Best Practice in Reading Instruction in 2024

Question

Are the cueing method, balanced literacy, or whole literacy "things" today?

Answer 1

As more and more research emerges about the "Science of Reading" we are beginning to understand that balanced literacy methods such as cueing are harmful for students. Research suggests that students need a healthy foundation in phonics knowledge to read successfully, which can be obtained through exposure to letter sounds/advanced phonics sounds, phonemic awareness, and instruction in blending and spelling words.

Answer 2

Thank you, Emily B, for your detailed explanation and outline of the history!

I hope that my thoughts help clarify some of the necessary jargon around this conversation.

Essentially, older methods like the cueing method, which relied on children using pictures and other sentence context to guess words, too heavily relied on learners' capacity for inference (a challenging skill and of itself) and did not explicitly teach children how to read words. Instead, what's gaining ground are approaches grounded in the "Science of Reading" (an academic movement), which focuses on a more systematic way of teaching reading, from practicing the discrete sounds that make up words, to tracing how letters come together to form words in the first place. This includes specific techniques that help all children, especially those with reading challenges like dyslexia, learn to read more effectively by building fundamental skills step by step.

Overall, we likely couldn't have arrived at where we are today without the educational history of less effective methods that came beforehand. As research continues to evolve, so too will our reading instruction!

Answer 3

No, not at all, or not at this time in educational history. The cueing method, teaching a child to use context cues, including pictures and other words in sentence have fallen out of fashion simply because it does not work. The main theorist, practician, and text book creator for this method was lambasted in The New York Times and other writings because too many children across the country were not able to decode. The Science of Reading and "structured literacy" ( as contrasted with "balanced literacy," which uses "code" and "meaning")is considered best, evidence-based or grounded practice today. Literacy experts and K-6 classroom teachers need to have training in O-G ( Orton-Gillingham) or O-G based methods. Otherwise, children with dyslexia or LD ( language-based disabilities) and even typical children will likely not become competent and confident readers.