Decoding Drills for fluency are here! So you’ve taught a new phonics skill…now what? Sure, your students can remember short a says /a/ when they are staring at an a, but what about when there are other letters there, too? What about when they read a sentence and there are words with other vowel sounds? *gasp* If your students struggle to apply phonics when reading, this resource is for YOU!
Decoding Drills for Building Phonics Fluency
Why should I use Decoding Drills?
If you know me at all, you know that I read research for pleasure. Seriously! Find me lounging by the pool tanning with publications from the National Reading Panel in hand. That stuff fascinates me! So Decoding Drills were born out of an abundance of research and experience teaching struggling readers. Research shows that students learn to read most effectively when:
- The teacher models how to blend 1-2 words before the student attempts to blend/read. (Don’t forget this part! š)
- Students read nonsense words (with the target phonics skill) first. So the sole focus of the activity is in decoding.
- Students read real words (with the phonics skill) to gain exposure to vocabulary.
- Students are provided with spiral skill review: learn a new skill, but continue practicing the old skills.
Decoding Drills incorporate all of the above in a fun, engaging, and convenient format. Ta-da! Decoding practice problems are now solved. š
What about fluency?
When the things I mentioned above are incorporated into a repeated activity, student decoding/reading will increase in speed. Thus, they will see great gains in reading fluency! #winwin Your students will be fluent decoding rock stars in no time!
When should I use Decoding Drills?
I’ve been using decoding drills at the beginning of intervention blocks. Students pick up where we/they left off and read the words across the row. Once they are able to fluently read and decode a page, we move onto the next page. However, be careful not to “drill and kill”! In fact, this is a quick and effective phonics warm-up activity. We have lots to learn, so this will only last a few minutes.
Decoding Drills can be used in so many ways!
- Guided reading warm-ups
- Lesson introductions
- Quick lesson review/close-out
- Whole group (using student copies – see below)
- Intervention
- One-on-one with a paraprofessional/volunteer
- Homework
- Informal assessment
- Data collection (see below)
How can I use Decoding Drills to build fluency?
Using Decoding Drills consistently will help build fluency. There are two ways that you can use Decoding Drills:
- Make a class (or small group) set
- I printed these on colored card stock. You can also laminate for durability. Cut, hole punch, and keep together with a binder ring. Since there are two per page, you only need half the copies.
- I made enough for each student in my small group to have their own copy.
- I use them in small groups.
- Make individual student copies
- Print on plain copy paper, staple, and cut in half. Since there are two per page, you only need half the copies.
- This is the set you want to copy if you want/need to track student data. See below for more information!
- You can use these whole group since every student will have their own set. They can also read in partners/groups.
Collecting data with Decoding Drills
You may notice that the student copy has a data table across the bottom row. This is for you to monitor/track your students’ data. I’ve also labeled the boxes “1st read,” “second read,” “3rd read.” The box next to each of those is blank. I know that we/our principals/our districts all want different data points, so I left it blank on purpose. Here you can monitor whatever YOU choose. Here are some information on the types of data you can track in the data table:
- Date student read the page
- Number of words read correctly
- Time it took to read the page
Differentiating with Decoding Drills
Each page has 1-5 stars in the bottom left corner. These indicate the level of difficulty for that decoding page. It also provides the spiral review that we talked about above (because…research!). You can also use the stars to differentiate pages for your students, or you can use them to help students progress through a decoding sequence.
Decoding Drills – the Bundle
The short vowel edition of decoding drills is now available in a complete phonics bundle!
Thus bundle includes decoding drills for phonics fluency in the following categories:
- short vowels
- digraphs
- blends
- CVCe
- long vowel teams
- diphthongs
- r-controlled vowels
The bundle, which includes all of the skills listed above, is available for 20% off.
The bundle is available in my online store as well as Teachers Pay Teachers.
Click here to find the Decoding Drills on Teachers Pay Teachers
FAQ
- How do I color code the paper?
- I don’t! I take a stack of Astrobrights paper, “shuffle it” and stick it in my printer. Since I keep them on rings, I don’t need them color-coded. In addition, I use to the brightly colored paper to keep it fun and engaging!
- What order should I put the Decoding Drills in?
- There are a few ways you can organize/order your drills:
- by vowel sound
- by real/nonsense
- by level of difficulty (stars)
- Personally, I have mine on rings by vowel sound. However, once students master the vowel sounds, I plan to mix them up and organize them according to level (stars). That’s the beauty of the class set on rings…change it to fit what you need!
- There are a few ways you can organize/order your drills:
