TRT Podcast #116: What is set for variability? A conversation with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg
Set for variability is a skill that readers use to transform a pronunciation error into the correctly decoded form of the word. If you think it sounds important, you’re right! Today we learn all about set for variability from Dr. Marnie Ginsberg, creator of Reading Simplified.
Full episode transcript
Links related to this episode
- Marnie’s Reading Simplified YouTube channel
- Video: Learning Phonics Quickly with Switch It
- Reading Simplified website
To find articles on set for variability, go to Google Scholar and search “set for variability.”
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Mari Buys
Marnie’s example of reading ‘pterodactyl’ underlines the importance of GOOD vocabulary skills and often this is one of struggling readers’ biggest challenges. Great discussion – thank you.
Heather Groth, Customer Support
Thank you for your comment, Mari!
Shelley
Anna we had connected a while back (Google Meet) regarding the Enriched Read Aloud. Just wondering if you could give me some feedback.
The podcast on Variability gave me a strategy name that I use often, thank-you
Kindly
Shelley
Anna Geiger
Shelley, I do remember having a conversation … but I’m sorry that it’s been so long I don’t remember the particulars! Feel free to send me an email and refresh my memory!
N. Handel
Enjoyed the interview. Thank you. Helpful. You speak of ead as a short e sound. What about “read” as in “to read a book?” I believe it is a long e sound, unlike “dead” and “bread.” Please clarify.
Anna Geiger
That word would not follow the pattern, but “read” as in “I have read a book” would.
Taryn
The variability factor has been a strategy used after mapping doesn’t work in Reading Recovery. It’s nothing new to strongly trained RR teachers. It’s an integration of M (meaning/comprehension), S (structure/syntax), and V (phonics). And just as Marnie said, it depends on the child. In RR teaching, we are revisiting those patterns (which have already been explicitly taught) over and over depending on the needs of each individual student. RR is just so misunderstood. The actual SoR methodology just keeps confirming that RR is such a fantastic program! Yay! Great podcast!
Anna Geiger
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Taryn! I’m afraid that I can’ t agree with you about the value of Reading Recovery, because I don’t support the use of three-cueing.
Ell
I have to agree with you. I was trained in RR and explicit phonics instruction was not a part of the training or the lessons. Students were taught to look at the picture and check that the first letter matched the word they were predicting. The books used for RR and lesson components do not follow the science of reading at all. If anything they are polar opposites. I’ve had much more success with teaching children through a structured literacy approach and using decodable texts.
Anna Geiger
Thank you, Ell, I appreciate this feedback!
Abigail Caumartin
Hi Anna,
When the “visual cue” of phonics doesn’t work and the student mispronounces a word, my understanding is that we should then be teaching/modeling a skill Dr. Ginsberg refers to as “set for variability,” which seems to be encouraging students to use their background knowledge of meaning and syntax to correct their mispronunciation. How is this different than the three-cueing system aside from first and foremost, encouraging students to mostly rely on their visual cues (or phonics information)?
Also, I’d love to know if there is research on the timing Dr. Ginsburg suggests of moving students away from strictly using decodable texts. Thanks! I’m really getting a lot out of thought-provoking info from your Podcasts.
Anna Geiger
Hi Abigail! Students should always use the word itself when reading it – by attempting to sound it out if it’s not a word they’ve already mapped. After coming up with a pronunciation, they can check that using context and syntax, since phonics doesn’t always land us right on the correct word. The difference is that with three-cueing, the visual cue (phonics) is typically considered less valuable and is subordinate to context and syntax. Also, three-cueing theory says that skilled readers don’t look at all the letters of the word when reading; they mostly use context and syntax. However, we know from eye movement studies that this is not the case. There is very little research on decodable books at this time; I would reach out to Dr. Ginsburg to see if she knows of something related to when to move children out of decodable text. However, I highly doubt that research has been done yet.