Phonics is a method of reading the English language that matches the sounds of our spoken language to letters and letter combinations.
When children learn to blend these sounds together, they can read by decoding, or breaking sounds of a word apart and blending them together, many unfamiliar words.
Some words won’t follow the patterns in English and must be memorized, but most words will follow a predictable pattern once you know them!
What makes for a great phonics curriculum?
When looking for a curriculum to teach your child to read, there are certain characteristics that will set a good phonics program above others.
Look for a program that is systematic. According to ReadingRockets.org, “Systematic and explicit phonics instruction makes a bigger contribution to children’s growth in reading than instruction that provides non-systematic or no phonics instruction.”
In other words, the program will have a logical, organized sequence of teaching the letter/sound relationships while giving explicit, precise directions for teaching those sound relationships.
Why use phonics to teach reading?
The benefits of phonics are backed by science. That’s right, science!
NWEA.org states that “particularly for elementary readers, improving word decoding gives kids a big boost in comprehension, in both the near and long term.” It is after all one of the main goals of reading – understanding what it is you have read!
Decoding is VITAL to readers’ ability to read new and different words with understanding.
All of the decodable books here at The Bookjay follow a strong Orton Gillingham pattern of introducing phonics concepts. We believe that providing a structured, systematic approach to reading will build confidence and develop key literacy skills in all children. We are committed to presenting children with a living feast of ideas and thoughts at whatever reading level is attainable to them. At The Bookjay, we believe that every child deserves the opportunity to become a confident, capable reader, and we’re dedicated to making that a reality.
As parents and educators, we all want to give children the best start in life. One of the most important skills we can help them acquire is literacy. Reading is the foundation of so much learning, and it’s crucial that children have the tools they need to become confident, capable readers. That’s why we’re passionate about creating decodable books to give your child the practice they need at their reading level.
What are Decodable Books?
Decodable books are designed specifically to help children practice their reading skills. These books will only include the combinations of sounds – the grapheme-phoneme correspondences – that your child has already learned by building on their phonics knowledge. This gives the child the necessary practice to develop their segmenting and blending skills. Practice is important in developing automaticity – the ability to read words without thinking about how to read them.
Decodable books give children the opportunity to practice decoding words rather than guessing at words using other cues. However, decodable books are only decodable to the reader’s level. As a reader’s ability to decode more complex phonemes grows, so will the reader’s level in decodable books.
Decodable books differ from Easy Reader or leveled-text books in that decodable books are systematic and avoid as many unknown grapheme-phoneme correspondences as possible. Decodable books provide practice for known letter-sound combinations whereas leveled readers will follow a formula that has been found ineffective in predicting if a book will be easy to read (Begeny & Greene, 2014).
Why are Decodable Books so Important?
Decodable books require a reader to use their decoding skills rather than relying on cues in the text. Neuro-science research in recent years has shown that using these decoding skills builds the growing neural connections in the brain during reading acquisition. Check out “How the Brain Learns to Read” with Professor Stanislas Dehaene a French author and cognitive neuroscientist who is well known for his work in the neural basis of reading.
Providing a new reader with a text they can read, or decode, with little to no help is highly motivating and encourages the reader to continue learning. Decodable books provide necessary practice, but also build independence and confidence.
Decodable books are also important because they provide a clear, structured approach to reading. It is important to select decodable books that align with your child’s phonemic knowledge. Many readers marketed for beginners include characters from media and are not decodable but rather rely on many sight words and complex phonics rules that are unknown to beginner readers. In contrast, a good set of decodable books begins with simple VC or CVC words and will systematically and progressively add in more complex words as the reader is ready. This allows children to gradually build up their skills and knowledge, so that they can tackle more complex texts with confidence.
Not Decodable Books Alone
Decodable books are an essential tool for any parent or educator who wants to help children learn to read. However, learning to read is more than sitting in front of a book and sounding out letters. A rich, living feast of ideas and stories read aloud to children of all ages is essential to a reader’s diet. Parents and educators should rely heavily on high quality children’s literature to present complex sentence structure, vocabulary, and ideas for children to connect with and ruminate on. Hearing these quality stories will give children a wonderful example of reading and also develop their vocabular and syntax.
Decodable books are an invaluable tool in teaching children to read. They provide a structured, systematic approach to reading that helps children build confidence and develop key literacy skills. At The Bookjay, we’re passionate about creating decodable books that present children with a wide feast of living ideas. We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to become a confident, capable reader, and we’re dedicated to making that a reality.
References
Begeny, J.C. and Greene, D.J. (2014) Can Readability Formulas Be Used to Successfully Gauge Difficulty of Reading Materials? Psychology in the Schools, 51: 198-215. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.21740
