Description
Early reading workout to help students break inefficient guessing habits and to decode the words on the page (CVC, CCVC, CVCC structures, -er, -est, two-syllable words)
Too many students guess words based on pictures, the first letter, or “general shape”. Unfortunately, these strategies, which become less useful and in many cases counter-productive when students encounter books with fewer pictures, less predictable text, and words they may never have encountered. Old “guessing” habits can be a big barrier when kids make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn.
This 10-page workout is designed to show students the importance of decoding left to right, all the way through words, and to not guess. Featuring three cats with similar – but different – names, features, and interests, this exercise is designed to help catch and eliminate barriers to fluent decoding.
To make the exercise slightly more challenging, we have loaded the passages with consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC), consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant (CCVC) and consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant (CVCC) words; as well as high-frequency bound morphemes <-er> and <-est>, to help support children to read common comparative and superlative adjectives.
More information and resources
For free, evidence based on effective reading instruction, check out these articles:
- Is your child struggling to read? Here’s what works
- Too many children can’t read. We know what to do, but how should we do it?
For free, decodable stories focusing on the basic code, check out: Is your Kindy kid really reading? Find out with our 7 free mini stories
- CCVC Words in Sentences: Is Stan a brat?
- CVCC Words in Sentences: Wendy has zest!
- Split digraph minimal pair sentences
- Polysyllabic words in sentences
For our ‘Select-your-Sequel’ adventure series of decodable texts for 7-12 year-olds focusing on the extended code and reading fluency – including the free first book – check out The Scatter-Slayer Adventures.
