Decodable texts are perfect for practicing an essential skill: phonetic awareness! When you are using the Science of Reading in your classroom, one aspect you’ll be working with explicitly is phonics. This means, you’ll also be working with decodable texts. Here is how I introduce decodable texts in first grade. Click on the image below to check out my latest video where I go over the process step-by-step.
What is Decodable Text?
A decodable text is a text where the words are based on a specific phonic skill that you’re working on with your students. Within the text, there will be high frequency or sight words. However, 75% of the words will be decodable. You can find decodable texts at Flyleaf, Bug Club Phonics by Pearson, and PhonicsBooks.com. I have my own sets of decodable readers which you can find by clicking on the image below.
How to Teach Phonics
When you are introducing phonics concepts in the classroom, you can do this in a few different ways. Sometimes, I teach phonics explicitly in small group instruction. However, teaching explicit phonics skills can be good for whole group instruction. When I introduce decodable texts in first grade, I like to use small group instruction.
How to Introduce Decodable Texts
Introducing decodable texts to your students is somewhat of a process. I prefer doing this in small groups. By introducing decodable texts to students in small groups, you can differentiate your instruction and ensure all of your students have an understanding about decodable texts. Here are ways you can introduce decodable texts in your classroom.
1: Review the Target Skill
Before you start reading the decodable text, make sure you review the target skill your students are going to be seeing in the text. You can use a white board and write a word with the focus skill. Get your students to read this word out loud in isolation. You only need to take a few moments to do this to get your students warmed up. This is also a great time to pre-teach some tricky words like character names or high frequency words.
2: Make a Prediction
After you have pre-taught a few high frequency or tricky words and reviewed the phonics skill, introduce the decodable texts to your students by asking them to make a prediction. When we look at the cover of a text, there might be some hints as to what the story is going to be about. By making an inference, your students are more likely to focus on the story because they will want to know if their predictions are right.
3: Read the Text
Once you have done the first two steps, it’s time to start to read! When students are reading, make sure you can hear individual students read. Once they have read it through one time, get them to read it again in a whisper voice. You can do this using:
- Echo reading
- Choral reading
- Individual reading
When I have students do individual reading, I have them come up and read to me for 30 seconds so I can hear how their decoding is going.
4: Find the Decodable Words
If you use photocopied passages or books that students can write in, students can use a highlighter to find the decodable words in the text. If you don’t have a book that your students cannot write in, you can make this a small group or whole group activity. As you and your students go through the book, you can write the decodable words on the board.
5: Ask Questions
When you introduce decodable texts, you want to always be asking questions. You should ask questions about the text to see if your students are comprehending. This can be a great way to check to see if students are having comprehension issues while they are decoding words.
6: Help Your Strugglers!
Because you had students read to you, you’ll know who your struggling readers are. When students have some independent reading or work time, you can pull your struggling readers up to work on their decodable texts one-on-one. If students are really struggling, then you can introduce the next day’s book so they can get a head start. Sometimes students need more time with a decodable text to understand it.
When you introduce decodable texts, you want to make sure you are giving your students time to work through the text. If you just give them the text and call it a day, your students aren’t going to get better at decoding texts. Decodable texts are great to help with phonics and comprehension and with these simple steps, you can introduce decodable texts in your classroom tomorrow!
