The Beanstalk Books range is the largest range of Decodable Readers in Aotearoa. They offer a wide variety of titles in fiction, non-fiction, and science, making it the perfect addition to any Structured Literacy approach your Kura is implementing.
Five benefits of decodable readers for your kids' learning journey: Decodable readers offer several great benefits for developing readers.
- Improved Phonics skills help students learn unfamiliar words by sounding out letters and letter combinations.
- Reading decodable texts helps boost fluency as students quickly recognise patterns and sound out words efficiently.
- As early readers become proficient in decoding, they can focus on understanding the texts’ meaning, leading to improved comprehension and retelling skills.
- Decodable readers follow a systematic progression that helps students feel safe in a predictable and achievable learning environment.
- Decodable texts allow students to achieve and feel success, boosting their confidence as they recognise and read words accurately.
Where to start with decodable readers?
Once a student’s phonics skills have been assessed, you will have a guide for where to start. It is important to have access to a range of texts across the phases/stages, accompanying student activities, and teacher guidebooks.
What are the different levels of Decodable Readers? Decodable Readers typically follow seven phases or stages.
Phases/Stages 1-3: Children learn ‘the simple code’ - the sounds of the alphabet and reading, spelling, and writing CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant, e.g., bed, cat, cow).
Phases/Stages 4-6: Children learn the ‘extended code’ which includes:
- Segmenting: Breaking down words into individual sounds
- Blending: Combining sounds to form words
- Consonant Digraphs: Recognising pairs of letters make one sound
- Syllabification: Dividing words into syllables.
Phase/Stage 7: Children learn the vowel code and more morphology.
- Long Vowel phonemes: Recognising vowel sounds that are pronounced longer, such as the ‘a’ in the word 'cake'
- Alternative Graphemes: Understanding different letter combinations for the same sound. For example, ‘ee’ or ‘ea’ in the words 'meet' and 'meat'
- Suffixes: Word endings that change the meaning, like the 'tense'
- Associated spelling: Applying phonics skills to spell tricky words and applying alternative graphemes.
What is the difference between Decodable Readers and Guided Reading?
Guided Reading and Structured literacy (via Decodable Readers) are two different approaches to teaching students how to read. Each method aims to develop and improve the reading skills, however, there are some key differences.
Guided Reading strongly emphasizes fluency and comprehension. The teacher's role is to guide and support learners as they navigate through levelled readers that match their current ability, thereby enhancing their reading skills.
Structured Literacy is a systematic method that follows a prescribed program that develops fundamental phonics and reading skills.
Which book/set should we get first?
Schools must have a full range of books, stages 1-7.
Key things to consider when buying/opting for Decodable Readers.
Understanding the scope and sequence of the texts you buy is important to ensure they align with your school’s approach. Such as:
- Having a range of texts available that peak students’ interest and motivation is crucial
- Looking at a mixture of fiction and non-fiction books is a great way to do this
- Having a range of cartoon pictures vs real-life photos in books can be beneficial
- Texts with additional supporting material for teachers and learners can help save teachers time and energy.
Check out our collection of Decodable Readers here: https://www.officemax.co.nz/School-Supplies/Teaching-Resources/Decodable-Readers