When publishers and teachers talk about decodables and non-decodables, they are inferring that there is such a thing as a book that can be read but cannot be decoded. They are perpetuating the myth that decoding is for simple words and beginning readers only, and that some words are not decodable. That mind-set encourages the teaching of guessing strategies and memorising words without phonics.
Here are two texts and they are both decodable:
2)Se wisa wer timbrode his hus ofer stan. Þa com þær micel flod, and þær bleowon windas, and ahruron on þæt hus, and hit ne feoll: soþlice, hit wæs ofer stan getimbrod. Þa timbrode se dysiga wer his hus ofer sandceosol. Þa rinde hit, and þær com flod, and bleowon windas, and ahruron on þæt hus, and þæt hus feoll; and his hryre wæs micel.
The first is a story in old English. I can have a go at decoding it, but I am sure I mispronounce some of the words. Translated into modern English, it means:It is striking that merely as a result of inter-polymer interactions that are local in the two-dimensional plane the topological restriction presented by the pin causes the opening up of a finite gap in the polymer density and, in particular, that the reach of its impact extends over many times the intrinsic inter-polymer separation, at least at the level of the present mean-field type of approximation.
"The wise man built his house on stone. Then a great flood came there, and winds blew there, and fell down upon the house, and it did not fall: truly, it was built on stone. Then the foolish man built his house on sand-gravel. Then it rained, and a flood came there, and winds blew, and fell down upon the house, and the house fell; and its fall was great."
I can decode the second one slowly, although I don’t know what it means.
They are both decodable if you can decode them. So, when we talk about giving children decodable books we mean books they can decode.
If you are in the early stages of learning to read, there are not many words you can decode accurately and independently without any clues. It depends on which words you are familiar with and which letter-sound correspondences you have learned. For a series of books to be decodable at different stages, authors must take great care with the structure of the words used and follow a systematic phonics programme. Each book should be matched to a level in the programme. It should include only words with letter-sound correspondences that have been taught at that level, as well as a limited number of individual words that have been taught, but include unusual correspondences or correspondences that are an exception to those that have been taught.
That’s a bit long-winded. I mean a series of decodable books for children learning to read is a series structured according to how easy the books are to decode, according to a systematic phonics programme.