Yellow: Pattern Books

Pattern Books: What You Should Know

Pattern books are early reading books that use a simple, repetitive sentence pattern and have pictures that match the text.

In ARC Core, all Yellow Level books are pattern books. If a child is not yet reading, these are the books they will be using to "learn to read".

Here is a sample of the yellow book "Red All Around". The sentence that is repeated is "This _____ is red." This pattern repeats, and the picture shows a different red object on each page.

All yellow books can be viewed online at: American Reading At Home.

Reading Pictures

In addition to the implicit guidance of pattern books, ARC Core also had explicit guidance to use pictures to "read".

Here is an image of the Yellow Skills Card (prior to 2023) that is very clear about using patterns, pictures, and first letter of a word to figure out a word that "matches" the text. And an old explanation of 'What is Yellow?' on ARC's website states:

Yellow readers are only reading the pictures.

And while this explicit guidance has since been removed from the current Yellow level and skills cards, there are still numerous problems with this approach, including:

The nature and intent of pattern books remains the same.
Teachers may still use cueing concepts to instruct students.

Why Pattern Books are Problematic

Encourage Guessing, Not Decoding: Children are often taught to "read" these books by looking at the pictures and guessing words based on the pattern, rather than learning to sound out words using letter sounds.
Don't Build Phonics Skills: These books don't provide enough opportunities to practice and apply phonics skills, which are essential for becoming a fluent and independent reader.
Can Create a False Sense of Reading: Children may appear to be reading, but they are often just memorizing patterns and relying on pictures, not actually decoding the words.
Hinder Transition to More Complex Texts: When children encounter books without predictable patterns and strong picture clues, they lack the decoding skills to read independently.
Can Mask Reading Difficulties: Children who struggle with phonics may rely heavily on patterns and pictures, making it harder to identify underlying reading challenges early on.
Not Aligned with Reading Science: Research in the science of reading emphasizes the importance of systematic phonics instruction and decodable texts for building strong reading foundations.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse