What Are Decodable Words & Decodable Texts and Why are they important in 1st grade?

What is all of the talk about decodable readers and decodable passages? What are decodable words anyway? What makes a text decodable?

Let’s talk about what makes words decodable and why we need them in 1st grade (okay really K-2).

What Are Decodable Words?

A word is considered decodable when all parts of the word can be decoded or sounded out. Take the word cat.

I can say the sound for each letter and successfully read or decode the word: /c/ /a/ /t/

But decodable words can be more complex too.

Pointed is also decodable even though it’s a longer word. When I break it up into the individual sounds or phonemes, all chunks make their expected sound.

P – OI – N – T – ED

Note that ED is not a phoneme, but a morpheme or suffix and has to be read as that chunk.

What is NOT a Decodable Word?

On the other hand, a word that can not be decoded is not a decodable word. Instead, it’s heart word. Let’s look at the word one.

I can not sound out the word one by its individual phonemes: /o/ /n/ /e/

It doesn’t work. The o says the /w/ sound and makes this word a heart word because I have to know that part by heart.

FUN FACT: Did you know that originally the word one was pronounced as “own” and was decodable. It still retains this pronunciation in words related to one like: only, alone, lonely. But in the 14th century, an English dialect slowly changed the pronunciation of the word one and it slowly became the standard English pronunciation! Wouldn’t that be a fun story to tell kids and help them make connections between all those words!

HOT TAKE ON HEART WORDS: Pet peeve here. Sometimes I see teachers who count the word “see” or “saw” as a heart word in kindergarten or early first grade. But every piece of those words is decodable. /s/ /ee/ and /s/ /o/ for saw. Kindergarten kids may not know the ee or aw sounds yet and therefore can’t decode them, but they ARE decodable and are NOT heart words! 🙂 Okay, I’ll step off that soap box.

So What Are Decodable Texts?

A text is decodable when 80% or more of the words are decodable. Said another way, less that 20% of the words should be heart words.

I ALWAYS recommend double checking any decodable reader or passage or text with a boxed curriculum or that you have bought off the shelf or online. Scan the decodable passage and make sure the vast majority of words can be decoded.

For my decodable texts, I go a step further. I want the 80% of decodable words to be using sounds kids are learning or have already learned. So, for example, I don’t want the word “saw” in a kindergarten decodable book UNLESS it is a high frequency word. Saw would count as part of the 20% because it is not decodable YET for those kids. (But I’m still not calling it a heart word–just a high frequency word!) #winkwink

If you are looking for decodable texts that you can count on to have that 80/20 ratio (and often times closer to 90/10, check out these bundles of decodables for kindergarten, first grade and second grade. Or get the entire K-2 bundle of decodable readers here.

And just recently, I have been creating even more decodables–this time with comprehension questions!

Decodable readers and text are super important in the K-2 classroom because they give kids a chance to practice and reread words with the focus phonics skill they are working on…Just do your diligence and make sure the readers you are using or buying are actually decodable! 🙂