Actually, I don't do anything with decoding skills. We do that by putting students in the path of as much text as possible. It may not be school book text. Sadness is a dead plant in the cold winter snow.
Sadness is a little girl in a boat floating away from home.
Sadness is the quiet wave of dark cold water as it hits the beach. Sadness is the fire that takes your soul. Sadness is a car as it drives away from an old house. Sadness is the dark night sky and stars shining above you. Sadness has come.