Many different skills or Components of Reading and Writing (COR) are needed for students to become proficient readers and writers. In celebration of the recent release of my new resource, The Raven Remix Activity Book, I will explore a different component each month and share a free activity from one of my activity books to demonstrate how you can support student reading and writing. The bicycle diagram above shows how a wide range of skills can be addressed by starting with a book and using that context to improve content knowledge while simultaneously addressing literacy subskills.
This month my focus is decoding. If you have been following my blog or reading my newsletters, you know about my series of decodable books - HOT ROD (Higher Order Thinking through the Reading of Decodables) for grades 4-8. The Scope and Sequence most closely aligns with the Sounds-In-Syllables program which is based on the Science of Reading. The Scope and Sequence may be found on the Resource Menu on the Website. The chapter book Hank the Tank: Animal in the Spotlight may be accessed for free if you have a membership to Kindle Unlimited.
What you may not know is that each decodable chapter book also has a companion activity book to explore all of the components of reading typically addressed in a Structured Literacy Lesson such as flashcards for word reading practice, sentence reading, dictation, phonological awareness activities, vocabulary, and morphology with games and activities to support each area. In addition, therapists, tutors, classroom teachers, and parent educators can explore additional activities for sentence structure, paragraph writing, essay writing, creative writing, and more.
DECODING
Most regular English words are based on six main syllable types. When students learn these syllable types and become proficient at breaking words down into manageable units, they are better equipped to tackle longer words. Level 3 of the HOT ROD series covers four syllable types: open, closed, consonant-le syllables, and the vowel teams, ee, and oo. What makes a book decodable is when stories include only the syllable types a student has previously been taught. The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles focuses on two-syllable words. The examples below of Open and Closed syllables emphasize those patterns in the first syllable of the word. Final consonant-Le is a pattern found at the end of words.
Open Syllables - A vowel makes its open or long sound when nothing comes after the vowel in that syllable. (examples: silent, spiral, request, relax, broken, ladle, table, maple)
Closed Syllables - A vowel makes its closed or short sound when it is followed by a consonant. (examples: sudden, simple, socket, skillet, splendid, reddish, riddle, little, middle). In the first 6 words, the second syllable is also a closed syllable.
Consonant -le - This final stable syllable is found at the end of words (examples: ladle, table, maple, riddle, pickle, puzzle, riddle, kettle)
Vowel Teams - When two or more letters work together to make one vowel sound, it is a vowel team. There are several. Only oo and ee are used in Level 3. (examples: sleeping, creeping, greeted, book, wooden).
The Raven Remix Activity Book provides numerous ways to practice these words to prepare students to read them in the story found in The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles.
FREE ACTIVITY
The Long Vowel Word and Sentence Deck is a free Digital Resource at Boom (TM) Learning. You will need a free Boom account to use this activity.
This deck includes a keyword and sound card for each long vowel along with words and sentences that may used for both reading and spelling practice. For dictation, read the content of each card to the student and instruct them to write the sentence.
ADDITIONAL FREEBIES
Two additional free decoding activities, including Four-In-A-Row Gameboard for Final Consonant-le and Articulation Flashcards for Speech-Language Pathologists, will be available in my March 28th newsletter for subscribers. You may sign up for my newsletter HERE.
To become proficient decoders, students need to practice distinguishing between the different graphemes (letters) and the phonemes (sounds) those letters represent. Next month we will discuss Phonological Awareness. English is a morphophonemic language. That means that in addition to understanding phonemes, students need to understand how morphology impacts both meaning and word pronunciation. Watch for that topic coming soon!
The Raven Remix Activity Book is a companion resource for The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles from the HOT ROD Series of Decodable Books Level 3. Access to downloadable PDFs and online games explore over 50+ activities supporting decoding practice, reading comprehension, writing, and speech-language development. It is available on Amazon.
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