What Makes a Book Decodable?
Decodable books are designed to teach novice readers to read — not to be examples of quality literature. Understanding the difference between decodable and predictable texts is essential for every teacher of reading.
“I can really read this one!”
A little person approached me in the playground after a series of demonstration lessons. She told me she could now read, produced a Practice Book from her backpack, and began to decode the words page by page.
“See! I can read this,” she said.
“Yes, I heard!” I replied.
“No, no! I can really read this one.”
Even little readers know the difference between real reading and pretending. She had cracked the code — using grapheme-phoneme correspondences and the skill of blending to lift words off the page. No pictures. No guessing.
— Jo-Anne Dooner, co-founder of Get Reading Right
Decodable Books and the Big Five of Reading
Phonics is only one area of the Big Five of reading — but an essential one. Decodable books are a way to practise every one of them:
Decodable vs Predictable Texts
The word predict has two morphemes: pre (before) and dict (to say). How interesting that many early readers are called predictable texts — the novice reader is expected to say before reading. In other words: guess.
Predictable texts are usually vocabulary-controlled with a predictable syntactic pattern, such as I like _____. I like _____. I like _____. Unfortunately, many of the earliest words in these books are not decodable for the novice reader. A quick scan of level 1, 2 and 3 texts reveals words like come, here, oranges, and look — even multisyllabic words like merry-go-round.
A decodable book, on the other hand, introduces only simple decodable words using GPCs that have been taught.
| Feature | Predictable Texts | Decodable Texts |
|---|---|---|
| Follows a phonics scope and sequence | ✗ | ✓ |
| Only decodable words are used | ✗ | ✓ |
| Has left-to-right reading | ✓ | ✓ |
| Contains the return sweep | ✓ | ✓ |
| Contains examples of varied punctuation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pictures help the reader guess individual words | ✓ | ✗ |
| Illustrations aid comprehension of the story | ✗ | ✓ |
| Text improves vocabulary | ✓ | ✓ |
What Order Should You Use Each Type of Book?
At Get Reading Right, we recommend introducing novice readers to a varied diet of decodable texts in this order:
Scope and Sequence
Decodable books should be used as part of a complete systematic synthetic phonics program. Your school must have a phonics scope and sequence.
What Makes a Book Decodable?
Which Decodables to Buy — and When
If you’ve purchased Get Reading Right books and are wondering where other decodable texts fit in, download our chart and watch the video below.
Download: Which Book When (PDF) →
But What About Quality Literature?
The argument against decodable books usually follows a predictable path — that they’re not examples of quality literature. Of course they’re not! That’s not their purpose.
Decodable books are designed to teach novice readers to read. Using decodable books doesn’t preclude you from reading quality literature to your students every day. Read picture books and non-fiction to your class. Discuss favourite stories and authors. Build background knowledge — so that when children finally unlock the English code, they’re ready to comprehend what they read.
Ready to build your decodable library?
Browse our decodable texts or contact our team for help choosing the right resources for your school.