# data[].attributes.headline
Teaching Reading is rocket science, 2020

# data[].attributes.subject
Teaching Reading is rocket science, 2020

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
West Virginia Reading First Explicit Phonics Lessons

# data[].attributes.body
Blog and Hyperlinked Resources for Decodable Readers and Text Passage

# data[].attributes.body
Decodable Text Sources

# data[].attributes.body
Free Decodable Text

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
March 2020 -

We're making this free version available to support teachers and parents impacted by the pandemic. We'll keep in online for free for as long as possible. If we do have to start charging to support this edition we promise to post news of any changes here at least three weeks prior to implementing them.

Please contact us if you find errors, problems, or have suggestions for making this edition more useful.
If you are new to Reading for All Learners please spend a few minutes reviewing the Instructor Guide. The Instructor Guide is a very quick read and following this guide is vital!
If you are new to teaching reading take a look at the pronunciation guide to make use you are modeling sounds accurately. If you aren't sure which books to start with please consider running our free placement assessment series. Also you can find a correlation to leveled readers which can be useful in determining a starting point. Finally, visit the Reading For All Learners resources page to find progress tracking sheets, completion certificates and lots more.

Thanks for all you are doing to help kids learn during this challenging time. We are grateful for the opportunity to be able to support your efforts. Please help us with this effort by sharing this resource. As always, feel free to reach out to us using any of the methods found at the bottom of this page with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Andy Hofmeister
CEO
Academic Success for All Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
reading for all learners home education and school closure edition

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reading for All Learners Home Education and School Closure Edition

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
March 2020 - We're making this free version available to support teachers and parents impacted by the pandemic. We'll keep in online for free for as long as possible. If we do have to start charging to support this edition we promise to post news of any changes here at least three weeks prior to implementing them.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ed Week: "Decodable" Books Boring, Useful or Both

# data[].attributes.subject
Ed Week: "Decodable" Books Boring, Useful or Both

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
To really learn a new skill, you need to practice. That theory drives much of Katie Farrell's reading instruction.

In her 1st grade class at Bauer Elementary School in Hudsonville, Mich., Farrell teaches students phonics-how letters on the page represent the spoken sounds children hear.

But for some kids, the learning only really clicks once they practice these patterns in decodable books. These short texts are written with a high proportion of words that are phonetically regular-meaning they follow common sound-spelling rules-and mostly include words with phonics patterns that children have already learned.

"When you can make that match ... that's where the power lies," she said.

Research has long shown that teaching early elementary students phonics is the most reliable way to make sure that they learn how to read words. And much of the current debate around reading instruction has focused on phonics teaching, as many schools don't currently follow research-based best practice in this area.

But text plays a big role in the reading classroom, too. Decodable text, specifically, is a "crucial learning tool," said Wiley Blevins, who has written several books on phonics and currently works as a consultant training teachers.

Even so, teachers are divided when it comes to decodable books.

In Education Week's recent national survey of early reading teachers, only 23 percent said that beginning readers should be using these texts most often. The majority, 61 percent, said that students should be reading books with high-frequency words, predictable sentence structures, and pictures that emphasize meaning. Often called leveled books, these texts are rated on a difficulty scale. Teachers aim to match students with books at their level.

There's also a common criticism that decodable books, because of their inherent language constraints, are boring and stilted. Why subject students to these contrived stories, the argument goes, when they could be reading something more engaging?

But many experts agree that kids need that targeted practice. "When you are teaching phonics, the way to get that learning to stick is to apply it in connected text," said Blevins.

"It builds the right strategies," said Farrell. "They're not reading books that they're not ready for, and using the pictures to guess."

Still, decodables aren't the only books that young students should read. Most experts suggest a varied text diet. And, decodables are ultimately a stepping stone.

Eventually, Farrell says, "I want them in that authentic text using the strategies that they practiced when they're using the decodable books."

Building Strong Habits

Researchers agree that decodable text is meant to be used during a short window, when students are first learning to sound out words.

Studies have shown some benefits for early readers. When kids read decodable books, they're more likely to try to decode-to sound out the words. Some studies have found that they're also more likely to read words accurately.

But other research suggests that it may not matter what kind of text students read, as long as they're getting strong phonics instruction. In one 2004 study, two groups of struggling readers in 1st grade received one-on-one phonics tutoring. One group read books that were mostly decodable; the other read books that were mostly not decodable.

There wasn't any significant difference in the word reading or comprehension of the two groups at the end of the study.

Still, there's more research on decodable text than on other types of early reading materials, like leveled readers, said Heidi Anne E. Mesmer, a professor of reading at Virginia Tech.

