Progression Charts

Use these progression charts to assist with determining which decodable texts or passages you require.

Books for Beginner Readers

Dandelion Launchers and Dandelion Readers are books suitable for beginner readers. The key difference between the two book series is the amount of text on a page. Dandelion Readers have more text than the Dandelion Launchers.

Both books series follow the phonic book progression which has a slow, systematic and cumulative scope and sequence. The Dandelion Readers range progresses at a faster pace than the Dandelion Launcher range.

These books are suitable for students aged 4-7 years.

Download our iDeaL example lesson plan as a guide to teaching using these books.

Books for Catch-up Readers

Catch-up Readers is a term used to describe decodable books that are suitable for older readers 7-8+ years, who have not yet experienced success in reading. These books also follow a systematic scope and sequence with the difficulty increasing through the books. They are high interest, lower decodability or lower ability reading material, and have sophisticated vocabulary.

Coupling a decodable books series with the corresponding workbook is a great way to engage students. Workbook activities are well structured to support the development of all aspects of reading from phonological awareness, spelling and fluency building activities to vocabulary and comprehension tasks.

Teachers and parents may use these in one of two ways:

Read the whole book series and complete the activities in the corresponding workbook
Following another scope and sequence, such as the iDeaL stage 2 scope and sequence, teachers use this scope as their directive and align various Catch-up Readers to this.

Download our iDeaL example lesson plan as a guide to teaching using these books.

Phonic Books Diagnostic Assessment

When a pupil begins a reading programme it is important to assess where the pupil is at, what knowledge and skills he/she has acquired and what he/she needs to learn.

It is also useful to observe his/her reading strategies.

This will inform the teacher where to start and what to focus on.

This is particularly important for children who are struggling with reading. This assessment will help to determine from which point the teacher should start teaching.

The ‘Recommendations’ sheet will match suitable decodable books (from the Phonic Books range) to the reading level of the pupil.

iDeaL Stage 1 Decodable Passages

The following passages align with the iDeaL Stage 1 Scope and Sequence. Each concept introduces a different sounds focus enabling students to practice new letters/sounds while supporting previously taught letters/sounds and high frequency and irregular words.

These passages are aimed at children in year 0-3.

Glossary

CVC – acronym for consonant vowel consonant words such as d ‘d-o-g’.
Phoneme – sound in a word, e.g. ‘cat’ has three phonemes ‘c-a-t’.
Grapheme – spelling of a sound in a word e.g. ‘h’ in ‘hat’ is a one-letter spelling; ‘sh’ in ‘ship’ is a two-letter spelling; ‘igh’ in ‘night’ is a three- letter spelling and ‘ough’ in ‘through’ is a four-letter spelling.