In Favor of Predictable Books

By Gay C. Ward, PhD

When some ‘Science of Reading’ advocates claimed that predictable books should not be used until Grade 2, I was frankly shocked, dismayed and incredulous!

Had these people ever taught children to read??? I could not imagine teaching the hundreds of children to read in my career without the beautiful predictable books whose rhyme, rhythm and repetition gave my emergent readers their first “Aha!” moments, their first understandings of how print works, that then led them into mastering decoding as they became more Print-Focused. Predictable books (and poems) had both the semantic (meaning) and the phonetic (sound) cues together in one source which made learning to read interesting and fun.  These same ‘Science of Reading’ advocates claimed that children should have a diet of decodable readers until they were in the second grade. WHY???  A few problems with this. Yes, decodable readers, though often feeble in meaning, can provide practice in decoding and give confidence. Some children enjoy this practice and will seek them out during this period when they are figuring out decoding. Others will only seek them out for a very brief time. 2nd grade? What is so special about 2nd grade?? Why not kindergarten? Or 3rd grade??!! Where has the understanding gone that brain development varies enormously???  Secondly, there is no problem with children having access to predictable books alongside decodable readers and even have some experience with them through Guided Reading sessions. (See Chapter 6 of our Handbook for the “how to” of Guided Reading.)  And at the same time, they should also be read to from novels such as Charlotte’s Web (White, 2015), Because of Winn Dixie (DiCamillo, 2020), and Matilda (Dahl, 2024).

Children deprived of predictable books, nursery rhymes, poems, chants, and songs are also deprived of them as models for writing. Writing their own versions inspired by the pattern of the predictable book helps the developing readers to confirm discoveries they have made about print and gives them another text to read confidently.

So let’s continue to excite children about language and reading with predictable books from birth—with read aloud, shared reading and then guided reading of such delightful stories as:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear (Martin, 2010); We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Rosen, 2017); Hattie and the Fox (Fox, 1992); Mrs. Wishy-Washy (Cowley, 1999); In a People House (Dr. Seuss, 2007), The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle, 2002), The Great Big Enormous Turnip (Oxenbury, 1998), The House That Jack Built (Mayo, 2006), Goodnight Moon (Brown, 2007), I Know An Old Lady (Hoberman, 1980), …and so many more. Although many of these classics may be out of print, they are still in our libraries, and modern technology allows us to project them on whiteboards for sharing in group settings.

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References:

Brown, M.W. (2007). Goodnight Moon. HarperCollins.

Carle, E. (2002). The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Penguin.

Cowley, J. (1999). Mrs. Wishy-Washy. Philomel.

Dahl, Roald. (2024). Matilda (The Roald Dahl Classic Collection). Penguin Books Ltd.

DiCamillo, Kate. (2020). Because of Winn Dixie. Anniversary Edition. Candlewick.

Fox, M. (1992). Hattie and the Fox. Aladdin.

Hoberman, M. A. (1980). I Know and Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Martin, Jr., B. (2010). Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? Henry Holt & Co.

Mayo, Dana. (2006). The House that Jack Built. Barefoot Books.

Oxenbury, H. (1998). The Great Big Enormous Turnip. Mammoth.

Rosen, M. (2017). We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Walker Books.

Seuss, DR. In a People House. (2007). Random House Books for Young Readers.

White, E.B. (2015) Charlotte’s Web (Trophy Newbery). HarperCollins.