past several decades. They were of such poor quality, and nobody liked them! I was gifted some really old phonics readers for my own children at home, and I hated them so much that I tossed them. I thought – if I’m going to snuggle and read to my little children at night, at least I want to read them something we can enjoy and discuss. I was clearly very misinformed, and I wasn’t playing the long game of having support materials at home when my children started school. I also don’t blame myself, because they were really, really boring and stilted and… weird.
What you might love to learn, as I did, is that decodables have come a long way in recent years. Publishers are paying attention to the demand and churning out some very high quality readers that you are going to enjoy. In my next blog post, I’ll get into the nitty gritty of what makes a “good” decodable, and how to make selections that will suit your needs.
Citations: Burkins, J. M., & Yates, K. (2022). Shifting the balance: 6 ways to bring the science of reading into the balanced literacy classroom. Hawker Brownlow Education. Jen and Wendy. (2022, October 7). 5 problems with using MSV (aka the Three-cueing system). Informed Literacy. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://informedliteracy.com/five-problems-with-using-msv/ The Science of Reading. Benchmark Education Company – Building Literacy and Language for Life. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://www.benchmarkeducation.com/knowledge-hub/the-science-of-reading
