Science of Reading: Decodable Books

MAME special project grant

Submitted by: Lisa Croft

Through our own professional learning, we have come to understand that having decodable books to use in our lessons, during small group and 1:1 reading times encourage and extend student understanding and the practice of phonic skills, specifically the skills that we are teaching in our lessons. Our present classroom book collections consist of many predictable books and chapter books that do not specifically focus on improving phonic skills. Through the generosity of a Special Projects Grant from MAME we were able to purchase decodable books for our students in Grade 3 and 4. By having access to decodable books that focus on multiple phonic skills, we will be able to support student learning as well as share the resources within our Grade group, to support all students in Grade 3 and 4.  

We have had such success this year, the two of us collaborating in our literacy blocks, using the systematic literacy approach of the Science of Reading, that together with our other Grade 3 and 4 colleagues we are looking ahead to a new collaborative project for the fall. Our September goal is to develop groupings and create phonics-based approach to teaching reading and spelling through routine activities, letter/sound work and multi-sensory centres for our entire Grade 3 and 4 student body. Having decodable books in-hand are essential to the success of the project as students need to practice specific sound skills that they have been explicitly taught within the literacy block. We want our students to feel confident and to see themselves as readers and decodable books will contribute to their success.

Thank you MAME! We are looking forward to starting the 2022-2023 school year with our literacy project well equipped.