Phonics Readers, Big Books, Leveled Readers, and Books with CDs

Phonics readers give children opportunities to sound out letters and letter combinations and ultimately recognize words. Sounding out words can lead to reading entire books, and phonics readers are designed to help students do so as they progress through their phonics reading series. Modern Curriculum Press offers several sets of Phonics Practice Readers to assist students and educators at each stage of the phonetic process of learning to read. These readers address short vowels, long vowels, blends and digraphs. Skill Station Readers are also available from Modern Curriculum Press to develop phonetic awareness. The Itty Bitty Phonics Readers Series by Creative Teaching Press provides 36 readers, each with 10 pages. Children get a sense of accomplishment from finishing an entire book after practicing with each small reader’s text and drawings.

After mastering phonics readers and practicing sight words, big books are often a next step for emerging readers. Many students find it exciting to move from small readers to big books and encouraging them to feel this way can help generate a continued interest in reading. Big books are easy for young readers to handle and view, plus they stimulate big enthusiasm for reading with the stories, illustrations, and activities they contain. Candlewick Press offers a series of Sesame Street big books, including Watch Out for Banana Peels, which features Grover, and Hooray for Our Heroes, which features Big Bird. These big books can capture children’s attention by providing additional stories related to the familiar television show. Other big books are also available to address student’s diverse interests and encourage them to practice reading, with Teacher Created Resources offering sets of themed big books for voracious readers.

Leveled Readers by Scholastic, Newmark Learning, Frog Street Press and other publishers help educators guide students through increasingly challenging texts. Each of the 3-2-1 Learn Student Editions by Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt offer students activity pages that cover four curriculum areas and are applicable to their lives. Other leveled readers, such as the Little Leveled Readers Box Sets by Scholastic come as a set of small books appropriate for the reading level indicated. Leveled readers have been carefully assessed for difficulty in order to assign the correct level to them, making it easy for educators to offer students appropriately challenging reading assignments.

Books with CDs can be a particularly useful supplement to phonics readers, big books, and leveled readers. Books with CDs help students match sounds to words as they look at the book and listen to its accompanying CD. Try the Read Listen and Wonder Series by Candlewick Press for K-2 readers interested in the natural world.

Books for Reading Classrooms and Books on Other Subjects

Classroom books, including books for reading classrooms and books on other subjects such as those with content for Science and Social Studies courses, can supplement phonics readers, big books, and leveled readers or replace them at more advanced levels.

Classroom favorites such as Amelia Bedelia, Stuart Little, and Anne Frank: Life in Hiding by Harper Collins are interesting reads as well as great books for discussion because they are relatable and many people are familiar with them. Classic books such as Curious George at the Baseball Game or The Little Red Hen by Houghton-Mifflin also work well for inspiring discussion and are sure to continue to become student favorites. Class Packs of books also help educators bring interesting texts into the classroom. Houghton-Mifflin offers a Classic Fairy Tales Set containing six books, Scholastic offers a Spotlight on Literary Elements set that contains six copies each of eight student books, and Edupress offers My Alphabet Book Pack of 10 so that each student can have his own copy of the classroom text. There’s a classroom favorite, classic, or classroom set available to meet every classroom reading material need.

Learning to read is about sounding out words, recognizing sight words, understanding sentences and so on, but students can also learn about other subjects alongside their reading progress. Books like Surviving the Dustbowl by Teacher Created Resources and The Human Body Pop Up Book by Carson Dellosa can teach students about social studies and science while they practice reading skills.