Decodable Text

Decodable text is reading material written for beginning readers so that it uses only the letter sound relationships, or phonics patterns, the reader has already been taught. The words in a decodable text are sequenced carefully so that a new reader can sound them out using known phonics rules, in contrast to whole language reading materials, which lean on predictable sentence patterns and common sight words. Decodable texts differ in how well they control their sound sequencing, how natural their language reads, how rich their stories are, and how quickly they introduce new sounds. Some school systems have required a high proportion of decodable words in early reading materials, and California moved toward decodable texts after a decline in reading scores, though critics say the approach can produce stiff, unnatural sentences while supporters say it lets children practice specific skills in a targeted way. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/