Resource Center

Using Decodable Text - Bruce Murray, Auburn University

http://www.auburn.edu/%7Emurraba/decodable.html

Decodable text is simply text matched to the correspondence knowledge of
readers. The words in decodable text (except for a limited number of high
frequency function words) are restricted to spelling patterns that the
reader can decode given his or her existing correspondence knowledge. This
means that a crucial factor in determining the decodability of text is the
reader’s current knowledge of correspondences. Even so simple a text as A
Cat Nap (Educational Insights) is not decodable for pre-alphabetic
children. A text featuring long a patterns, such as Jane and Babe
(Educational Insights), is not decodable for children who have only worked
with short vowels. On the other hand, Frog and Toad Are Friends (Lobel,
1970) is decodable for children who have worked with the major vowel
digraphs and who have acquired enough sight vocabulary to read at a
first-grade instructional level. For skilled readers like ourselves,
virtually any English text is decodable.

This article contains resources for decodable texts.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/search.asp?searchcat=pubslast6month
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Every year since 1969, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
releases the results of its annual survey of students. Called the “Nation’s
Report Card,” it measures student achievement in subjects such as reading,
mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and the
arts. Two informative areas on the NCES Web site are the one-page profiles
for each state and a great feature called the �data tool� that makes it easy
to pick and choose the statistics you want.

http://www.educationnews.org/

Free on-line subscription to a quarterly on-line resource for teachers and
administrators.

http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/

Children across America salute you for participating in the America Reads Challenge, a four-year grassroots national campaign challenging every American to help all our children learn to read. From college students and citizens of all ages tutoring children, to seniors starting lending libraries, to businesses donating time, money and books and from policy makers and elected officials focusing on literacy, to parents reading to their children every night, to children themselves promising to read thirty minutes per day in the summer....everyone had an important role in meeting the Challenge. Keep up the good work!

http://idea.uoregon.edu/~ncite/index.html

NCITE’s purpose is to advance the quality and effectiveness of technology, media, and materials for individuals with disabilities. NCITE creates a marketplace demand for the selection and appropriate use of research-based technology, media, and materials (TMM).

http://reading.uoregon.edu/

Consumer’s Guide to Evaluating a Core Reading Program, Grades K-3: A Critical Elements Analysis.  This PDF file was written at the University of Oregon by special education professors Simmons and Kame’enui.  The handbook is helpful for evaluating a basal reader critically.

http://searcheric.org/

A Little About ERIC

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is the nation�s information network connecting virtually all educational information providers and educational information users. ERIC is a public service that uses technology to increase access to education research and practice to improve learning, teaching, and community-based educational decision-making.

ERIC offers the substantive information people need.
# The ERIC database includes summaries of more than 1,200,000 documents and journal articles on education research and practice written since 1966. The ERIC database is the third most frequently used database in any field (Computers in Libraries, February 1995).

# Via the Internet, ERIC provides electronic access to a wide range of educational information and resources including full-text lesson plans and tests, thematic essays, reference material, and pointers to what others are doing.

# ERIC produces and disseminates more than 2,000 briefing papers (Digests) with over 150 titles added annually. These syntheses provide balanced coverage of all the important education topics, including educational management, assessment, professional development, technology, and reform.

# ERIC is a mediated education information system. Each year, the 16 subject-oriented ERIC Clearinghouses respond to over 150,000 email and telephone requests.