She suggests that decodable books be used like "a set of training wheels on a bicycle."

"If you think about the amount of time that children learning to ride a bike use training wheels, it's not long," she wrote in an email to Education Week. "Also, not all children need training wheels."

These "training wheels" help students practice their phonics skills in a controlled environment. But just as importantly, they teach students to try to sound out words, Blevins said.

He pointed to a 1985 study by researchers Connie Juel and Diane Roper-Schneider, which found that the texts students were exposed to early on could affect how they tackled words.

In the study, students who read decodable text tried to sound out words more often than students who read text that prompted students to use other cues.

When students are mainly reading leveled text with predictable sentence structures, "they're undervaluing and underusing their phonics skills," Blevins said. "This creates a really bad habit. Every book they pick up, their first strategy is, try to look at patterns, look at pictures, memorize." Decodable books encourage the right strategy of sounding out the words, he said.

'Boring and Stupid'?

In Claudia Margaroli's 1st grade class, decodable books help remind students that they should be focused on sounding out the words.

"This year, I've been trying to be more specific with teaching sounds in a sequential order," said Margaroli, who teaches at Charlotte East Language Academy in Charlotte, N.C. She teaches sound-letter correspondences explicitly in her phonics lessons, and then students practice in decodable books.

"They know-and I make them say it and verbalize it-that these are sounds they've been working on, these are words they can read," Margaroli said.

Decodable books should follow the progression of a phonics program, focusing on new sound-spelling patterns and "folding in review and repetition," said Blevins.

But some teachers balk at the idea of using these books, even for practice of key skills, said Blevins, who does training with schools. Why? He remembers one group of teachers who were especially blunt about decodables: "They're boring and stupid," they told him.

Margaroli says it's true that some decodable books "just don't have a storyline." She looks for decodables "that you can actually use for comprehension," she says, "rather than a weird story about a cat and a mat, where at the end nothing happens except that cat is on the same mat."

How did we get "weird" stories about cats and mats, with thin plots and stilted language? Researchers trace the trend back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Texas and California both required decodable texts in their reading program adoptions. The states set decodability thresholds for texts: In Texas, 80 percent of the text had to be sound letter correspondences that students had already learned; in California, the number was 75 percent.

In response, publishers got competitive, each trying to make the book that was the highest percent decodable, Blevins said. Irregular words, like "the," often disappeared, even though they're highly common in the English language.

But there isn't evidence to suggest that a 90 percent decodable book is more effective than one that's 75 percent decodable, or 60 percent, said Timothy Shanahan, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Chicago. There's no "magic level," he said.

In the rush to fill texts with only decodable words, the number of unique words per hundred in these books also increased during this time, said Elfrieda H. Hiebert, a reading researcher and the president and CEO of TextProject. So instead of seeing the same word multiple times throughout a story, students would see different words that all had the same spelling patterns.

To clear the high decodability bar, publishers started using sentences that English speakers wouldn't say or write under normal circumstances, said Blevins-like, "Let Lin dab a lip."

"The problem is, these stories made no sense," he said. "These books aren't Shakespeare, but they should be good stories that children enjoy reading."

There's also value in repeating some of the same words throughout the story, said Hiebert. Decoding the same word several times helps kids link the sound to the spelling in their minds, Hiebert said, and can lead to more fluent reading. "There has to be a really strong component of consistent data that kids are getting," she said.

What Makes a Good Decodable?

Hiebert looks for a few criteria when she's evaluating decodable books.

She wants to know if they're exposing students to "highly consistent and prolific patterns" in the text, getting practice with letter-sound correspondences that they can apply to other texts.

She also wants to know if the texts make sense as stories, and are building student knowledge. What are they teaching students about the world? A lot of decodables still fall short in this category, she said.

But when a decodable book has a story, it doesn't have to be relegated just to sounding out practice, disconnected from the rest of the lesson, said Blevins. He suggests that teachers have rich conversations about the stories with students, asking comprehension questions to demonstrate that reading is about meaning. Students can also write about the books.

In Margaroli's class, students do just that, writing responses to questions about the text. Still, reading and writing about decodable text is only one part of Margaroli's literacy block.

Her students also listen to read-alouds, have conversations, and read books from their class library.

There are no research-based rules on how much time beginning readers should spend with decodable text, said Shanahan. It would be "very reasonable," though, to spend some portion of phonics instruction on practice, he said. This includes decoding individual words, spelling words, and reading decodable books.

