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“I have a connection to Yusra! Did you know there was a war in El Salvador before?” - Mariana “When do refugees get to go back home?” - Imani “This is like how in The Librarian of Basra there was fighting in her country too.” - Zion These types of rich comments and questions did not used to occur during my foundational literacy small groups. In fact, in my early days of my professional learning around structured literacy, there wasn’t much student discussion happening in my teaching at all. I was (and am!) completely in awe of the brain-changing power of phonemic awareness and phonics instruction for emergent readers. Especially because my teacher preparation program- like many others- did not address these core components of reading development, learning about structured literacy was completely transformational for me after years of “balanced literacy” practices. I was eager to support students to crack the code with my new toolbox for decoding instruction. The Science of Reading Beyond Phonics As a first grade teacher at the time, my whole group and small group instruction became characterized by phonemic awareness activities, letter:sound correspondence drills, elkonin boxes, word chains, blending lines, spelling dictation, and decodable texts. These are all evidence-based practices that I still use daily, but my overemphasis on them left very little space for comprehension questions, vocabulary instruction, and background knowledge building. I did not fully realize it at the time, but my enthusiastic and well-intentioned approach to foundational skill instruction was still not representative of the full breadth of skills required of a proficient reader. It also was not consistently grounding my students in the ultimate goal of reading-meaning. I’m glad that questions around the potential overemphasis on phonics have risen to the surface in the discourse around the Science of Reading. It’s clear that our students need and deserve reading instruction that addresses all strands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope. Still, that’s easier said than done when as educators, we are contending with jam-packed instructional blocks and countless competing academic priorities. Educators are also not being offered many instructional resources that authentically address both word recognition and language comprehension needs. Luckily, ReadWorks offers FREE nonfiction decodables that do just that! Not All Decodable Texts Are Created Equal  Decodable texts are a powerful component of effective literacy instruction for beginning readers, providing them opportunities to confidently solidify previously taught letter:sound correspondences and gain fluency. As decodables expert and author of Choosing and Using Decodable Texts, Dr. Wiley Blevins, states, “It’s in the application that the learning sticks. Decodable texts are the critical application tool.” But he also reminds and cautions us that decodables must be used for more than just phonics instruction! He shares that decodables can also be instructional tools for vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and syntax (2024). Unfortunately, not all decodables lend themselves to that work. I know my fellow early literacy teachers have all encountered decodable texts that were not designed beyond a lens of a particular phonics skill. I wish this example was more of an exaggeration, but unfortunately, it really isn’t. Why would a hot dog be on a cot in any situation? Why would it even potentially be on a log? Surely we can provide our students with short ‘o’ practice that isn’t quite so nonsensical. ReadWorks nonfiction decodables allow educators to bridge word recognition and language comprehension instruction instead of taking a myopic focus on one or the other. Students are invited to grapple with rich academic vocabulary as they read exciting texts about Simone Biles, extreme weather and faraway lands. As Dr. Julia Lindsey, author of Reading Above the Fray and expert collaborator on ReadWorks decodables, reminds us, the best decodable texts aren’t just decodable – they hold real meaning. They should contain engaging stories and be filled with interesting facts for students to learn. We should not be sacrificing meaning in the name of decodability, and with ReadWorks nonfiction decodables, we don’t have to! Cracking the Code While Making Meaning I now serve as a K-2 Reading Specialist and still provide direct, explicit instruction to target the lower strands of Scarborough’s Rope every day. I have the privilege of witnessing the impact of explicit, systematic phonics instruction on my students’ DIBELS data and in the moments they beam with confidence as they independently decode an entire sentence for the first time. When I use ReadWorks decodables, my students get ample phonemic awareness and phonics practice, rooted in the context of a rich nonfiction text. We warm up by quickly blending and segmenting words with the target skill. This image shows a review of the ‘ea’ and ‘ee’ spellings of long ‘e’ to prepare to read the decodable text about Yusra Mardini. Then we practice our continuous blending with words from the text, as well as review words with previously taught letter:sound correspondences.   ReadWorks nonfiction decodables allow me to provide explicit vocabulary instruction and activate rich background knowledge as I introduce the decodable text. Pre-teaching the word ‘refugees’ and explaining why Yusra Mardini had to leave Syria allowed my students to make brilliant connections to other global conflicts they already knew about, including one in a student’s own home country. We know that like Velcro, new knowledge sticks best to existing knowledge. This type of understanding just isn’t possible with decodables that lack the substance to serve as new pieces of Velcro for our students. This strategic background knowledge building packs an even more powerful punch when paired with ReadWorks Article-A-Day routine, which is topically aligned to the decodables.
