Myth #2: If we don’t encourage children to use meaning to figure out a word, we are sending the message that meaning isn’t important
Phonics Myth Busters Series
Myth #2: If we don’t encourage children to use meaning to figure out a word, we are sending the message that meaning isn’t important.
Lots of us have been trained in prompting students to solve unfamiliar words. We were taught to say things like “think about what makes sense.” Or “look at the first letters and the picture.” Or “reread from the beginning of the sentence and think about what makes sense.” Or “think about what’s happening in this part and what would make sense here.” Yes?
The problem is, this just isn’t the best and most useful way to teach kids. As much as it might work in the moment, or sound like a useful strategy, or even be what kids naturally tend to do. Let’s think about why.
Ultimately, we want students recognition of words to become increasingly automatic. This happens through a process called orthographic mapping. If you’ve never heard this fancy word, what you need to know is that words are stored for retrieval by making letter sounds association. The more students decode a word the more likely they are to recognize it or its parts in the future.
Also, when we teach students to use meaning to figure out words, rather than focusing on phonics, we are teaching them a compensation strategy. If you don’t have the phonics, take a good guess. The problem is, this isn’t efficient and it won’t help kids in the long term, especially when they are working with unfamiliar and multisyllabic words.
Nell Duke has a great article about this (mostly about). It’s called “When Young Readers Get Stuck” (2020). We hope you’ll check it out. She provides important language you can use with children and at the end encourages us to make sure that the books kids read “reward attention to letters and words.”
Okay, so wait, but then are we saying meaning isn’t important for readers? Absolutely not! Isn’t meaning the reason WHY we read? Absolutely, yes! First and foremost, any time we read a text with kids, we always work to understand, react, talk about it. That’s the meaning. Also, we want students to check their attempts on a word by thinking about what makes sense with the text.
Well, there you have it. Big, important Myth #2: If we don’t encourage children to use meaning to figure out a word, we are sending the message that meaning isn’t important.
Thanks for “Still Learning” with us!
Lizzie and Marie