How to Bridge the Gap Between Leveled Books and Decodables
Decodable books provide students with valuable opportunities to practice new phonics skills and build on previous knowledge. Multiple studies demonstrate that students benefit from opportunities to practice new phonics skills by reading text that includes the skills they have just learned (Blevins, 2016; Duke & Mesmer, 2019; Ehri, 2020).
But decodable books should not be the only type of text early readers encounter.
Due to the constraints of writing such tightly controlled text, decodable books are limited in what kinds of stories and language they can feature. Leveled books can help bridge these gaps by offering richer narratives and vocabulary to enhance students' language exposure.
That’s why I suggest using both decodable books and leveled books in your reading lessons to develop well-rounded readers. With this approach, you can be sure that your students are receiving instruction and practice with diverse books to meet their literacy needs.
The Benefits of Pairing Texts
Research supports providing students with diverse reading material for the acquisition of reading skills. Children are best served when they read a combination of text types (Pugh & Hiebert, 2023). All students need daily opportunities to read and discuss complex text that is engaging and authentic, which provides development in academic language and knowledge about the world (Shanahan et al., 2010).
Students benefit from frequent opportunities to read and discuss a variety of texts (Duke et al., 2021). Reading diverse texts builds students’:
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Comprehension
- Background knowledge
Experts agree: Literacy researcher Tim Shanahan says, “It is so important that we not overly constrain the decodability of the texts that young children read, and why I recommend using a combination of both highly decodable texts and controlled vocabulary readers.” Champion of phonics Wiley Blevins says, “At least half of phonics should be applying the skills to authentic reading and writing."
How to Pair Leveled and Decodable Books
Now that you understand the purpose of pairing texts, it’s time to make a match! Look through multiple lenses to pair books. You may decide to pair books based on their use of the target phonic element, by theme or character, or a combination of these characteristics.
To best support your phonics instruction, use the scope and sequence to look for:
- Target phonic element(s)
- Previously taught phonic elements
- New sight words
- Previously taught sight words
For example, Mylo Moose’s Loose Tooth and Space Fairy would be an excellent pairing for students working on the oo sound. Plus, the content will be familiar to students since both books feature the theme of losing a tooth.
To aid in comprehension and engagement, students may benefit from reading a leveled text that features the same characters or topic as the decodable text. Students love reading stories about Bella and Rosie, so consider pairing the decodable book Mud Fun for Bella and Rosie with the leveled book Bella and Rosie at the Beach.
How to Teach with Paired Texts
Incorporate these text pairs into classroom or small-group instruction with this sample lesson plan.
1. Assess Your Students
2. Explicit Phonics Lesson
3. Decodable Book
4. Paired Leveled Text
Now have students read the leveled text you paired with your decodable book. Encourage students to look for similarities between the leveled book and the decodable book and use the phonics skills they’ve learned. A Bike Ride for Jack provides practice with the silent -e rule and continues the theme of bikes.
5. Writing
Applying skills to writing is an essential part of any reading lesson. Dictate a sentence for students to write that includes the target phonic element and other skills they have learned.
The dictated sentence should include:
- Sight words you have taught
- Phonic elements you have taught that day
- Previously taught phonics skills
- New words with easy-to-hear sounds
For silent -e practice, you could dictate the sentence: ”Jack is not brave. He does not want to go for a bike ride.”
Pairing Texts Made Easy with In Tandem
Don’t have time to pair books for your lessons? We’ve done the work for you with In Tandem, our small-group literacy solution for grades K–2. Each lesson pairs a high-quality decodable book with a fiction or nonfiction text to maximize and accelerate student learning.
References
Blevins, W. (2016). A fresh look at phonics, grades k–2: Common causes of failure and 7 ingredients for success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Duke, N. K., & Mesmer, H. A. E. (2019). Phonics faux pas: Avoiding instructional missteps in teaching letter-sound relationships. American Educator, 42(4), 12–16. www.aft.org/ae/winter2018-2019/duke_mesmer
Ehri, L. C. (2020). The science of learning to read words: A case for systematic phonics instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1), S45–S60. doi.org/10.1002/rrq.334
Pugh, A., Kearns, D.M. and Hiebert, E.H. (2023), Text Types and Their Relation to Efficacy in Beginning Reading Interventions. Reading Research Quarterly, 58: 710-732. doi.org/10.1002/rrq.513
Shanahan, T., et al. (2010). Improving reading comprehension in kindergarten through 3rd grade: A practice guide (NCEE 2010-4038). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED512029.pdf
