Eliminating Cueing From Reading Instruction
We all need to avoid cueing when teaching literacy by Rob Rossi, Splash Editor Cueing is a technique many of us have seen, experienced, and probably used when trying to help kids learn to read. Cueing involves guessing at unknown words based on the first letter, the context, and any pictures that might be present. Recent scientific work has shown that this approach actually makes it harder for kids to learn how to read, and has instead vindicated a phonics approach to literacy. That is, we should be helping kids sound out words, rather than encouraging them to guess at them with cueing. Until I learned this, I was using every tool I knew of to help kids learn how to read, including cueing, whether it was my own kid or a kid I was helping at school. Emily Hanford has done excellent reporting on this for Educate , an American Public Media project. I commend the following pieces of journalism to you on this topic (and specifically recommend you listen to the audio rather than rea