For years, IMSE’s “Decodable Readers” book series has been a trusted resource for school districts aligning their practices with the science of reading.

In a move that will help teachers nationwide address the reading crisis, IMSE, the leading provider of Structured Literacy professional development, has released a new edition of its celebrated K-2 “IMSE Decodable Readers” book series. IMSE literacy experts emphasize that school districts will find the new “Decodable Readers” collections highly effective and easy to use in the classroom.

With two-thirds of U.S. students unable to read at grade level, school and district leaders are eager to switch to a literacy approach that’s able to help students build confidence, automaticity, and fluency in reading. Structured Literacy — a highly organized, step-by-step approach to literacy grounded in the science of reading — has been proven to promote those goals by emphasizing the importance of phonetic skills along with other components of reading and language comprehension.

IMSE’s new “Decodable Readers” collection is part of its time-tested Structured Literacy program. The collection features 228 fiction and non-fiction books organized in three volumes, all of them containing only phonics patterns and irregular words that have been explicitly taught based on IMSE’s proprietary phonics sequence and red-word sequence. By placing enough early focus on phonics to create automaticity in word recognition, IMSE’s program later frees students to apply more cognitive resources to higher-order skills like comprehension. IMSE hopes that publishing the new “Decodable Readers” edition will build upon the foundation of decodable resources available to teachers and offer a uniquely effective brand of Structured Literacy. 

“The numbers coming out of schools show that Structured Literacy is an effective approach for reversing our nation’s low literacy rates,” said IMSE CEO and Co-Founder Jeanne Jeup. “Behind ‘Decodable Readers,’ there are decades of solid interdisciplinary research about how we best learn to read. I think teachers using them will be amazed how quickly all of their students — not just some — show measurable progress when instruction follows the science of reading.”  

The new “Decodable Readers” editions consists of three volumes — “Volume 1 Fiction,” “Volume 2 Fiction,” and “Volume 1 Nonfiction.” IMSE has updated the “Volume 1 Fiction” books with vibrant new illustrations, while the other volumes are all-new and include helpful extension activities, vocabulary lists, comprehension questions, glossaries, background information sections, and other resources. The non-fiction books also contain read-aloud sections designed to reinforce students’ language comprehension through practice in context. 

“One thing that sets our books apart is that we progress one concept, or sound, at a time,” said IMSE Academic Team Specialist Kara Swenson. “These books allow students to learn a concept and apply it in context repeatedly before moving on to the next, which helps them master those fundamental reading skills and gain a lot of confidence quickly. Also, the fiction and nonfiction stories are often connected by a common theme relevant to students’ interests, which really works to promote engagement.”

Bringing together high-quality materials designed by educators and a literacy framework aligned with the science of reading, the 2024 “IMSE Decodable Readers” collection promises to be a decisive addition to school districts’ literacy toolkits.

Learn more about IMSE's new "Decodable Readers" by watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmkeFdIcEV0 

Districts interested in the new “Decodable Readers” can purchase them online or by calling (844) 325-3149.

To learn more about IMSE’s proven, easy-to-apply approach to Structured Literacy, visit www.imse.com.