My students then look out for the target phonics pattern as they read, while I provide supportive feedback around accuracy and fluency. Finally, we do some encoding as another chance to practice the pattern and orthographically map words from the text. Another added benefit of using a rich decodable text is that students have the opportunity to not just spell, but authentically write. I’ve been blown away by their thoughtful takeaways from these decodable texts. This level of thinking and learning simply cannot be compared to reading about a hot dog on a cot.  There is no question that our students need instruction in how to crack the code. It is their civil right and our responsibility as educators. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to use and create instructional materials that allow me and other early literacy teachers to support our students in becoming codebreakers within the context of rich, meaningful texts that are worthy of being in front of them. You can learn more about how to use ReadWorks decodables and explore a sample lesson plan here. Learn how to use aligned decodables in our new and updated Scope and Sequences page in the previous blog: Scope It Out: A Better Way to Plan with ReadWorks. Written by: Celestina LeeReading Specialist, First Grade Teacher, and ReadWorks Educator Support Specialist
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Happy Earth Day! Today—and every day—is the perfect time to spark curiosity and conversations about our incredible planet. Whether you’re in the classroom, learning at home, or exploring the outdoors, ReadWorks has free resources to help students build knowledge and vocabulary around Earth, the environment, and how we can take care of both.
🌿 Explore Earth Day Articles for Every Age From how trees communicate underground to the science of climate change, ReadWorks offers hundreds of engaging, high-quality nonfiction and fiction texts related to:
Browse K-12 Earth & Environment content on ReadWorks 🎨 Join Our Earth Day Illustration Contest! We’re celebrating Earth Day with our annual ReadWorks Illustration Contest! Invite your students to read any Earth-themed article on ReadWorks, then create an original illustration inspired by what they learned. ✅ Download your Earth Day Participation Certificate here: Earth Day Certificate 🖼️ Share your students’ reading or creating their illustrations on social media using: #EarthDayWithReadWorks We love to celebrate student work and the amazing ways you bring ReadWorks to life in your classroom! While debates swirl around the federal role in education, it is important to remember that we all have at least one shared goal: helping students learn to read at grade-level. Yet, bringing grade-level texts to all readers requires providing supportive instruction for those who are not yet confident grade-level readers, and this level of differentiated instruction is a very real challenge for teachers. ReadWorks has developed research-based resources to help teachers achieve our shared goal of grade-level reading for all. The Grade-level Gap First, let’s look at the research. The negative impact of working with only below-grade-level materials on students’ chances of becoming successful readers is clear. For example, when a fourth-grade student only reads second-grade texts, they have only practiced second-grade skills and, therefore, fall further behind their on-grade peers who are practicing fourth-grade skills (Shanahan, 2020). Researchers have labeled this the “Matthew effect:” the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer (Perc, 2020; Merton, 1968). Students need to work with grade-level texts to encounter the vocabulary, sentence structures, and genres that come with ever-increasing text complexity, even if they are not currently reading independently at that level. However, just because these findings are clear does not mean that it is clear to teachers how to support students in tackling grade-level work. In our 2022 research study with TNTP, we found that, in schools serving more students in poverty, students got less access to grade-level work. This builds on TNTP’s 2018 report The Opportunity Myth where researchers found that students—and especially students of color, those from low-income families, those with mild to moderate disabilities, and English language learners—spent the vast majority of their school days missing out on grade-appropriate assignments. Balancing Expectations and Support One of the key considerations is student motivation because tackling challenging reading is, well, challenging! And as humans, we are not naturally wired to want to do things that we think we might fail at. Motivation researchers have found that a sense of success can help us move past this fear of failure. A 2024 study, one of Edutopia’s top research studies of the year, found that “remembered success” can be a “straightforward, cost-effective way to increase the likelihood that students will choose to engage in and persist at [difficult] tasks” (Finn, Miele, & Wigfield, 2024). Providing easier material at the start or end of an assignment can give students the motivation to tackle more challenging material. How ReadWorks Promotes Grade-level Reading for All ReadWorks has distilled all of this critical research into two straightforward resources for teachers to use in their classrooms the very next day. First, our StepReads center grade-level texts for all readers alongside scaffolded texts as a tool for both accessing the grade-level text and developing a sense of success. When a teacher assigns StepReads, students receive both the grade-level texts and carefully written scaffold texts, the StepReads, that contain all of the content of the original text within less complex syntax and vocabulary. By reading the StepRead, students become familiar with the focus of the original text and more equipped, both with this background knowledge and with their feeling of success, to tackle the grade-level text, either through reading or listening (all ReadWorks texts come with audio). Our Article-A-Day routine also pairs easier texts on the same topic with grade-level texts to give students an on-ramp to tackling more challenging reading. With our simple filters, teachers can readily find the hundreds of Article-A-Day sets with these “boost” articles, and then with our digital classroom, they can assign them directly to the students who need the support. These resources are a win-win-win of research-based instruction:
Written by: Susanne Nobles Ph.D.Chief Academic Officer at ReadWorks  Kindergarten teacher Jenn faced a challenge familiar to many educators—a classroom full of little learners during a loud, stormy day. Teacher Jenn is located in western Pennsylvania, where weather can be wild and a common topic among her students. As thunder rumbled outside, one of her students, James, became especially frightened. Wanting to comfort and engage him, Jenn had an idea. She remembered that James was a strong reader for his age, so she logged onto ReadWorks and searched for Kindergarten level reading passages about thunder, lightning, and weather. Not only was James instantly engaged and distracted from his fears, but he also built his confidence and background knowledge on the very thing that had scared him. Learning about the science behind storms helped him feel more at ease—and he even got in some extra reading time! Moments like this remind us of the power of reading to transform emotions, spark curiosity, and provide comfort—all while building essential literacy skills. Click on the text or the images below to see the passages the teacher Jenn used to help James: Want to find the perfect ReadWorks passage for your students? Explore our free library today. For years, we've been hearing from teachers that they need quality resources to support their multilingual learners. After careful development, we've brought together teacher requests and the research to create Spanish-English Paired Texts for multilingual learners. Teachers have told us that in their classrooms, their multilingual learners come from a variety of different backgrounds. They come into the classroom with different language skills. And they're taught in a variety of different settings, from one-on-one, to small groups, to integrated classrooms. This is in line with the research as well. Additionally, reading comprehension research shows that students understand what they are reading better if they know more about the topic. Research also shows that any language is an asset when learning another, reading comprehension skills are transferable, and translation alone is not a strong support. We designed a product that capitalizes on students’ existing language skills by building background knowledge in the Spanish language first. This gained background knowledge can then bridge to English reading comprehension. ReadWorks Spanish-English Paired Texts consist of three components:
In line with the Science of Reading, students can read the Spanish text to build background knowledge and vocabulary in the student’s home language first. Both the Spanish and English passages use the same vocabulary words. Next, students read a text in the English language on a similar topic. Finally, they answer the Question Set for the English passage to deepen reading comprehension. ReadWorks Spanish-English Paired Texts are written by diverse Spanish speakers who are representative of students. They also offer differentiation features such as human audio by Spanish speakers. Spanish-English Paired Texts in the Classroom Prep
What’s on the Way for Fall 2025? ReadWorks is constantly working to improve our products, and SEPTs are no exception. Here's what's on the horizon for SEPTs:
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