How to use decodable readers

Kindergarten to Grade 2

A decodable reader is a short story written so that a child can sound out almost every word using only the phonics they have already been taught, plus a tiny set of high-frequency 'heart words' (the, I, was) that are learned by sight. Because the text does not run ahead of the lessons, the child succeeds by decoding rather than guessing from pictures or context. Decodable readers are the bridge between practising sounds in isolation and reading real books, and they should track the phonics scheme stage by stage: CVC words first, then digraphs, then blends.

How to teach it

1. Match the reader to the child's current phonics stage. Every passage on this site names the exact graphemes it targets, so a child only meets sounds they have been taught.
2. Let the child do the sounding out. Point under each word and have them blend the sounds themselves, rather than reading it to them or letting them guess from a picture.
3. Pre-teach only the heart words. Before reading, show the two or three tricky words (the, was, said) that cannot be sounded out yet, so the child recognises them on sight.
4. Read it more than once. A first read is for decoding; a second and third read, over a few days, builds the smoothness and confidence that carry into fluency.
5. Talk about the story afterwards. The comprehension questions check that decoding did not crowd out meaning, which is the whole point of learning to read.
6. Move up a stage only when the current one is easy. If the child is still labouring over blends, stay on the digraph readers a little longer.

Common mistakes

• Using books that are too far ahead of the phonics taught, so the child is forced to guess whole words from the pictures.
• Reading the hard words for the child instead of prompting them to blend the sounds.
• Treating one read as enough. Repeated reading of the same short passage is what builds fluency.
• Skipping the heart words, then being surprised when the child stalls on 'the' or 'was'.
• Chasing speed. Accurate, confident decoding matters far more than pace at this stage.