Phonics Lessons for Reading A to Z Decodable Books #1-68

As teachers we know that in the early grades we must provide practice for our students to read text in order for new words to be learned. One of the hardest resource to find is decodable text that contains the spelling patterns being taught that are easy enough for them to read, yet hard and long enough for them to have text reading practice. 

Reading A to Z.com provides great decodables for phonics instruction! We use them in our classrooms and have written explicit phonics lesson for every decodable book. We use these in TIER I, TIER II, and TIER III levels of instruction. The Reading A to Z decodables books are not included in this download, as they are downloadable from the Reading A to Z website and require a subscription. There is a free trial that allows your to download a limited number books, check it out! Many principals are more than willing to buy schools or your classroom a subscription as well. It never hurts to ask! https://www.readinga-z.com/books/decodable-books/


This PDF download includes:

• Lessons for every Reading A to Z Decodable Book (#1-68) - refer to our scope and sequence in the preview for specific vowel focus patterns.
• CVC (#1-35) 
• Consonant Blends (#36-41)
• vCe (#42-45)
• Consonant Digraphs (#46-51)
• Open Vowels, Vowel Digraphs, Other Vowels (#52-58)
• Variant Vowels (#59-62)
• Diphthongs (#63-64)
• R-Controlled Vowels (#65-68)
• How our lessons work explanation
• Steps to an explicit phonics lesson
• Engagement ideas throughout the lesson
• Reading strategy for multisyllabic words
• Scope and Sequence (Included in PREVIEW)
• Binder spine labels in 1" or 2" options
• File folder labels 
• Binder Cover
• Lesson Cards for each book included in the download

Effective Fluency Instruction

We are thrilled to finally release these teaching and practice FLUENCY resources! We hope you enjoy. Let us know if you have any questions. Email us! thesimpleteachers@gmail.com

You can download the "Let's Teach Fluency" or "Let's Practice Fluency" separate or as a bundle to save some money. Teachers need to save a couple bucks, right? :)

We recommend these products for TIER I and/or TIER II instruction for grades 1-3. TIER II instruction for grades 4-5. 

Here is an example lesson! 

Fluency by definition is the ability to read with proper speed, accuracy, and prosody.  

The three elements of fluency,
1. SPEED
2. ACCURACY and
3. PROSODY,
are what we watch for in our readers as we listen to them read aloud.
(Our downloads are geared toward PROSODY elements!)

SPEED AND ACCURACY are used for assessment!

We have many predictors of good reading, one strong predictor is Oral Reading Fluency (ORF).  We can use ORF norms to determine where our students should be in terms of speed and accuracy at a given point in time when they are reading grade level text.  It is best to use reliable and valid measures of ORF when making these determinations (ex. DIBELS, AIMs Web).  You can refer to our ORF  file for further information on this. Download everything you need for progress monitoring ORF on TPT.

Our Oral Reading Fluency Progress Monitoring download focuses on assessment, which we measure through speed and accuracy.
If accuracy is an issue, Download our phonics lessons to see improvement!  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Simple-Teachers/Category/Phonics-263921
Sight words could also be the issue... https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Words-Assessment-and-Practice-Pack-107-Zeno-High-Frequency-Words-2805910

PROSODY ELEMENTS are used for teaching!

When we teach fluency, we focus on the elements found within Prosody.
The prosody elements are: intonation, volume, stress, pitch, punctuation, expression, smoothness, and phrasing.  These elements of prosody, when taught to young readers, will improve their rate and ability to comprehend text.

A FEW FLUENCY TEACHING REMINDERS...

The most important thing you need to remember is to get kids reading TEXT!  More time spent reading text improves reading ability! As you teach explicit fluency instruction to your class remember it is more than just giving them practice reading.  Here is a quick list of what it is and is not:

What Fluency Instruction IS:

• Focuses on Good Reading = PROSODY!
• Accuracy (Problems in accuracy tell us a Phonics diagnostic assessment is needed.)
• Rate (We do not teach kids to read fast, we use rate as an outcome of our prosody element focus instruction.  We may even teach kids to slow down to comprehend.)
• Uses the Gradual Release of Responsibility
• Includes a Teacher Demonstration with a Think-Aloud
• Teacher Provides Specific and Corrective Feedback to the Students
• Includes Repeated Reading of Texts AND Wide Reading of Texts

What Fluency Instruction IS NOT:

• Getting Kids to Read Fast
• One-Minute Timed Readings (That is how we assess fluency - download our Oral Reading Fluency Progress Monitor pack!)
• Only Student Practice Opportunities (We must model and think-aloud)
• Matching Interests of Reader and Text 

Long Vowel Phonics Lessons and Decodable Passages

It's been awhile! Whitney had her baby and has been on maternity leave while Angie has been working hard wrapping up another semester. We hope you enjoy these long vowel passages to incorporate into your whole group and small group lessons. We've enjoyed seeing how teachers have organized this resource. We've seen teachers paperclip the lesson to the passages and keep in binders either hole punched or in sheet protectors. Some teachers tape the lesson to a file folder with the passages inside. Such great ideas! 

Long Vowels (vowel teams)  Explicit Phonics Lessons and Passages are now available on Teachers Pay Teachers! (Click on the words for links.)

See our earlier blog post on effective phonics instruction by clicking here.