Happy Tuesday!

My usual Thursday email didn't go out last week. Just making through the work week was a major feat when my lungs are still not running at full speed after double pneumonia.

On the back end, I'm working on getting 2 new on-demand classes uploaded ahead of Black Friday Deal Week. I presented at a couple virtual conferences this summer, and got such great feedback that I wanted the trainings accessible to everyone who wasn't able to attend those events. More details to come next week.

Before hospital visit #2, I got a big stack of decodable books at the International Dyslexia Association conference. My goal is to do a podcast episode on this, but my lungs can't handle that much talking this week, so you get an email version first.

Any time I get a chance to look at a decodable book series and decide if I want to use it, here is what I look for:

• Is it actually decodable? Can my student(s) actually sound out the words in the story?
• Is it mostly sight words that they have to have memorized in order to read the books? Have my students been taught those sight words yet?
• What order are the skills covered in the series? I use Wilson, but many decodables are based on the scope and sequence of another program such as UFLI or IMSE. I've found the Flyleaf Publishing decodables align nicely with the first few steps of Wilson, but not the vowel teams books unless I've already introduced them in my drill sounds in Step 3 or 4.
• Are they interesting to read? Controlled text is always a little awkward, but some are more boring than others. Kids need to be at least mildly interested, even if it isn't the most thrilling story in the world. I firmly believe my job is to teach, not to entertain, but there are limits to just how boring a book can be and still get a kid to read it.
• What percentage of the words are decodable? I tested out a program that was supposed to make a story decodable, but it was only about 80% decodable. That means the child could not read 20% of the story! There is no way a kid can understand a book with that much of the story they can't decode.
• How long is the text? Some of my students need to build stamina for longer stories. Other students need something short and sweet to feel a sense of accomplishment when they are first learning to read.

I'm hoping to an "unboxing" video of these new decodables soon when I'm feeling better, so you can take a peek at some of the options out there.

Do you have any favorite decodable readers? I always love to find new options since I have most of mine memorized and I need a change of pace once in a while.