How to Teach Rich Vocabulary While Students Still Read Basic Decodables
A teacher emailed me recently with a question that hits right at the heart of structured literacy and basic decodables.
She said (and I’m paraphrasing just a bit): “I want to embed rich vocabulary when my learner is still reading basic decodables. I know read-aloud is important, but a good read-aloud takes time—how do I do vocabulary without losing foundational skills time?”
If you’ve ever looked at your lesson plan and thought, “I want more language… but where does it go?”—you’re not alone.
Because here’s the tension: decodables do exactly what they’re supposed to do. They protect the decoding practice. They keep the text controlled so students can apply phonics skills accurately and build automaticity. But controlled text also means fewer “juicy” words, shorter sentence structures, and less complex language than what students actually need to hear and use.
And we don’t want to wait on vocabulary until kids can read more advanced text. Vocabulary and language comprehension aren’t rewards you earn after mastering phonics. They’re part of the reading brain, too—and students with dyslexia (and especially students with co-occurring language weaknesses) benefit when we intentionally build language alongside decoding.
So the goal isn’t to turn decodable time into a full-blown read-aloud lesson. The goal is simpler:
Keep decodables for decoding—and layer in language with small, repeatable “upgrades” that take 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
That’s the secret. Tiny moves, done consistently, compound fast.
Why “Just Do a Read-Aloud” Doesn’t Always Solve It
Read-aloud is powerful. It exposes students to complex sentence structures, richer vocabulary, background knowledge, story language, and big ideas—without requiring them to decode it independently yet.
But teachers are also right: a read-aloud done well can easily take 15–25 minutes. And if you’re working with a tight intervention block, a tutoring session, or a classroom schedule that already feels like Tetris, it’s not always realistic.
So instead of thinking “read-aloud or decodables,” I like to think:
Where can I place tiny moments of rich language within the lesson I’m already teaching?
In a structured literacy lesson, three natural places lend themselves perfectly to vocabulary and oral language without derailing phonics:
- during word reading
- during sentence work
- during decodable reading itself
Let’s walk through each one the way it might actually happen in a real lesson.
#1 The Word List is Not “Just Decoding” — It’s a Language Opportunity
Most of us were trained to treat word lists like a fluency drill: read the words, correct errors, move on. But word lists can quietly become one of your best language-building tools because they give you something rare: control.
You control the phonics target, and you can choose just one word to zoom in on for meaning.
Here’s what this looks like in practice:
You’re reading a word list with a student. The words are simple—maybe CVC or blends. You pick one word (just one), and you give it a quick meaning spotlight:
- “Let’s pause on swift. Swift means fast—fast in a smooth way. If someone makes a swift decision, do they take a long time or a short time?”
That took about 20 seconds, but it did a lot:
- it built vocabulary knowledge
- it built oral language
- it strengthened comprehension habits (“words mean things”)
- and it didn’t steal the lesson
Another day, you might take a word and do a quick meaning comparison:
- “Mad can mean angry, but sometimes people use it to mean ‘a lot’—like ‘I’m mad excited.’ That’s not the meaning we’ll use in reading, but it’s interesting how words can shift.”
That’s depth. That’s nuance. That’s how vocabulary grows—even when the word itself isn’t “fancy.”
If you want a simple framework for turning word work into meaning work without getting stuck, that’s exactly the kind of thinking I teach in Beyond the Word List—because the goal is to stop treating words like isolated phonics objects and start treating them like language. (More on that near the end.)
#2 Sentence Work is Where Vocabulary and Syntax Can Quietly Flourish
Sentence dictation and sentence reading are already doing a lot of heavy lifting: phonics, spelling patterns, capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure, and sometimes grammar.
This is also where you can embed rich vocabulary without changing the decodability of the written sentence.
One of my favorite approaches is what I call an oral expansion.
Let’s say the decodable sentence is:
“The cat ran.”
That sentence is decodable and appropriate, but it’s not exactly rich language. You keep the written sentence as-is (because we’re protecting decoding), but you upgrade the oral language around it:
“Exactly. The cat ran. Another word for ran is sprinted—that means ran fast for a short burst. Can you say: The cat sprinted?”
