Decodable Reads
What is Decodable Reads?
Decodable Reads uses AI to instantly create custom decodable passages and phonics lesson plans that align with the Science of Reading. Educators simply select the specific phonics skills their students need to practice, students choose topics that interest them, and our platform generates personalized reading materials and structured lesson plans in seconds. This eliminates the endless hours educators spend searching for appropriate decodable texts or creating materials from scratch. Our evidence-based approach ensures every passage systematically reinforces target phonics patterns while engaging students with content they actually want to read about. Through organizational partnerships and individual subscriptions, we serve reading interventionists, special education teachers, tutors, and literacy organizations who need efficient, research-backed tools to accelerate student reading progress.
Company Leadership
Paul Heinemann
Co-Founder
As a public school teacher, Paul found many students struggling to read and disengaged by traditional phonics practice texts. This inspired him to build Decodable Reads, a solution helping educators create skill-targeted texts for students on any topic they want to read about.
Paul is a certified dyslexia tutor and trains educators on structured literacy. A middle school Teacher of the Year and alum of SLU & Wash U, Paul is excited to return to the city where he launched his teaching career.
Joe de Lorimier
Co-Founder
Joe brings six years of enterprise data and backend engineering expertise to his role as co-founder of Decodable Reads. Joe is a SLU graduate who was VP of the Entrepreneurship Club and met co-founder Paul in the Micah service community. During COVID, Joe taught himself full-stack engineering principles, hoping to someday start a tech company. His entrepreneurial vision, community focus, and technical skills in scalable systems position him to address educational challenges through technology.
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