Teacher's Guide: Choosing the Right UFLI-Aligned Decodable Books by Unit

One of the most common questions teachers using UFLI Foundations ask is: How do I know which decodable books to use, and when? This guide gives you a clear, practical framework for selecting, organising, and rotating decodable books across a UFLI programme.

For whole-class instruction: choose books at the class's current instructional unit. For small group and guided reading: group readers by current UFLI unit and give each group books matched to their unit. This is the most powerful use of decodable books. For independent reading: readers should read at their independent level, one to two units below their instructional level. For take-home reading: send home books that the reader has already read in class. The take-home book is not for learning new sounds. It's an opportunity to praise expression in voice, phrasing (stringing words into phrases), and confidence in reading. Most importantly, keep reading time short and pleasurable. Parents are not phonics teachers; the goal at home is fluency and enjoyment, not instruction.

If you teach UFLI as your Tier 1 phonics block, here's the cleanest way to add decodables. If you're new to UFLI, here's the simplest way in:

1. Download the UFLI Foundations materials from the University of Florida Literacy Institute.
2. Find your reader's current phonics stage using the Innerlinks crosswalk: Set 1 (Lessons 13-16), Set 2 (Lessons 16-25), Set 3 (Lessons 26-34), Set 4 (Lessons 35-41), Set 5 (Lessons 42-52).
3. Plan a 30 minute lesson, four or five days a week.
4. After the lesson, hand your reader a decodable book at the same lesson number.
5. Re-read the book the next day. Pull out the bonus phonics game on day three for review.

Innerlinks decodable books are designed to sit cleanly within a Science of Reading classroom. Browse by phonics level at innerlinks.info.