Hi Niepodam,

We know decodable text is important for young readers. It gives them practice with the phonics patterns they've learned.

But at some point, kids also need text that is less decodable. This gives them practice with something called set for variability (mispronunciation correction). When a word they read doesn't sound quite right, they adjust it until it becomes a real word they know.

For example, I recently read this play with a student I'm working with. So far she has only learned short vowel words with me.

When she began to read the word "change," she sounded it out ... /ch/ /ă/ /n/ /j/ ... and then she corrected herself to make a word she she knows: change.

Good readers do this all the time! And it's a skill we need our young readers to learn as well.

My partner plays are a wonderful tool for teaching students to be flexible with their word reading.

How to use partner plays with beginning readers

• Make sure students are past the "sounding out every letter" phase and are starting to read CVC words and other short vowel words automatically.
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• Read the whole play aloud as your students follow along.
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• If desired, use echo reading to help students access the text. This is when you read part of the text and have them read it after you. Make sure you are reading a long enough section that they aren't simply repeating you.
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• Another option is choral reading, where all of you read the whole text together, with you keeping the pace. You could even have one half of the class read part 1, and the other half read part 2.​
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• Finally, move around the room, supporting students as they read with a partner. If they are stuck on a word, tell them the sound of the graphemes, or provide all the phonemes so they can blend the word.

Example #1: My reader was stuck on "dee" (as in "Hum dee dum"), so I told her that "ee" spells /eeee/.

Example #2: My reader was stuck on the word "build," so I gave her the sounds: /b/ /ĭ/ /l/ /d/, and then she blended them to read the word.

• Have students reread the play on successive days to build fluency!

I'd love to give you the free set of butterfly and caterpillar plays I used with my reader. It comes in three levels of difficulty so that you'll find a script you can use as early as the end of kindergarten, all the way through third grade. (For reference, she is just starting first grade, and we used the level 1 script.)

After you get the freebie you'll see a special offer to get the full set of plays at a special price!

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Happy teaching!

Anna

P.S. After you get the freebie, you'll see a special offer to get the full set of plays for a special price. Another option is to join our membership, Reach All Readers Plus. The plays are included with your membership!