To understand what they read, students must be proficient in word recognition and language comprehension.

Why is the Simple View of Reading Important?

This framework is important because it outlines that reading comprehension requires two fundamental skills: decoding words accurately and understanding language.

This model helps educators identify and address specific areas where students might struggle, ensuring that both essential components are developed effectively for successful reading. Using this model, teachers can create targeted interventions to improve students' overall reading proficiency.

Word Recognition

Let's look at a critical component of word recognition: decoding. Students learn how sounds (phonemes) connect to written letters (graphemes) to form letter-sound relationships and spelling patterns. This skill allows them to turn words into their correct sounds. Decoding is the most reliable guide to word recognition (Scarborough, H.S., 2021).

Why It is Important: Effective decoding skills are necessary for reading fluency, allowing students to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. With proficient decoding, students may not be able to read fluently, which can significantly hinder their ability to understand text (Rayner et al., 2001).

Strategies for Success:

• Explicit and Systematic Phonics Instruction: Teaching phonics explicitly helps students understand and apply decoding rules, enhancing their ability to read unfamiliar words (National Reading Panel, 2000).
• Regular Practice with Decodable Texts, like  Just Right Reader Decodable Books: Using texts aligned with students' current phonics knowledge can reinforce decoding skills and build fluency (Ehri et al., 2001).

Our blog post, A Phonics Guide, dives deeper into what makes an effective phonics program.

Language Comprehension

Language Comprehension refers to constructing meaning from words, sentences, and texts. It involves vocabulary knowledge, syntactic understanding, and being able to make inferences and draw conclusions.

Why It is Important:While decoding is crucial for reading words on a page, comprehension allows readers to construct meaning, engage with content, and apply information to new contexts (Kintsch, 1998). Without comprehension, reading lacks purpose.

Strategies for Success:

• Interactive Read-Alouds: Engaging students in discussions about the text during read-aloud can improve comprehension by allowing them to explore meanings and connect ideas (Sénéchal et al., 1995).
• Vocabulary Expansion: Building vocabulary is crucial for understanding text; direct vocabulary instruction and exposure to rich language environments can greatly aid comprehension (Beck et al., 2002).

Read our blog post, Strategies for Comprehension, to boost comprehension in your classroom and at home.

The Simple View of Reading serves as a reminder that instruction addressing both decoding and language comprehension is necessary for developing readers.

How Does Just Right Reader Decodables Align with the Simple View of Reading?

Just Right Reader Decodables, grounded in the Science of Reading research, allow educators to seamlessly implement the principles of the Simple View of Reading.

Decoding

• Systematic Phonics Integration: Just Right Reader Decodables align with systematic phonics instruction. They introduce phonetic concepts progressively, ensuring that students build their decoding skills step-by-step, moving from simpler to more complex phonetic patterns. 
  
  
• Consistent Practice: Decodables provide repeated opportunities for students to apply their decoding skills in an authentic reading experience. 

Enhancing Language Comprehension

• Engaging Content That Gets Kids Excited to Read:  The extensive library of over 850 decodables in English and Spanish reflects students' lives through engaging and relatable stories, diverse characters, and vibrant illustrations. By carefully selecting vocabulary and content that build on students' existing knowledge and experiences, the decodables make comprehension more accessible and engaging.
  
  
• Integrated Vocabulary and Comprehension Questions: Decodables include comprehension questions that challenge students to think about the text and connect ideas. Carefully selected vocabulary words encourage students to engage with new words, leading to fluency and comprehension development. 

Use Just Right Reader Decodable Books to Accelerate Reading Achievement

 With engagingClassroom Libraries andTake-Everywhere Decodable Packs, students have many opportunities to practice their decoding skills in an authentic reading experience, which allows them to become stronger readers.

Our Decodables Feature:

• An extensive library of 750+ titles in English and Spanish
• Engaging and relatable stories with diverse characters 
• Evidence-based, rigorous phonics scope and sequence that aligns to all phonics programs and curriculums 
• QR codes that link to memorable video lessons in English and Spanish
• Personalized  Take-Everywhere Decodable Packs that extend phonics practice from school into homes

References

     Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. Guilford Press.

     Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Stahl, S. A., & Willows, D. M. (2001). Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis.Review of Educational Research

     Hoover, W. A., & Gough, P. B. (1990). The simple view of reading.Reading and Writing

     Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension: A paradigm for cognition. Cambridge University Press.

     Rayner, K., Foorman, B. R., Perfetti, C. A., Pesetsky, D., & Seidenberg, M. S. (2001). How psychological science informs the teaching of reading.Psychological Science in the Public Interest

     Sénéchal, M., Thomas, E., & Monker, J. A. (1995). Individual differences in 4-year-old children's acquisition of vocabulary during storybook reading. Journal of Educational Psychology