PROGRAM DESIGN AND COMPONENTS
pp. 167-8 ATLANTIC CANADA ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM: K–3
Confirming/Self-Correcting
Effective readers are constantly monitoring their predictions, looking for confirmation. They ask themselves the questions:
• Did that make sense? (semantic cues)
• Did that sound right? Can I say it that way? (syntactic cues)
• Does it look right? If it were “there,” would it have a “th” at the beginning and a “t” at the end? (graphophonic cues)
When readers are uncertain about their predictions, they need to have a variety of self-correction strategies upon which to draw. For example:
• Read on and come back to make another prediction that fits.
• Go back to the beginning of the sentence and try it again, thinking about what fits.
• Sample more of the print information, for example,
• look at more of the letters
• break the words into parts
• think about a word you know that starts the same way or looks similar
• look for small words in the big word
Students learn these strategies of sampling, predicting, and confirming/
self-correcting over time when they are focussed on in the contexts of
shared reading, guided reading, mini-lessons, and reading conferences.
For example, during shared reading, teachers might cover up some of
the print to create a cloze activity that involves students in using the
various cueing systems to sample, predict, and confirm/self-correct.
With beginning emergent readers, the initial focus needs to be on
predicting, confirming, and self-correcting on the basis of what makes
sense (semantic and syntactic). As students begin to acquire knowledge
about the graphophonic cueing system, they need to be taught how to
use this knowledge along with the other cueing systems as they predict,
confirm, and self-correct.
Feedback such as the following helps students learn to make integrated
use of the cueing systems:
• That made sense, but does it look right?
• That sounded right, did it make sense?
• What would end like that and sound right?
• What can you see in the picture that starts and ends like that?
The decision about which of the various feedback statements to use
depends on individual students and an understanding of their particular
needs in relation to their development of reading strategies. For
example, a student who is relying on a sounding out strategy needs
feedback focussing on using semantic and syntactic cues. A student
who is relying primarily on contextual cues might need to have attention
focussed on the print and his/her use of graphophonic knowledge.
Appropriate feedback varies depending on whether the strategies used
by the student are successful.
As students become more experienced in using a range of reading
strategies, the feedback provided might focus more on helping them
recognize what strategy they used and whether or not it was effective, as
well as suggesting an alternate strategy. Examples of such feedback
comments include the following:
• How did you figure out that word. Is there any other way you
could figure it out?
• You stopped for a moment. What were you thinking? What did
you notice?
• Can you find two ways to check that word?
p.165
During reading/viewing strategies are used during the process of
reading. They can help readers to make sense of a text and to monitor
their understanding of what they are reading. Some such strategies are
• confirming or modifying initial predictions and continuing to make
predictions about what will happen next
asking oneself questions as one reads
• visualizing or making a picture in one’s mind about the text
• going back and rereading when the text does not make sense
• making personal connections with the text.
• making notes from the text
Effective readers are constantly monitoring their predictions, looking for confirmation. They ask themselves the questions:
• Did that make sense? (semantic cues)
• Did that sound right? Can I say it that way? (syntactic cues)
• Does it look right? If it were “there,” would it have a “th” at the beginning and a “t” at the end? (graphophonic cues)
When readers are uncertain about their predictions, they need to have a variety of self-correction strategies upon which to draw. For example:
• Read on and come back to make another prediction that fits.
• Go back to the beginning of the sentence and try it again, thinking about what fits.
• Sample more of the print information, for example,
• look at more of the letters
• break the words into parts
• think about a word you know that starts the same way or looks similar
• look for small words in the big word
Students learn these strategies of sampling, predicting, and confirming/
self-correcting over time when they are focussed on in the contexts of
shared reading, guided reading, mini-lessons, and reading conferences.
For example, during shared reading, teachers might cover up some of
the print to create a cloze activity that involves students in using the
various cueing systems to sample, predict, and confirm/self-correct.
With beginning emergent readers, the initial focus needs to be on
predicting, confirming, and self-correcting on the basis of what makes
sense (semantic and syntactic). As students begin to acquire knowledge
about the graphophonic cueing system, they need to be taught how to
use this knowledge along with the other cueing systems as they predict,
confirm, and self-correct.
Feedback such as the following helps students learn to make integrated
use of the cueing systems:
• That made sense, but does it look right?
• That sounded right, did it make sense?
• What would end like that and sound right?
• What can you see in the picture that starts and ends like that?
The decision about which of the various feedback statements to use
depends on individual students and an understanding of their particular
needs in relation to their development of reading strategies. For
example, a student who is relying on a sounding out strategy needs
feedback focussing on using semantic and syntactic cues. A student
who is relying primarily on contextual cues might need to have attention
focussed on the print and his/her use of graphophonic knowledge.
Appropriate feedback varies depending on whether the strategies used
by the student are successful.
As students become more experienced in using a range of reading
strategies, the feedback provided might focus more on helping them
recognize what strategy they used and whether or not it was effective, as
well as suggesting an alternate strategy. Examples of such feedback
comments include the following:
• How did you figure out that word. Is there any other way you
could figure it out?
• You stopped for a moment. What were you thinking? What did
you notice?
• Can you find two ways to check that word?
p.165
During reading/viewing strategies are used during the process of
reading. They can help readers to make sense of a text and to monitor
their understanding of what they are reading. Some such strategies are
• confirming or modifying initial predictions and continuing to make
predictions about what will happen next
asking oneself questions as one reads
• visualizing or making a picture in one’s mind about the text
• going back and rereading when the text does not make sense
• making personal connections with the text.
• making notes from the text