Classrooms, especially at the K-2 level, have a variety of texts. As you begin or continue to use decodable texts in your classroom, it is helpful to think about the difference between decodable texts and other texts that you may have for your instruction or classroom library.
The table below outlines the kind of text, its possible purpose (what the authors had in mind when it was written), and audience---as well as some considerations. With this knowledge, teachers and schools can make decisions about what kind of books to use when, what books are needed during purchasing decisions, as well as how best to organize a classroom library.
Type of Text | Possible Purpose and Audience | Considerations |
Patterned text (often known as levels A/B) | Written for students who know a few high frequency words and letter sounds. Meant to support one to one matching (pointing) while reading. | Must be familiar (i.e. read with a teacher in a small group) in order for students to read. May promote poor habits around guessing for some children. |
Decodable texts | Written with certain phonics features in mind, to facilitate decoding practice. Meant to support decoding. | Most effective for students who can read words with the target phonics feature (i.e. cvc) in isolation and are ready to apply in context. |
Leveled texts | Written (especially at early levels) with meaning, structure, and visual cues in mind, to facilitate students’ use of oral language to support reading. | Often not controlled for phonics, meaning that early readers may have to guess some words based on meaning instead of decoding them. |
Early trade books (Biscuit, Piggie and Gerald, Puppy Mudge, etc) | These are the first books for early readers you can typically buy in a Barnes and Noble: they are not controlled at all, but written with the enjoyment of young readers in mind. They fall into the leveled reading continuum around levels G/H/I. | Kids love the characters in these books and enjoy reading them over and over again. They will run into a wide variety of phonics features, so earlier readers may have difficulty decoding all the words. |
Chapter books (Yasmin, Ling and Ting, Magic Tree House, etc) | Early chapter books typically include multisyllabic as well as one-syllable words. They build in complexity by decreasing picture support, increasing the number of words and pages, and inviting kids to do more inferential thinking as they read. Most often written in series. | These books expect that kids can decode accurately and fluently, so they can spend most of their brainpower on comprehension. Instruction is often needed on habits and strategies for reading these books, such as using a bookmark or tracking the problem. |
Picture books (fiction or nonfiction) | Typically written to be read to children, with rich language and engaging pictures. | These books will often be written at much higher levels than children can read independently, but kids love storytelling from the pictures of familiar storybooks or looking closely at the images in nonfiction picture books. |
You might ask the following questions as you reflect on this table:
What texts do I currently use in my whole group instruction?
What texts do I currently use in my small group instruction?
What texts do I currently have in my classroom library?
What texts offer students additional practice for times of day when they are not with the teacher?
What texts do I send home to students for home practice or reading interest?
What do I need more of?
What might I let go of or use differently?
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