As teachers, we love seeing a child with their nose buried in a book! Whether they’re captivated by a beautifully written fantasy story or engrossed in the pages of an engaging biography, a love of reading is what we’re aiming for! But there’s a great deal of learning that takes place before a young reader reaches that point. One of the basic tools to help them in the earliest stages is a decodable text. Decodable readers can be an effective teaching tool when used to support and reinforce the systematic teaching of phonics in the classroom.
Let’s look at how you can use decodable readers as part of your early literacy instruction
Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds that make up spoken language, is the foundation of learning to read. Although it does not specifically involve looking at printed letters, phonological awareness is an essential component of successful decoding. Phonemic awareness—the ability to hear and recognize phonemes (the smallest units of sound in oral speech)—is an outgrowth of phonological awareness.
In order to learn to read, a child must attain a sufficient degree of phonological awareness and gain an understanding of the alphabetic principle. The alphabetic principle is the concept that letters and letter combinations represent the sounds in the words we speak. A phonological awareness assessment allows an instructor to evaluate a student’s understanding of sentence segmentation; rhyme recognition & production; syllable blending, and onset-rime. The assessment will also cover phonemic awareness by measuring a student’s abilities in the areas of segmentation & deletion; phoneme isolation, segmentation, blending & deletion and more.
I’ll share more about the specifics of phonological and phonemic awareness in a future post; but for now, I just wanted to make you “aware.” 😊
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START WITH THE BASICS…
When students have begun to grasp the concept of letters and have memorized the alphabet, they’re ready to discover more about the relationship between the letters of printed words and the sounds that they make. That’s where a program of systematic phonics instruction, combined with access to carefully chosen decodable readers, can help “flip the switch” and get your students on the road reading.
The teaching of phonics helps emergent readers understand how individual sounds correspond to the letters of the printed words they encounter. While a foundation in phonics is a beginning reader’s key to unlocking the mysteries of decoding, decodable books can be an open door for practice and reinforcement of what they are learning.
DECODING DEFINED…
Decoding is simply the process of viewing the printed letters of a word or syllable and using knowledge of letter-sound relationships to correctly read and pronounce it.
A good system of phonics instruction helps students learn how to decode words by breaking them down into their individual letter/sound combinations. There is a logical sequence to phonics instruction, and the concepts progress and build upon one another. Decodable texts can be carefully chosen to support this instruction.
WHAT ARE DECODABLE READERS?
Decodable readers are simple texts featuring words that follow specific phonics patterns. They help to reinforce the phonics concepts you’re teaching. In addition to allowing your students an opportunity to practice the skills they’re learning. As they encounter multiple instances of words with a consistent phonetic pattern, your students will begin to recognize those patterns and store the words in their long-term memory bank.
A good decodable text will include multiple examples of the latest phonics pattern you’ve taught; but it will also feature some words that provide practice and review of phonics concepts that were previously taught. There may be a few new or irregular sight words that are necessary for the flow of the text. Generally, most of the words in the text will give opportunities to practice and apply newly acquired phonics rules.
Since phonics instruction follows a logical sequence, it’s important for students to have plenty of chances to decode words that follow the specific phonics pattern you’re teaching. Practice makes perfect, and decodable texts are the perfect way to practice those shiny new phonics concepts and decoding skills!
DECODABLE READERS DISPLAY SUCCESS…
The students in your classroom should have opportunities to encounter the challenge of instructional-level texts in their reading journey but it’s important to give them opportunities to shine and demonstrate success in their new reading skills whenever possible. Beginning readers build decoding skills with frequent practice, and confidence grows when they can practice and apply their new word-solving skills while reading a decodable text. As they encounter repetitions of the letter-sound combinations you’re teaching, they’ll begin to build decoding skills and develop automaticity, which will eventually lead to fluency.
ARE DECODABLE READERS TOO EASY?
Easy? Yes! But there’s a purpose behind the simplicity. I’ll say it again: decodable texts allow students to practice and SUCCEED by using newly acquired phonics knowledge to solve words. These texts are specifically designed to reinforce phonics instruction and allow students to practice and apply their new learning. Other more challenging and rich texts have their place. But basic decodable texts are a great tool to build confidence in emergent and early readers!
HOW TO USE DECODABLE READERS IN YOUR CLASSROOM…
How do we use decodable readers in your classroom? Decodable readers work well for independent reading time. Choose texts that focus on the specific sound-letter relationships you are teaching. These phonics-focused books are a great tool when used as a supplement to your whole-class phonics instruction. Students benefit from the additional reinforcement. Their phonemic awareness grows as they spend time practicing new phonics skills on their own.
While Guided Reading interactive small groups routinely use leveled texts at the instructional level, decodable readers with your reading groups as a support and reinforcement of your whole-class phonics lessons.
An effective Guided Reading instructional approach offers many benefits. It can increase the quantity of independent reading. It can provide explicit instruction in fluency. As well as expand phonemic awareness, and provide regular opportunities to expand vocabulary (Pinnell & Fountas, 2010). Students in Kindergarten through second grade benefit most from exposure to decodable texts. Although some third-grade struggling readers may also need them for help with specific deficits. Decodable books should definitely be included as you teach your level C through F small groups.
Decodable books can also help struggling readers. Use them in targeted strategy groups to give students an opportunity to focus on and master a specific vowel-pattern or letter-sound combination they’re struggling to learn. They’re also great resources for intervention with dyslexic readers or ESL students.
WHERE TO FIND THE BEST DECODABLE READERS BOOKS…
Glad you asked! Guided Readers offers a large selection of decodable readers with colorful illustrations and simple, fun storylines. Best of all, each text features a particular a phonemic sound or pattern as an additional support to your daily phonics instruction.
The Level D decodable text, Pop’s Crop, focuses on the phonics skill “op” as well as rhyme recognition and phoneme blending. Your readers will love following farmer Pop as he plants a large field and grows a big crop! The illustrations are fun and colorful! You’ll reap big rewards when you introduce your students to decodable readers like this one. Giving them plenty of opportunities for them to practice their new phonics and decoding skills with this text.
Below are some examples of a few Guided Readers Decodable Readers titles and materials that are perfect for working on Decodable Readers in your classroom!
1. Digraphs
2. Short Vowels
3. Short A
4. Short I
5. Short U
Why Guided Readers?
Guided Readers offers clear-cut, easy-to-follow lesson plans that will save you time and allow you to see results. Each Guided Readers lesson includes a Phonics element as well as fun Word Work activities. These activities provide practice and reinforcement of the concepts you’re teaching. There’s also a Comprehension focus for each story, along with Vocabulary, Sight Word instruction and a Guided Writing exercise.
The decodable texts you’ll find within Guided Readers are also available in digital form. Your students will love our Digital Interactive Reader which helps them build decoding and comprehension skills. By listening to recorded stories and then recording themselves reading the same texts.
Decodable texts are an effective way to build phonemic awareness. This introduces your early and emergent readers to the essential phonics concepts they’ll need to learn for successful decoding. Check out the many ways Guided Readers can support you as you introduce these texts in your classroom!
Phonics instruction? You’ve got this! And your students will get it, too, with the help of decodable texts.
Thanks, teacher friend! I’ll post again soon with more on phonics and phonological awareness. In the meantime, keep being an awesome teacher! Check out the rest of my blogs by clicking HERE!
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