🖋️Decodable Books Part 2: Conversations with Cheryl
Part 2 of this series explores how these ideas show up in real classrooms, drawing from actual teaching experience.
Meaningful Decodable Books
Recently, I had a conversation with a special education teacher about a student I was tutoring. My testing indicated that this student had word recognition difficulties. However, the teacher had diagnosed him with comprehension difficulties. I was surprised to learn this, as I had observed the student's strong language skills.
The teacher showed me a text she had given him to read with simple comprehension questions. He was able to read the passage, but he struggled to answer the questions.
One passage included these memorable sentences describing the three ships that sailed to America in 1492:
The big rigs jig and lob.
The rigs get wet.
The rigs fill up.
The rigs will tip.
The men fix the rigs.
The rigs can zip.
The rigs get to the lot.
My first thought was, “I would have a hard time understanding this text!”
As an adult reader, I could attach some meaning to this description of a stormy journey across the ocean before reaching land (“the lot”). But I doubt most first graders could. This text exemplifies what I find problematic with many decodable books. While the goal is to help children decode words, the poor word choice makes it almost impossible for students to connect with the story and build any sense of meaning.
At CRSL, we write decodable books to provide the necessary application of the phonetic concepts we have taught. We gradually and systematically introduce more challenging phonetic concepts with each set of reader.
In addition to this, however, we determined that our books had to fit five essential criteria to ensure that these texts are truly meaningful and worthy to be read.
Our careful design includes the following:
1. Engagement
“My students love to read the Jim and Liz books.” That is a common statement among teachers that use the CRSL Readers (often referred to as the Jim and Liz books for their main characters).
2. Meaningful Language
Over the years, decodable books have been roundly criticized for their stilted language, awkward syntax, and nonsensical plots. CRSL Readers changes that dynamic by using meaningful words, clear syntax, and understandable plots.
3. Meaningful Background Knowledge
Even at the early reading level, CRSL Readers reflect the everyday experiences of children today. They offer stories with recurring characters; these characters encounter problems and challenges that are familiar to the reader, such as having an argument with a friend or not telling the truth.
4. Readability
CRSL Readers advance students’ ability to read more complex sentences with increasingly sophisticated vocabulary. The early readers have short, simple sentences. Gradually, the sentences change in their level of syntactical and semantic difficulty.
5. Reading Stamina
The books increase in length, thus developing reading stamina. Students learn how to focus and navigate longer texts with 3 to 4 chapters.
What this conversation reminded me of is that decodability alone is not enough. When language is awkward or stripped of meaning, students may be able to decode the words, but they struggle to construct meaning. That breakdown often gets mislabeled as a comprehension problem, when the real issue is the text itself. Decodable books must support decoding and meaning if they are going to do their job well.
At CRSL, we see decodable books as instructional tools, not placeholders. They are carefully written so students can practice newly learned phonetic patterns while still engaging with language that makes sense. When students can decode the words and understand what they’re reading, teachers get a much clearer picture of what students actually know.
That leads directly to the practical question teachers ask next: How do I use decodable books intentionally in real classroom settings? Let’s move on to our next post where I’ll give you some Teacher Tips for Decodable Books. And look for sample stories and free downloadable sample of teacher guides for you to preview.
