I firmly believe that teaching a child how to read is only successful if you use decodable readers. Learning how to read is a delicate balance of learning and mastering sight words while also learning how to decode using all of the crazy phonics rules in our English language.
As you can see in this picture the words are all decodable, minus a few sight words. If students are preloaded with the two or three sight words needed they are able to decode the ENTIRE book! Plus isn't that little boy super cute!?? That's Ben!
Decodable books just lead to more success in the classroom. I would try using a balance of sight word readers and decodable books, but I just found more success with decodable readers.
I found over the years that when using sight word books students were still struggling to master their fluency skills. I found more success with decodable books. Students were able to practice decoding words. They used real strategies when reading an unknown word. But at times I still struggled with sight words...I found that we were not consistent enough with our sight words. One week we would practice a word but then would not review that word for several weeks because it was not in the following book.
I found myself teaching a sight word like, “you” but then my students would not see that word again for another two weeks! The following book we practiced didn’t have that word! So when my students would see the word “you” again, and they would’ve forgotten it! It was very frustrating!
I finally gave in and decided to write some of my own decodable books so that students could practice sight words taught in previous books. Each of my decodable books builds on the previous book. This is ESSENTIAL!!!
Students enjoyed the connections between the books. I saw my students asking for more. Kids love series and they can have that even at a young age of kindergarten! The first book introduces the main characters Pam and Ben. These sweet kids go through a series of fun adventures together and meet many more friends throughout the series.
My decodable books have a beautiful scope and sequence of different sight words. I found tremendous amounts of success with these books. The scope and sequence is below, as you can see students start with simple sight words and build off these words.
Not to mention the characters were cute and all of my scholars loved seeing the characters throughout the series. I know you will love these books! You can grab the first book for free here!!
I love these decodable readers so much! I have used this scope and sequence with several different intervention groups from kindergarten to 2nd grade. There are 25 books in the series and you can get them all here. I even created a fun word family set of decodable readers too!
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