Image source: Jocelyn Seamer Education
In the season of back to school do's and don'ts, another approach worth reflecting on is the three cueing method.
Cueing is a strategy used in early reading instruction. Teachers prompt children to use various sources of information to identify words. It’s actually based on a disproven theory that reading is a series of strategic guesses, informed by context clues. It’s also known as MSV, which stands for each of the three sources of information: meaning, structure/syntax, and visual. Despite its populartity and prominence, three-cueing is not actually backed by evidence!
Image source: Five from Five
The science of reading demonstrates that the three-cueing approach does not sufficiently focus on phonics-based methods (Schwartz, 2020). The three-cueing system neglects the sound-symbol relationship and encourages children to guess words based on context or specific letters, and we all know, guessing is not reading!
Ultimately, a reliance on three-cueing can actually limit comprehension and vocabulary development. When teachers employ three-cueing stategies, they are actually lowering the chances that children will use their knowledge of letter sounds to read an unfamiliar word and also decreasing the likelihood that they will recognise that word the next time they see it.
So what can we do instead of cueing?
Renowned cognitive neuroscientist, Professor Mark Seidenberg, reminds us that 'the best cue to a word, is the word itself.' Anything that takes the children's attention away from the word undermines the reading process.
The most important thing we can do here is to ensure that we keep the reader's attention on the word and encourage them to use their phonics and phonological awareness knowledge to decode and read the word.
Helpful things to say:
Point to the word.
Point to each letter.
Look at the letters.
Look slowly at every letter.
Make every sound.
Point to each phoneme.
Sound it out.
Put all of the sounds together.
Blend the sounds.
Say the word slowly.
Read the sentence again.
Dowload my tip sheet for teachers:
Don't forget to demonstrate! Regularly demonstrate the steps above for the whole class or small groups. Lean into that Gradual Release of Responsibility.
It can be a challenge to move on from strategies that we are familiar with, however it's vital that we are using the most up-to-date and effective strategies when it comes to reading instruction and be brave in ditching what we know has been disproven.
As the saying goes, know better, do better!
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