Decodable Text

Decodable text is a term used to describe a particular method of reading instruction. Decodable text refers to prose that children can decipher using the phonics skills they have been taught. For instance, children could decode a phrase such as “Pat the fat rat” if they had been taught the rhyme pattern “at” and the onsets or initial consonant sounds f, p, and r.

In the United States, certain states have tried to dictate that a very high percentage of the words in the earliest texts be decodable according to letter–sound correspondences that children have been taught. Advocates argue that this kind of text enables students to practice the phonics skills they have been taught. Critics argue that this kind of text is stilted and unnatural.