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About Decodable Books

What Are Decodable Books?

Decodable books are part of an explicitly, structured reading approach and are designed to help children practice decoding. They include a high percentage of words that children have been taught to sound out and decode.

They follow a specific scope and sequence, beginning with basic letter-sound correspondences, before moving on to words with irregular or complicated letter-sound correspondences. Quality decodable books limit the use of these more difficult words in the earlier stages to encourage children to use their decoding skills rather than guess or look around for pictures or cues.

Whether your child is beginning to read or needs extra help, decodable books are an important part of the reading process.

All children benefit from learning to read with decodable books. However, children who struggle to read will need decodable books longer. For a child to learn to read, they need language comprehension to understand what they read and skills that help them learn to pronounce and recognize words so that reading becomes automatic. Children learn these decoding skills through direct phonics instruction, and decodable books provide the practice.

Decodable books follow a phonics-based structure for teaching letter patterns in a sequence to introduce children to decoding slowly and methodically. The sequence used is cumulative, starting with simple patterns and building to more complex patterns. Rather than looking to context or pictures to figure out words, children are encouraged to read left to right and all through the word parts. Decodable books match up to what the students have already learned so that they can practice their skills efficiently. When children learn to use phonics skills, they are less likely to develop poor reading habits such as guessing or using pictures. Once children develop good habits and understand the grapheme-phoneme (letter-sound) connection, all children can develop the confidence to pick up any book they choose.

Books Commonly Used to Teach Reading

What emergent readers typically read in most schools are “leveled” books, organized by a gradient scale from A-Z, with A being the easiest and Z being the hardest. The levels match up approximately to grade-level expectations. However, unlike decodable books, which allow children to practice the phonics and decoding skills they are learning, leveled books contain words with random spelling patterns and no structure or connection to the phonic elements the children may or may not know. Instead, the children learn to “read” on their own by memorizing high-frequency words, looking at picture cues, or guessing based on context. While some children can and do advance using this “Guided Reading” approach, others struggle and never figure out how to decode words without the pictures and other cues. When children are learning to read, predictable and leveled readers are most effective to build language skills rather than decoding. Use leveled texts as read alouds to build comprehension skills. Decodable books are intended to teach children to read with accuracy.

Using Decodable Books

Make sure children have the code knowledge before using the decodable book. The book’s intent is for the child to practice what they learned. If the decodable books do not align with a phonics program, just preview the books to ensure that the children know the letter patterns. Some people use the sequence in the decodables to inform which letter patterns to teach before reading the books. You can mix and match decodable book series as long as the child knows the phonics elements. If you are new to decodables, you might want to stick with one series before jumping around. Do not use the books in the same way as leveled books!

Pictures should confirm an understanding of the content after the child reads the page. Do not use pictures as the primary cue. For some children, you might want to cover the picture with a sticky note until after reading the page to reduce the desire to guess. Instead, encourage children to read through the word. They might be in the habit of guessing from the first letter and using the picture or context. The design of decodable books is to give children the confidence that they know enough to read through the whole word. Encourage children to read in syllables, not sound-by-sound.

The decodables promote fluency as well as accuracy. Show children how to blend one sound into the next. Many struggling readers want to stick with just sounds rather than trying to blend sounds because it is safe, and some cannot remember all the sounds to read the word. Model how to blend sounds and use the books for practice. We want children to have multiple exposures to the alphabetic rules to retain the letter patterns for reading and spelling. Most of the time, children do not get nearly enough practice, and the letter patterns never reach long-term memory. Make sure that the books are appropriate for the age of the students. There are some books designed for the older, struggling reader that will be a better fit than books written for beginning, younger readers.

Why Should Libraries & Bookstores Feature Decodable Books?

  • Research proves that a phonics-based approach to reading helps all children learn to read.
  • Decodable books enable children to practice the phonics skills they have learned and cumulatively build on those skills to develop fluency and confidence, becoming skilled readers.
  • For children with dyslexia, a phonics-based structured approach is the only way they will learn to decode. All children can benefit from this approach, whether or not they have a diagnosed learning difference.
  • Decoding is a necessary skill for reading comprehension. If children cannot read the words, children will not comprehend what they are reading.
  • As a matter of inclusion, all children should have access to resources that help them learn to read.
  • Many school reading programs minimize the importance of decodable text, and children have little opportunity to practice their reading skills independently and learn how to decode words properly.
  • Memorizing sight words is not the same as learning to read and should not be a primary teaching strategy, especially for children with learning differences.
  • Decodable books help children master essential reading skills so that they can learn to read anything!