Once students have mastered the grapheme-phoneme connection of at least one or two short vowel sounds and a handful of consonants, you can begin using decodable text to reinforce their learning. However, it goes beyond just choosing a random decodable reader that advertises the phonics skill you have been targeting. Decodables should build upon the same scope and sequence used in formal phonics instruction or the decodability of the book is lost. This is one of the many reasons that using high quality instructional materials is so important, and why studying the curriculum you have purchased or will be purchasing needs to be an in-depth and thorough endeavor. When using free source decodable materials, alignment of the instructional scope and sequence will need to match that source's scope and sequence.
Applying the decoding skills learned in isolation to connected text provides opportunities for students to build the reflex of using letter-sound relationships as their go-to strategy when faced with unfamiliar words. Practicing with highly decodable text also builds the confidence of young readers and can be highly motivating.
That being said, decodable readers are not meant to be the only reading material our students engage with each day. They have a specific instructional use and the goal is to move them out of decodable readers as soon as they are ready. Louisa Moats recommends moving students out of decodable readers and into authentic books as soon they demonstrate readiness, which she identified as having a grasp on most of the grapheme-phoneme correspondences and a healthy bank of words that they recognize quickly and effortlessly.
