The Importance of Decodable Text with Elise Lovejoy

Jan 20

Former teacher and currently serves as an probono interventionist at a nearby school.
Runs Express Readers, a foundational skills reading program as well as a decodable book series.
Passionate about the science of reading.

Teaching was always my calling - I loved playing “classroom” when I was younger.
I went to Boston College and got my undergrad in elementary education with a focus on special education. I have a special needs brother, so I was always interested in how to help kids like him.
I volunteered at the Campus School at Boston College, which is a school for children who have severe disabilities.
From there, I left college and went into the classroom during which I got my masters.
Loved everything about teaching and had the same background as everyone else where I was a balanced literacy teacher and wanted to make reading fun. But I found myself continually not knowing what to do or not understanding why it wasn’t clicking with some students.
Thankfully, I worked with a co-worker who was good with sounds and I threw myself into that idea.
I eventually came back to California and found a job, and was frustrated with reading materials I was given.

When I was given those materials, I took the phonics we were using and put them only in these black and white paper books. I wanted to help them connect what I was teaching in class to actually reading. They needed that bridge.

I wanted to do this through books (fun ones!) and not just sheets and sentences.
I wanted them to have the connection to books where they’d get a sense of enjoyment.

I’m very dedicated to decodable books, and that stems from the idea that teachers know kids need to crack the phonics code. It also has to be the first entry into reading.
We can’t teach a child to swim by giving them a bike. We need to ensure these connections with reading are rational.

We’re so scared of pictures because of the previous balanced literacy approach where we relied on pictures too much. I try to make my pictures not have too much to do with the words on the page. I want them to read the words instead of reading them based upon the picture.
One of the ways I do this is that the words are on the first page and the pictures are on the second. This way, the first thing kids do is look at the words.

Don’t be afraid to use words they don’t know even if they can decode them (tab, lag, etc.). This gives them access to new words and new vocabulary.
Decodables don’t need to be read just on their own - as teachers, we can still help them connect the book to their world so we can provide meaning, as well as explain those tougher words they can decode but may not know their meaning.

I’ve read a lot, but I’ve been intentional about not getting stuck in the weeds. I want to keep it more general.
We look at the research for best teaching practices, but there isn’t a lot of research on the validity of decodable books. How decodable are they? What scope and sequence do they follow? What phonics program are you using alongside the decodable books?
What we do know is that students need to practice a certain amount of times based upon their skill level in order to have automaticity and fluency.
We also know that students will use the strategies that they practice so that it becomes automatic. So we need more practice with decoding in order to become fluent.

Games are always a great option. I Spy is a good one and you can play that by finding the phonics skill within the words on the page.
Phonics doesn’t need to be boring - as teachers, we have the power to change this! Have the kids be “spies” and find phonics skills within the book.
Students want to learn, so we need to give them the chance to learn these skills - all we have to do as teachers is refresh what we’re doing and come at it with excitement.
Confidence is a huge factor in kids learning to read. Confidence in kids makes them feel capable and it drives them to learn more. It can allow them to take these safe risks within reading if they know the teacher is a safe place, too.

Currently, I’m still writing the books and growing the library. I love using them in my interventions and getting feedback! I’m coming out with two more supplementals, too.
Curriculum-wise, that’s tougher. Every time we learn something new about the science of reading, our curriculum has to change. And I get worried about getting adopted to a district and needing to change it. I’m constantly updating and adding to it in hopes to provide teachers with what they need next in their classrooms.
The next step for me is something called The Teacher’s Table, which is focused on research and how we translate the research into practice without it being painful.

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