Ideas for Decodables

This is another blog posting, that I started during the school year, but never had time to complete.  First of all, I must say that everything I've ever been taught in any college class or reading trainings really disapproves of decodable.

HOWEVER, for struggling readers when they are learning phonics skills, they need the opportunity to apply what they are learning and a decodable text works great. 

In Kindergarten, we have 30 minutes of intervention/enrichment.  In one of the rooms, we are using decodable books at one rotation (each rotation is 10 minutes).  This block of time is in addition to guided reading.  In guided reading they are reading leveled text.

Day 1:  Introduce the decodable words and high frequency words.  For Kip the Ant, the decodable words are: ant     can     Kip     hit     dig     pat     tap    nap
The high frequency words are: the    what   do   go

Students read the book w/support from the teacher.
Students write their favorite sentence from the book and read it to their partner.

This way, students get to practice reading and writing :)

Day 2:  Students read the book.  Focus on the decodable words.  Using dry erase boards, have students write down a word like nap.  Then have them erase the /n/ and replace it with a /t/.  Ask students what word they made.  This can be repeated with the other decodable words.

Day 3:  Students read the book.  Focus on the high frequency words.  Students can write the high frequency words and take turns using them in sentences. 

Day 4:  Students cut apart sentences and put them back together.  Students are able to take their book home :)