The use, or otherwise, of decodable books for beginners to apply and extend their code knowledge and decoding skill is a hot topic internationally. This is what it states in the review:
Decodable books
The national curriculum requires that children hear, share and discuss a wide range of high-quality books. In terms of their own reading, the national curriculum states that they should practise with decodable books. These are ‘books that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words’.[footnote 53] During story time, the books that teachers and parents read to children develop their language knowledge. These books do not need to be decodable because the children are not using them to learn to decode.
Research supports giving children daily opportunities to read words that they can decode, both in isolation and in the books they read.[footnote 54] In using decodable books to practise their reading, children learn to apply their phonic knowledge to words. If children are required to ‘guess’ how to read a word, then this can be a missed opportunity for them to learn and practise how to spell and read the word and thus reduce the need to guess it in the future.[footnote 55]
Research on the effectiveness of decodable texts is sparse. However, a review of research on the influence of decodable texts on reading achievement found that decodability is a ‘critical characteristic’ of early reading text.[footnote 56] The research reviewed suggests that decodability increases the likelihood that children will use a decoding strategy, and may also improve accuracy.[footnote 57] It seems reasonable to presume that successful use of decoding is motivating for children.
I will add, however, that I'm personally very concerned by a lack of clarity in England's context with regard to the use of different types of books for infants and whether or not children should be exposed to the print of books that are not strictly decodable according to the order of progression of introducing the letter/s-sound correspondences in the school's chosen systematic synthetic phonics programme.
You will note, for example, Ofsted's wording (my red and bold):
During story time, the books that teachers and parents read to children develop their language knowledge. These books do not need to be decodable because the children are not using them to learn to decode
Research Professor Jonathan Solity also queried the issue regarding the difference between 'read TO' and
exposing children to print beyond the code the children know. Official literature and guidance frequently refers to the adult reading TO the children as different from SHARING book reading with the children.
Teachers in England are becoming concerned about guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) and what they think Ofsted will be expecting to see in their early years settings.
As a practising consultant, teacher-trainer and author of several phonics bodies of work, I am well aware of the increasing, arguably unacceptable, micro-management of the Department for Education in England leading to teachers' and headteachers' growing fearfulness. I am also aware of literacy advisors giving teachers what I would consider to be 'misinformation' regarding reading practices with beginners. There is much more to this issue which I won't get into here but suffice it to say that the use of decodable phonics reading books and/or plain cumulative texts are very pragmatic and helpful for enabling children to 'apply and extend' their phonics knowledge and skills (for writing, too, when these are plain texts and not published books) - but children should, arguably, not be prevented from 'sharing' all manner of literature with adults - not just experiencing being read TO.
It seems to me that Ofsted and the DfE need to fully appreciate this issue and provide some clarity in, to date, their rather misleading and ambiguous statements about with what and how teachers provide reading experiences for children. Their guidance, for example, does not seemingly take into consideration the notions of 'self-teaching' and 'differentiation' - and how these are relevant to teachers' professional discretion regarding which books, and how to arrange reading opportunities, for different purposes and different children.
Here is a 'parallel approach' to reading opportunities:
https://phonicsinternational.com/wp-con ... r-2021.pdf
And here is a brief document on this topic:
https://phonicsinternational.com/wp-con ... bility.pdf
Here is Jonathan Solity's April 2022 article - see pages 10 and 11:
Instructional Psychology and Teaching Reading: An analysis of the evidence underpinning government policy and practice
Jonathan Solity
First published: 22 April 2022
https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wil ... /rev3.3349
I shall blog about the issue of 'which books' and how best to utilise them for which children in the near future - at which point I'll provide a link.