Last week I extolled the virtues of the decodable book as an important tool in developing a child's independent reading skills. Leveled books and non-decodables can have the unfortunate effect of teaching children to guess at unfamiliar words rather than sound them out. But let's not throw the baby out with the bath water! How can we use leveled books as a teaching tool while discouraging guessing?
First, what are the virtues of the leveled book? Non-decodable or leveled books are great for exposing children to new ideas. Early decodable books are often limited to very simple topics like "the cat who sat on the mat", and though they get more and more complex with the introduction of new phonetic patterns, the subject matter is always confined by the decodable nature of the text. A non-decodable or leveled book, however, can explore any topic and kids can explore right along! It should be noted, of course, that there are many amazing new creators of decodable books out there who are getting super creative with new materials.
Non-decodables also introduce new vocabulary, and when read together, help children build that critical piece of literacy. A strong vocabulary is an important predictor of later reading success.
Lastly, non-decodable books allow children to have an organic experience with new spelling patterns. When they encounter a word that is unknown, they are exposed to a new pattern in a "natural" context. If they come to the word "stamped", for example, they may be able to sound out "/s/t/a/m/p/-/e/d/". "Stamp-ed" is, of course, not a word they recognize, so they need to make a cognitive adjustment to figure out how to get from "stamp-ed" to "stamped". When they realize what the word actually is, whether from context or with help from a teacher, they should read it again, sounding it out with the letters "ed" pronounced as /t/, with scaffolding from the teacher and an explanation of the role the suffix plays.
The problem with leveled books as teaching tools occurs when children who have decoding challenges are left to try to figure it out on their own, or worse, encouraged to guess and are not provided with any follow-up instruction. In the example above, the critical component is the scaffolding from a teacher or parent to make the connection between the spelling of the word, its pronunciation, and its meaning. In this way, the non-decodable and yes, even the leveled text, can be a valuable teaching tool!
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