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Extend and support students with Sound Waves Decodable Readers

Sound Waves Literacy 27/5/23

Every classroom has a wide range of students who experience success at different paces. Some students seem to easily fly ahead while others require additional practice to master skills. This is a challenge when teaching early reading and spelling, and it’s the reason we created the Sound Waves Decodable Readers in three levels of difficulty. These levels allow you to deliver systematic whole-class instruction that extends or supports your students effectively as needed.

Here’s how it works …

The Sound Waves Decodable Readers perfectly align with the sequence of Sound Waves Literacy. After your Sound Waves Literacy lesson, choose one of the three corresponding Decodable Readers at your preferred difficulty level:

All three books feature the same focus grapheme and can be used for whole-class modelling, small-group reading or paired reading.

Let’s take a closer look at the key differences between the Support, Core and Extended Decodable Readers.

Support

The Foundation Support books contain CVC words and Special Words taught in the previous weeks of Sound Waves Literacy. The books feature short, simple stories with word counts ranging from 20–75 words.

We created the Support books to ensure all students in a class have an opportunity to practise taught phoneme–grapheme relationships in a connected text. They can also experience the sense of pride that comes from finishing a ‘real book’.

With a focus on CVC words and Special Words, the Support books align with multiple Australian Curriculum English Literacy descriptors for the Foundation Year (AC9EFLY04, AC9EFLY12, AC9EFLY14) and the NSW Syllabus Outcome ENE-PHOKW-01.

Core

The Foundation Core books focus on CVC words, Special Words taught in the previous weeks of Sound Waves Literacy and newly taught Special Word/s. The books feature longer, more complex stories with word counts increasing across the year from 25 up to 130 words.

The Core books are ideal for whole-class modelling and will usually suit the majority of students in a classroom for small-group reading and independent practice.

With a focus on CVC words and Special Words, the Core books align with multiple Australian Curriculum English Literacy descriptors for the Foundation Year (AC9EFLY04, AC9EFLY12, AC9EFLY14) and the NSW Syllabus Outcome ENE-PHOKW-01.

Extended

The Foundation Extended books focus on CCVC and CVCC words, Special Words taught in the previous weeks of Sound Waves Literacy and newly taught Special Word/s.

The Extended books provide a challenge for students who quickly master CVC words. The texts are slightly longer than the Core books with word counts increasing across the year from 40 up to 150 words.

They ensure students do not get bored with decodable readers and enable them to continue making progress without you having to create individualised phonics teaching sequences for them.

With their focus on CCVC and CVCC words and Special Words, the Extended books align with the NSW Syllabus Outcome ENE-PHOKW-01.

Key Terms

• Special Words are high-frequency words with unusual spelling or words containing phoneme–grapheme correspondences not yet taught in the sequence.
• CVC words have three sounds in the order of consonant-vowel-consonant. For example, bag, fish and moon.
• CCVC words have four sounds in the order of consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant. For example, spin, clap and brown.
• CVCC words have four sounds in the order of consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant. For example, nest, help and lunch.

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