Trade Books

Trade or Leveled Books

Trade or leveled books are more traditional books that you would find in the library. Applying knowledge of phonics patterns and high frequency words to more traditional texts is another essential component in teaching reading as your child has mastered many of the phonetic concepts. A level reading or trade book is assigned a level based on many factors such as the numbers of words and complexity of a text. These are the everyday books your child will encounter throughout their life. They do not focus on a specific phonetic pattern and may contain many previously taught and new phonetic concepts. They often contain High Frequency and Red Words as well. They lend themselves to building oral language, comprehension, meaning, and vocabulary. These texts allow students to learn about the concepts of print like title, author, illustrator, text directionality and punctuation.

As your child becomes stronger with their decoding and phonics skills, they will be able to read more traditional trade and leveled books independently. These texts lend themselves to dig deeper into the text and develop comprehension skills such as character study, main idea/details, theme, lessons learned, authors word choice and so forth. They give children the opportunity to infer and analyze the text in a more deeper and authentic way. It is vital for children to have exposure to trade books as well to build their oral language and comprehension. Depending on your child's level of readiness they will receive some of these types of books in their reading folders as well. They will have already read the text with me. They should practice reading these texts aloud to someone in the household as well.

Additionally, it is important for children to hear good literature being read to them as well at all stages. Whether or not your child is receiving trade books, it is very beneficial to make a daily routine of reading aloud to your child. This will strengthen their oral language and comprehension through discussions and questions about the text, so that when they have mastered their phonics and decoding skills they will be able to apply that deeper thinking to their own independent reading as well.