Shanahan, Blevins, and Mesmer all said that decodable books aren't the only kind of text that students should have access to in these early elementary years. And though Margaroli's students practice in decodables, they have other time in the day to read books of their choice from the class library.

This kind of diverse reading diet is important for students because it exposes them to a broader representation of the English language, said Shanahan. Decodable books are usually constrained to phonetically regular words. Letting kids read books without those constraints can give students some experience encountering words that don't follow normal patterns, and help them "figure out the statistical properties of the language," he said.

How can teachers know when students are ready to take the training wheels off, and stop practicing on decodables altogether?

Farrell, the 1st grade teacher in Michigan, watches how students are segmenting and blending words as they read.

Once they can consistently apply the skills they've learned in their phonics lessons, "that's my first clue that I think we're ready to move on," Farrell said. It shows her that, with her guidance, students could apply the same strategies when they read more authentic text, she said.

By the spring of 1st grade, "almost no one in the class is using decodable books," said Farrell. "I love them, and then we get to a point where we just don't need them anymore."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Decodable' Books: Boring, Useful, or Both?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These sound-it-out books designed for young readers aren't always popular with teachers. But experts say they're an important tool in early reading instruction.

# data[].attributes.body
Decodable Text Sources

# data[].attributes.body
Emily Gibbons Blog: The Best Resources for Decodable Book and Passages

# data[].attributes.headline
Linda Farrell: Using Decodable Books and Early Leveled Readers Appropriately for Beginning Readers

# data[].attributes.subject
Linda Farrell: Using Decodable Books and Early Leveled Readers Appropriately for Beginning Readers

# data[].attributes.body
Voyager Sopris Webinar Series

# data[].attributes.body
Professional Learning Module on text types with resources for decodable text

# data[].attributes.headline
Right to Reach Project Blog: The Drudgery (and the Beauty) of Decodable Text

# data[].attributes.subject
Right to Reach Project Blog: The Drudgery (and the Beauty) of Decodable Text

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I was determined to undo the bad reading habits my students had developed during guided reading. So, I exchanged a leveled reading program for one with decodables and used a diagnostic phonics assessment to regroup my students.

For some students, cracking the code was easy

Students with strong phonemic awareness linked the sounds they heard in spoken words to the letter patterns I taught. When they came to an unfamiliar word in a text, they sounded it out.

Most of the time, simply pronouncing the word was enough to trigger the meaning.

Blue group reading: "Sam has a little p.l.ă.s.t.i.c ... PLASTIC! ship.

But sometimes they sounded out a word and didn't immediately know what it meant.

Me: Do you know what a shed is?

Angel: [pause] I think it's a house where you could put tools and boxes.

Alexa: It's this! [pointing to the picture]

My students used context and visuals to figure out the meaning of a word after decoding it; the inverse of guided reading, in which they had attempted to use meaning and context to identify words. Linking the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of each newly encountered word (a process called orthographic mapping) made every successive encounter with that word easier.

Some of my students quickly became fluent readers. They grew out of decodable texts and began ravenously reading books from the library.

But it wasn't easy for all students

I had taught phonics in guided reading, but leveled books had allowed students to use pictures, initial sounds, and context to guess rather than sound out words. Decodable books foiled these guessing strategies by including visually similar words ( man/mat, run/ ran) and unpredictable sentence structures that required students to look at all the letters in words and all the words in sentences.

To read decodables, we had to actively fight the reading behaviors I had once promoted in guided reading. Progress was labor-intensive and painfully slow for some of my students.

Sounding out each word took so long that by the time they got to the end of a sentence, students didn't know what they had read. I worried that I was creating "word callers" (and they weren't even "calling" the words very well!)

I looked for answers

Dr. John Shefelbine empathized when I told him about the misery of my lowest reading group. He explained:

"The kindest thing you can do for beginning and struggling readers is to give them the time and encouragement they need to grunt and groan their way through sounding out words. You're rewiring their brains and it's hard work."

I was astounded to learn that scientists had been studying how our brains learn to read for decades and yet none of that research had influenced my teacher preparation or professional development. I watched videos like this, read articles like this, and lost myself in books like Reading In the Brain and Proust and the Squid. I wanted to learn everything I could about my students' development so that I could make every child a reader.

New learning prompted me to redefine skilled teaching

I had previously thought of teaching as an improvisational art, but as a first-grade reading teacher, I was a neurosurgeon painstakingly practicing a new procedure. I memorized instructional routines, taught each lesson as it was designed, observed my readers' symptoms, and I collected objective data.

