"What are your favorite books these days, Sam?" I asked my second grade student at the beginning of our online tutoring session. His face lit up, "I love the Dog Man books!" But almost as quickly, his face fell. "But my teacher said they aren't "just-right" books for me. I really wish she would let me read them…" he trailed off.
I couldn't help myself. "You know what?" I said. "New plan for today. We (*pausing for dramatic effect*) are reading Dog Man!"
His eyes grew wide and he asked, "You can just get the book right now? On the computer?"
"Oh yes, my friend," I replied. With the magic of Amazon Kindle, we were ready to read a few minutes later.
And yikes—maybe the teacher was right—one sentence alone included the words "monocle", "imbibe", and "essence". My eager student had never heard or read these words before, and they included spelling patterns we had not studied yet. This was no decodable book!
I've written at length about the benefits of decodable books as teaching tools, especially with dyslexia tutoring. These are books that children can read because they only include spelling patterns the child has learned or is currently learning. The purpose of these books is to provide the repetition and practice so critical to learning to read and to discourage the bad habit of "guessing" at words rather than attempting to sound them out. The main reason to use decodable books with emerging readers is to phase out the use of "leveled" readers as a teaching and assessment tool. Leveled readers are books that contain text that is simple enough to be at the child's "level", but is not correlated to learned spelling patterns. Thus, it's an inaccurate assessment and teaching tool because it encourages children to guess at words in predictable sentences. (Think: The lion is in the zoo. The elephant is in the zoo. The monkey is in the zoo.)
So what did Samuel's teacher mean when she said his book of choice was not a "just-right book"? When schools use a leveled reading system, students are told to use the five-finger rule to decide if a book is "too easy", "too hard", or "just right". They read the first page and hold up a finger for every word they don't know. If they get to four or five fingers, the book is deemed too hard, and they should choose something else.
So what now? How would I achieve a great literacy session with my student with a book that DEFINITELY fails the five-finger test? You might be surprised.
To start, Sam was so excited to read this book; it was clear that he was going to be super motivated to learn. When a book topic aligns with a child's interest, reading books above reading level can motivate them to tackle more complex words. A child who loves space, for example, may be more willing to read a book with challenging scientific language about the planets, and their drive to understand the text makes them all the more determined to learn the words!
I also knew that we could use those unfamiliar words as an opportunity for word study! Word-study involves breaking words down into their smaller parts in an effort to understand the word's pronunciation and meaning. The three words I mentioned above, "monocle", "imbibe", and "essence" contain unfamiliar spelling patterns. Trying to sound out all three words would have been overwhelming, so we picked one: imbibe. Breaking the word into its two syllables helped Sam sound out 'im' and 'bibe'. So, he was able to decipher the word even though it was unfamiliar. Then, after telling him that the next word was "monocle", I divided up the syllables and we were able to talk about the vowel sound "schwa" (that weak, /uh/ sound like the first and last 'A' in Alaska). Word-study, or breaking words down into their smaller parts to examine, helps kids understand how words work, and gives them the confidence to tackle more complex words!
Finally, seeing as how there were more vocabulary words crammed onto that one page of Dav Pilkey's Dog Man than you'd find in Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage, it only made sense to work on vocab! We again turned to the word "imbibe". After looking up and reading the definition together, Sam kept cracking jokes about how he was going to "imbibe" a whole pizza after the session—and that's vocabulary building in action!
As we ended the session, I let him know he should feel free to read Dog Man books. That in fact, he should read them all if he wanted to! He lit up, surprised.
Mom emailed me a week later, reporting that Sam had gotten a Dog Man book to take on vacation, and that he was thrilled. He was reading it to his cousin, and actually sounding out and recognizing many of the words! To hear that my student, who has struggled with frustration when reading all year, was finally excited to read is music to my ears!
Reading high-interest books that are more challenging builds vocabulary, exposes kids to new ideas, encourages word-study, and motivates them to tackle more complex words. Let us encourage children to read books that challenge and inspire them. If a child is that excited about a book, even one that is way above his or her level, let them read it. I say, let them read Dog Man!
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