When children are beginning to read, decodable books are an essential piece to reading instruction. Beginning readers have not been taught all of the syllable types, so a leveled text forces them to guess by using context clues or looking at the picture. Strategies like those are very difficult to eliminate once students reach the older grades. By then, sentences become more complex and there are less predictable pictures.
Decoding skills should be the first strategy used, along with grade-level trick words. Beginning readers will develop vocabulary and comprehension through books read aloud to them. Leveled texts are good for guided reading to teach specific reading skills.
For older, struggling readers, decodable or controlled texts are appropriate for reinforcing decoding skills that have already been taught and to support fluency and automaticity. Older students should be reading books at their cognitive level with accommodations such as audiobooks.
Recommendations for Decodable Books
- Bob Books
- Phonic Books
- High Noon Books - for older students
- Jolly Phonics Decodable Readers
- Frog and Toucan Series
- Wilson Language - Geodes
- Simple Words Decodable Chapter Books
- Orton Gillingham Decodable Texts
Take a look at this video I found of my son Parker reading a decodable text when he was 4! He was asked by Phonic Books to read for their YouTube channel.
No comments
Post a Comment