I had been taught that every child learns to read differently and that "no one thing will work for all readers." But this year, I saw each of my students progress through the same stages of reading development, albeit at different rates.

We TEACH reading in different ways; they LEARN to read proficiently in only one way. Teaching is what we do- learning is what their brains do. Dr. David Kilpatrick

The same series of lessons, with varying amounts of practice, resulted in every one of my students learning to crack the code of written English.

The fastest way to authentic texts

Students need varying amounts of explicit instruction and practice to become skilled at decoding. Guided reading and predictable texts don't offer many opportunities to blend words, so students who need lots of practice fall farther and farther behind.

"Leveled texts lead to leveled lives." -Dr. Alfred Tatum

Differentiated instruction with decodable texts in the primary grades closes an achievement gap that might otherwise become insurmountable. The sooner children learn how to lift the words off the page, the sooner they can access great literature.

Receiving the instruction and practice their brains needed to become skilled at decoding changed the trajectory of my students' lives.

Balanced Literacy curriculum decodable texts leveled books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Drudgery (and Beauty) of Decodable Texts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I was determined to undo the bad reading habits my students had developed during guided reading. So, I exchanged a leveled reading program for one with decodables and used a diagnostic phonics asse...

# data[].attributes.headline
PaTTAN Literacy Quick Pick: Examining the Use of Decodable Text

# data[].attributes.subject
PaTTAN Literacy Quick Pick: Examining the Use of Decodable Text

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Examining the Use of Decodable Text in the K-2 Classroom

# data[].attributes.headline
Achieve the Core Blog: Supporting Our Youngest Readers: Teaching the Skills of Reading

# data[].attributes.subject
Achieve the Core Blog: Supporting Our Youngest Readers: Teaching the Skills of Reading

# data[].attributes.body
Why decodable readers can be powerful

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Supporting Our Youngest Readers: Teaching the Skills of Reading - Peers and Pedagogy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
My 3-year-old is always on the move, rarely still long enough to show an interest in learning. So, I was surprised to walk in on him staring at his sister’s first grade worksheet- a handwriting practice sheet for the letter “r.” “Rrr….rrrr…rrrr” they said together, as he pointed to each r on the pag…

# data[].attributes.headline
The Reading League       Live Event: Text Types Used in Reading Instruction: Picking the RIght Tools for the Job

# data[].attributes.subject
The Reading League       Live Event: Text Types Used in Reading Instruction: Picking the RIght Tools for the Job

# data[].attributes.body
Presenters: Dr. Maria Murray and Dr. Kristen Munger

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reading League Event November 10, 2016 Types of Texts Used in Reading Instruction

# data[].attributes.headline
Open Source Research from Dr. Heidi Mesmer

# data[].attributes.subject
Open Source Research from Dr. Heidi Mesmer

# data[].attributes.body
Overall finding: Participants read either highly decodable or less decodable text following the instruction. Treatment participants reading highly decodable text were found to apply letter-sound knowledge to a greater extent than control participants

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Decodable Text and the First Grade Reader- Mesmer.pdf

# data[].attributes.body
Leading with Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Routine for Small-Group Decodable Reading Instruction.pdf

# data[].attributes.headline
Types of Text Used in Reading Instruction

# data[].attributes.subject
Types of Text Used in Reading Instruction

# data[].attributes.body
The Reading League: Dr. Maria Murray and Dr. Kristen Munger

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
"reading instruction" rti dyslexia "reading intervention" "reading education" education "reading science" "science of reading" phonics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Reading League (TRL) is a national education non-profit led by educators and reading experts dedicated to promoting knowledge to reimagine the future of reading education and accelerate the global movement toward reading instruction rooted in science.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Reading League       Live Event: Deciphering Decodable Text  

# data[].attributes.subject
The Reading League       Live Event: Deciphering Decodable Text  

# data[].attributes.body
Presentation by Alicia Sparks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reading League Event - January 2019 - Deciphering DECODABLE TEXT - Alicia Sparks, Presenter

# data[].attributes.body
Achieve the Core

# data[].attributes.headline
Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) : Link to Download FREE Decodable Books

# data[].attributes.subject
Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) : Link to Download FREE Decodable Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
You searched for decodable text | Core Knowledge Foundation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These 100% decodable texts provide children an authentic reading experience and reinforce their sense of success by eliminating the distraction of encountering untaught spelling patterns. The texts are written in the style of chapter books to inspire children to want to read more.

# data[].attributes.body
Extensive list of decodable books sources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Books with simplified spelling patterns, which beginning readers can tackle independently with success. Please choose a level at which your learner can independently read 95% of words, or 90% of wo...