According to the 2024 Kids Count Data Book, 75% of fourth graders in Delaware were not proficient in reading. This alarming statistic, combined with my firsthand experiences working with children at West End and UrbanPromise—and my own passion for reading—sparked my commitment to improving literacy across the state. To help drive change, I founded NextGen LaunchPad and created Allison’s Reading League to support Delaware’s children in becoming confident, lifelong readers.
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Three-Cueing Method vs. Science of Reading
To three-cue or not? Since the 1960s, the three-cueing method has dominated school systems. However, this method of reading instruction has faced controversy in recent years as the science of reading now takes over schools.
The three-cueing method is a reading instruction technique that teaches young readers to look at three cues: semantic (word meaning), syntactic (grammatical structure), and grapho-phonic (sounds/letters). This method relies on semantic context and is based on the mistaken idea that proficient readers perceive words as wholes.
In contrast to the three-cueing method's foundations, the science of reading shows that fluent readers unconsciously process every letter of a new word rather than comprehending it as a whole (Castles, Rastle & Nation, 2018). This research emphasizes phonemic awareness over the three-cueing method's guessing and context.
Here's what this might look like:
Pointing to the word the student is struggling with.
Looking at each letter.
Sounding out the individual letters/letter pairs.
Combining the sounds into the word.
Reading the sentence.
Understanding the sentence/word meaning.
This systematic approach builds stronger decoding skills, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. As schools continue to adopt methods supported by the science of reading, future generations will be better equipped with the literacy skills they need to succeed.
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