What are decodable books?

If you're a teacher of young students, chances are you've heard the term 'decodable books' more and more over the last couple of years. (Perhaps even more times than you've forgotten to do the roll).

If you've ever wondered what decodable books are, let me break it down in the simplest of ways.

Decodable Books

Decodable books are a special kind of book designed to help young children learn to read.

They are carefully crafted to include words and sounds that students have already learned, making it easier for student to sound out and recognise words.

Decodable books are designed to build on each other. Children start with simple books that focus on just a few sounds, and gradually progress to more complex books that use a wider range of phonics skills.

How are decodable books different from predictable texts?

Predictable texts are books that many of us used for years in our reading lessons. Our schools are probably still full of them.

Predictable books contain repetitive words or sentences. 

Essentially, a student could ‘read’ one of these books without even looking at the words. They just need to be told the first couple of sentences, quickly realise that those sentences repeat, look at the picture and guess what the next sentence is. 
The problem with predictable texts for beginning readers is that they’re not actually reading the words.
More often than not, these types of books contain words with spelling patterns that students haven’t been taught yet.

Decodable books are a valuable tool to support children's early reading development. They are like training wheels for beginning readers. Just like training wheels, they're not intended to be used forever. But they do help students to develop strong foundational skills.

 Want to introduce decodable readers into your small reading groups but not sure where to start?

I've got you covered! I made a unit of decodable books for my beginning readers. This unit follows a scope and sequence, includes 12 lesson plans, alphabet cards, sound strips, high-frequency word flash cards, word mapping tools, observations checklist, and a single-page version of the decodable for students to take home!
To check out this unit for yourself, click here!