Or you can go one step deeper:
“What might make a cat sprint? A loud noise? A dog barking? Tell me using a full sentence.”
Notice what just happened. You didn’t replace phonics. You didn’t extend the lesson by 10 minutes. You simply used sentence work as an opening to practice:
- richer verbs
- cause/effect language
- complete sentence production
- narrative thinking
And this matters because students who struggle with reading often also struggle with putting thoughts into well-formed sentences. Sentence-level language is a bridge between “decoding words” and “comprehending text.”
Even one well-placed question changes the experience from “read this” to “think with language.”
#3 Decodable Reading Can Still Support Vocabulary—If We Stop Treating It Like a Speed Run
When students read decodables, it’s tempting to focus only on accuracy and rate (and yes—those matter). But decodable reading is also where we can build the habit of meaning-making.
The key is to preselect just two vocabulary targets—not ten—and teach them quickly and purposefully.
Sometimes your two targets are already in the decodable, and you choose them because they unlock the story:
- a word tied to the character’s action (crept, dashed, stomped)
- a word that signals a feeling (proud, tense, calm)
- a word that holds the “why” of the plot (plan, trick, promise)
Before reading, you give a quick, kid-friendly meaning and maybe a gesture or quick example. Then you read.
During reading, you stop one time—just one—and ask something simple:
- “Point to the word ____.”
- “What does that word mean right here?”
After reading, you keep it light but meaningful. One good prompt is enough:
- “Tell me what happened first… then next… then last.”
- “What was the problem?”
- “Which word best describes the character—calm or nervous? Why?”
This is also why having the right decodable resources matters. When you’re using passages that are truly controlled but still interesting enough to talk about, it becomes much easier to build comprehension and vocabulary naturally during reading. (If you need more controlled passages to work with, I’ll point you to my decodable collection below.)
The Best Workaround When You Want To Read-Aloud But Don’t Have Time: The Micro Read-Aloud
If a teacher tells me, “I know I should do read-aloud, but it takes too long,” I don’t argue with them. I permit them to do it smaller.
A “micro read-aloud” can be:
- one powerful paragraph
- one page from an anchor text
- even a single image + a short excerpt
The goal is not to “finish the book.” The goal is to consistently expose students to richer language and big ideas in bite-sized doses.
Here’s a simple way to make micro read-aloud do real vocabulary work without becoming a whole event:
Read the short excerpt, then choose one word to teach deeply:
- kid-friendly definition
- quick example/non-example
- one oral sentence from the student
That’s it. two to four minutes total.
Consistency is the win here. Students don’t need occasional 25-minute read-alouds as much as they need frequent, predictable language exposure.
What about students with very low vocabulary or language disorders?
This question matters because many students who struggle to read also have weaknesses in oral language—sometimes diagnosed (DLD), sometimes not.
If that’s your student, the strategies above still work—you just make them more supported:
- keep vocabulary targets small (2–3 per lesson)
- use visuals/gestures whenever possible
- repeat the same words across multiple days
- use sentence frames so students can successfully produce language
- connect new words to known words (“sprint is like run fast”)
In other words, don’t add more words. Add more repetition and more supported use of a few high-impact words.
A Realistic Lesson Flow That Builds Language Without Stealing Phonics Time
If you want a simple mental model, here it is:
- Word reading: one quick “meaning spotlight” on a single word
- Sentence work: one oral expansion with a richer verb or synonym
- Decodable reading: two pre-taught words + one comprehension prompt
That’s the whole plan. You’re not adding a separate vocabulary block—you’re upgrading what’s already there.
Want support and done-for-you tools?
If you’re reading this and thinking, “I love these ideas, but I need a system so I can do it without reinventing the wheel every day,” you’ll love Beyond the Word List. It’s built to help you take word-reading routines and expand them into richer language instruction—without losing your structured literacy backbone.
I also have a growing collection of decodable reading passages that give you controlled text you can actually teach from—so you can focus your energy on instruction, not hunting for the “right” passage.
And if you want to watch me talk through this approach, I shared a video on my YouTube channel that connects this exact idea: how we move beyond “just word lists” and help students develop stronger language while they’re still in foundational skills. You can also take a closer look at word lists
