Preparing the Child for Books

Before directing a child to a book—even a hightly decodable one—the child needs to successfully tackle the decoding of simple phrases and short sentences. This is a step that is almost never provided beginning readers but is crucial to their sense of mastery and self-confidence. Perception is everything; and a young child who thinks she is being given too much, too fast, may give up or withdraw. But she can almost always handle slight increases in challenge.

Provide practice with short vowel phrases and sentences.

Give the child opportunity to gain mastery and confidence with material that is only slightly more difficult than the 4- & 5-letter words he’s been decoding to this point—before introducing decodable readers that have many words in each sentence and several sentences on each page.

Short Vowel Phrases

3 & 4-Letter Short Vowel Phrases

These short vowel phrases, like a gas pump, a jazz band, an egg hunt, are an important step in preparing a child to read decodable sentences and books. For many beginning readers the leap from short vowel words to decodable short vowel stories is too much. Providing practice with short phrases and then individual sentences allows children to gain mastery and confidence before attempting a book. 52 picture cards. 52 phrase labels.

Short Vowel Sentences

3 & 4-Letter Short Vowel Sentences

From short words to longer words to phrases and now sentences. The child has progressed at his own pace through an increasingly more challenging sequence of beginning decoding material. These short vowel sentences (The twins get wet. The man pumps gas.) allow the child to have crucial practice decoding, blending and comprehending complete sentences. Many young readers need this work in order to be successful when they attempt to read a decodable book that has many words in each sentence and several sentences on each page. 48 picture cards. 48 sentence labels.

Provide workbooks that reinforce what the child has already learned.

Workbooks can give beginning readers a lot of great sentence reading practice but are best used when they reinforce what a child already knows or can do, not as a means of teaching new concepts or introducing new levels of difficulty. A workbook doesn’t need to be a consumable. Individual pages can be cut out and slipped into plastic sheet protectors and rotated into literacy centers. The child can then record written answers on a separate sheet of paper or indicate choices with game pieces or wipe-off markers.

S.R.A. Workbook A

3-Letter Short Vowel Words, Phrases and Sentences

Great reading practice. This workbook gives beginning readers early success in decoding phrases and sentences. The emphasis is on 3-letter predictable short-vowel word families. No writing skills are needed. Answers are given by circling choices or drawing lines between pictures and words, but I recommend that a child read through the workbook until he has some measure of fluency (accuracy and speed) before allowing him to use it as a consumable. Ordering information: SRA/McGRAW HILL 1-800-843-8855 Item# 002-684-0057

S.R.A. Workbook B

3-Letter Short Vowel Words, Phrases and Sentences

This workbook includes 4-letter short vowel words, phrases and sentences. No writing skills are needed. Answers are given by circling choices or drawing lines between pictures and words, but I recommend that a child read through the workbook until he has some measure of fluency (accuracy and speed) before allowing him to use it as a consumable. I have sometimes taken the pages from the workbook and put them into plastic sheet protectors for non-consumable use. Ordering information: SRA/McGRAW HILL 1-800-843-8855 Item# 002-684-0065

Primary Phonics Workbook 1

2 & 3-Letter Short Vowel Words, Phrases and Sentences

Workbook 1 introduces the short vowels in 2- and 3-letter words. Exercises involve: simple yes/no questions; coloring; copying words below illustrations; filling in missing words in short sentences; and unscrambling words. Ordering information: Educator’s Publishing Service 1-800-225-5750 Item# 360

Primary Phonics Workbook 2

Silent E and Phonogram Words, Phrases and Sentences

Workbook 2 reviews the letters learned in Workbook 1 and introduces long vowels a, i, o, u (formed by Silent E) and vowel digraphs ee, oa. ai, ea. Also includes 4-letter words with silent e and vowel digraphs. Ordering information: Educator’s Publishing Service 1-800-225-5750 Item# 550

Provide decodable readers for practice with connected text.

Readers should at first include only those sound-letter correspondences the child has already learned and mastered. If he has shown confidence and mastery with the steps leading to decodable readers, the child will experience an exhilarating success with this new level of difficulty. Success breeds motivation, and more often than not, the child will read these his first decodable books again and again. I recommend the Primary Phonics Reading Set 1 and Set 2. Ordering information: Educator’s Publishing Service 1-800-225-5750 Items# 8361, 8551

Learning to Read is Child’s Play
By Maunz, Matthews and Klein

Item#500, $19.00

The sequence, the research, the materials and the 30 years classroom experience which form the foundation of a practical, developmentally appropriate program that leads young children gently but surely into reading. A how-to manual for the early childhood classroom.