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A few years ago, I talked about my favorite decodables for a variety of purposes—decodables for older kids, printable decodables, and more. I’m SHOCKED at the sheer increase of decodables that have come on the market since that time.
I’m even more shocked that there’s so many good ones out there.
So today, I want to share my favorite printed decodables. These are the ones that you can buy and put in your book room or by your small group table because they are already made into books for you. No need to use up all your copies for the month!
You will hear people say that decodable books are only decodable if they follow your scope and sequence. And while they are correct, we have to be realistic. There will be really great decodables out there that DON’T follow your scope and sequence exactly.
Overall, I’ve found very few books to be so out of line with the sequence I have that I found them unusable. Most of the time, decodable books move from CVC, to digraphs and blends, magic e, and onward. If there are a couple words that you haven’t taught your students, just give it to them and move on.
We do not need to get caught up in our decodables being 100% decodable. As far as I know, there isn’t research that tells us decodables need to be a certain percentage decodable in order to work (because we actually don’t have that much research on decodables at all.)
Look at the scope and sequence provided by the publisher before you purchase, but know that it doesn’t need to be exact. Just remember to read the book beforehand and identify any potentially tricky words for your students. (A couple is okay: too many, though, and that defeats the purpose of decodables!)
Brooke from Charge Mommy Books is doing great things. I love her mission and her books. Throughout this blog post, I’ll be highlighting several smaller publishing companies. Why? Because these are the companies that were born out of wanting to get it right for kids.
Where so many publishing companies are adding on decodables to be trendy (aka make more money), people like Brooke are doing this because she wants what’s best for kids. I’ve found that the smaller publishing companies are (almost) always the ones who get it right the most.
Back to Brooke and Charge Mommy Books. Her Charge Into Reading decodables were one of the first printed decodable stories I read. The biggest appeal for these stories is that they look, feel, and read like a “real” story. They don’t feel insanely contrived for the sake of shoving an extra decodable word in there.
If you want a series of decodables that feel like books and have a solid scope and sequence, you can’t go wrong with the Charge Into Reading decodables. I’ve used them for a couple years now in intervention from first through fourth grade!
Just Right Readers have a few things going for them. One of my favorite things is how natural the language is in the stories. It VERY quickly moves away from basic “Sam can jam” kind of texts and moves into stories with multiple lines per page and an engaging story line.
Just Right Reader quickly adds in the inflected endings of -ed, -ing, and -s so that you can have the natural verb tenses that we are used to. The sooner we can get kiddos recognizing, reading, and spelling those critical suffixes, the better!
I also love how Just Right Readers is committed to diversity. They don’t include people of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds to get more buys. They are truly committed to diversity, and you can see this commitment in stories like “I love My Hair” that not only centers on a black protagonist, but also delivers a storyline celebrating their culture.
Just Right Readers provide something very few decodable companies offer–decodables in Spanish. They have Spanish decodables from kindergarten-second grade, so they are definitely a company to look at when you need to purchase more decodables for your classroom! They even have take-home bookbags for their decodables (English and Spanish) that include engaging decodables and activities for students.
I’m only including a sample of their sequence for kindergarten. You can find the full sequence on their website!
SyllaSense gets my vote for the most engaging topics. SyllaSense has a variety of different series that follow a logical scope and sequence.
But what my kids have loved the most are the topics. Last summer, I tutored a boy who loves hunting. There was a story with photographs in it of a hunting dog that told all the things the dog could do. I ended up having to let him take home “Red Dog” for a few days because he loved the story so much.
SyllaSense starts with the most basic stories with a single line per page, but quickly increase the complexity while staying appropriate for students. There’s a mixture of fiction stories, as well as “picture” stories with real photographs.
As I mentioned, SyllaSense is different in the amount of text the put on a page. When stories have more than a single line or two, we are giving children additional exposure to the taught patterns. These decodables help to increase the volume of reading your students are doing!
If you want engaging decodables with a variety of topics, SyllaSense has you covered.
In addition to having printed decodables, SyllaSense also has a product that I haven’t seen from anyone else before: deckodables. These are a deck of large cards with a sentence on the bottom. The images are engaging, and this product is absolutely perfect for minimizing any down time.
Once my students have finished reading a decodable, I will often give them 4-5 cards to whisper read. They love seeing the images, and the kiddos always enjoy seeing their “stack” of cards grow!
These are just the skills from their first set of stories, the yellow series. Please check their website to see all skills included.
PhonicBooks does something very few decodable book companies do—they have early decodables specifically for older students. Because the majority of students who need them are younger, there aren’t as many decodables out there with older kids as the protagonist.
Phonic Books has a variety of “Catch-Up” readers that are intended for older struggling readers. From realistic fiction in their Moon Dog series to fantasy stories like the Magic Belt series, Phonic Books is really unparalleled in high-quality decodables for older students.
If you are an interventionist for older students, PhonicBooks would be my nonnegotiable!
(There’s a variety of different series, so make sure you check out what each set provides!)
I’m so glad to see an uptick in quality decodables. Unfortunately, we’ve also seen an uptick in decodables that are less than desirable. Before purchasing a set of decodables you are uncertain about, I suggest reaching out to the company and asking for a sample. Because many of these companies are small businesses, they are glad to send samples.
When you are looking at a decodable for the first time, here’s a few questions to ask yourself:
The decodables I’ve listed on this blog post are ones that I believe in, and ones that I believe the company has good intent. None of them have paid me or given me anything to write this post (although I have collaborated with most of them before!) Happy reading my friends!
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Savannah Campbell is a K-5 reading specialist. She has taught her entire 12-year teaching career at the school she went to as a child. She holds two master’s degrees in education from the College of William and Mary. Savannah is both Orton-Gillingham and LETRS trained. Her greatest hope in life is to allow all children to live the life they want by helping them to become literate individuals.
Savannah Campbell is a K-5 reading specialist. She has taught her entire 12-year teaching career at the school she went to as a child. She holds two master’s degrees in education from the College of William and Mary. Savannah is both Orton-Gillingham and LETRS trained. Her greatest hope in life is to allow all children to live the life they want by helping them to become literate individuals.
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