Decodable books 3 hour workshop

Sorry folks, the 2024 workshops have been cancelled due to caseload pressures and low enrolments. In 2025 we might revive them as advisory sessions for a specific school, library, therapy team, client group or individual client - contact admin@spelfabet.com.au to request such a session.

Small, hands-on, in-person decodable books workshop presented by Alison Clarke, senior Speech Pathologist at Spelfabet in North Fitzroy. This workshop aims to help teachers, therapists, librarians, parents and others identify high-quality, good-value phonics practice texts for learners of any age. Victorian schools will spend lots of taxpayers’ money on decodable books in the next three years, implementing the required 25 minutes per day of phonemic awareness and phonics in years F-2. Many schools and others will also be investing in phonics practice texts for struggling older learners, including adults. Everyone needs to get good value for money.

There doesn't seem to be anywhere else in Victoria where you can compare and contrast a wide range of decodable/simplified text books, to avoid the perils of online buyers’ remorse, or spending hours visiting or hosting vendors. We have written summaries of most of the early years book series on display, so they're easier to compare. Hi-Lo texts for struggling older learners are now also part of the display, and we're working on summaries of them, as well as some newer F-2 books. Many matching workbooks and related materials are also on the display.

Each workshop is for up to a dozen people, so everyone gets a chance to have a proper look at the books of most interest, discuss teaching sequences, book features, advantages and disadvantages, and there's time for questions/discussion. Session cost is $40 per hour plus GST per person. Sorry these can't be free workshops, but Spelfabet has no external funding, decodable books are expensive, and we need to pay the office rent and eat.

We have at least some of the following books:

• The Adventures of Doc Leeda (High Noon Books, US)
• Barrington Stoke 'dyslexia friendly' books, including Little Gems and teen fiction (UK).
• Big Cat Phonics Practice, Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds (Collins, UK)
• Boffin Boy (Ransom, UK)
• Bug Club/Phonics Bug (Pearson, UK)
• Core Knowledge Language Arts readers (free printables, US)
• Cracking the ABC Code (Aus).
• Dandelion Launchers, Readers and World (nonfiction) books (Phonic Books, UK and US)
• Dark Man series (Ransom, UK)
• Decodable Jewels (Aus)
• Decodable Readers Australia (Early Readers, Main Fiction, nonfiction, Aus)
• Dog on a Log (Let’s Go Books, US)
• The Drop In Series (Forward With Phonics, UK)
• ERA Phonics Decodables (Aus)
• Fitzroy Readers (Fitzroy Program, Aus)
• Flying Start to Literacy (Aus)
• Flyleaf Emergent Reader Series and Reading Series, (UK), which are also free online.
• Get Reading Right (Aus)
• Goal (Ransom, UK)
• InitiaLit readers (Multilit, Aus)
• Jolly Phonics - Little Word books, Inky Mouse and Friends, General Fiction, Nonfiction and Our World series (Jolly Learning, UK)
• Junior Learning Letters and Sounds sequence books (UK)
• Little Learners Love Literacy Pip and Tim, Wiz Kids, Tam and Pat and Big World (nonfiction) books, and the Fox Kid series for older struggling learners.
• Little Sprouts (High Noon books, US)
• Mog and Gom (Smart Kids, UK)
• Neutron Stars (Ransom, UK)
• Oxford Hero Academy fiction and non-fiction (UK)
• Oxford Reading for Comprehension Decodables and Discover series (UK)
• Phonic Books Catch Up readers: Moon Dogs (including Extras, VCe & Vowels), Magic Belt, That Dog, Mel on Mars, Totem, Alba, Pets Rule, Dragon Eggs, Talisman 1 & 2, Rescue, Island Adventure, Titan's Gauntlets, Hidden in Paris, Amber Guardians, UK)
• Phonics International/No Nonsense Phonics (UK)
• Phonics With Feeling (printable decodables, available from the Spelfabet website, Aus)
• PLD Literacy (Aus)
• Pocket Rockets (Aus)
• Preschool University (printable decodables, US)
• Reading Elephant (download-and-print stories, US)
• Power Readers and Supercharged Readers (Voyager Sopris, US)
• Promises (Ransom, UK)
• Rapid Phonics (Pearson, UK)
• Reading Mates (Aus)
• Reading Stars (Ransom, UK)
• Rip Rap Club, and Rip Rap Series A and B (Cumquatmay, Aus)
• Rising Stars Reading Planet (UK)
• Simple Words books (US)
• Siti's Sisters (Ransom, UK)
• SmartKids Decodable Fiction Collection (UK)
• Snappy Sounds (Aus)
• Sound Out Chapter Books and many other High Noon decodable and Hi-Lo books, US)
• Sound Waves (Firefly Press, Aus)
• Sounds Write including Battle Cries (UK)
• SPELD SA Phonic book series for Jolly Phonics sequence and Sounds-Write sequence (Aus)
• Steve Sharp (Ransom, UK)
• Sunshine books – Decodable series (Aus)
• UFLI Foundations (US)
• Whole Phonics (US)

Our hi-lo books don't all currently fit on the display (more shelves are on order), and we are adding to the display all the time, so not everything we have is listed above. Please ask if there's a specific book or type of book of interest. Call our office on 03 8528 0138 if you want a shorter, more targeted session for a group from your school, library, clinic or other organisation.

Please note that we need a minimum number of registrants for each workshop, and will provide a full refund if we cancel. You can cancel up to a week in advance.