What Are Decodable Books?

Decodable books are texts designed to give beginning and struggling readers opportunities to practice the sound-spelling relationships they have already been taught.

Rather than relying on pictures, context, or memorization to identify unfamiliar words, children practice looking at the letters in a word, connecting them with sounds, and blending those sounds together to read the word.

As children learn more phonics patterns, the texts they can successfully decode become increasingly complex.

Why Are Decodable Books Helpful?

Learning a phonics skill during a lesson is only the beginning. Children also need opportunities to apply that skill while reading connected text.

Well-matched decodable text gives developing readers opportunities to:

• practice recently taught sound-spelling relationships;

• develop accurate decoding habits;

• build automatic word recognition through repeated successful encounters with words;

• increase reading accuracy and fluency; and

• experience the success of actually reading a text themselves.

Decodable text is especially useful during the period when children are learning the alphabetic code and for older students who still need explicit instruction and practice with decoding.

The goal is not for students to read only decodable books forever. As decoding becomes increasingly accurate and automatic, students can successfully read a much wider range of texts.

One Important Rule: Match the Book to the Reader

A book is only truly decodable for a child if the child has been taught the sound-spelling patterns needed to read it.

A child who has learned short vowels and a few consonant digraphs, for example, should not be expected to independently read a “decodable” book filled with vowel teams and advanced spelling patterns.

If your child's school uses a systematic phonics program, ask the educator:

“What phonics patterns has my child learned so far?”

Then look for decodable texts that provide practice with those skills.