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PSPKK12314 Comments

What is set for variability? A conversation with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg

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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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Filed Under: Podcast, Phonics, Science of reading, Structured literacy Tagged With: first grade, second grade, third grade, kindergarten

You May Also Enjoy These Episodes:

My response to Jan Richardson & Michele Dufresne, Part 1 What you need to know about Orton-Gillingham All about phonics with Wiley Blevins
How to help students improve language comprehension – a conversation with Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan
What does the research say about alphabet instruction? with Dr. Shayne Piasta

Reader Interactions

14 Comments

  1. Mari Buys

    January 25, 2024 at 2:33 am

    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.

    Reply to this comment
    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      January 28, 2024 at 10:29 am

      Thank you for your comment, Mari!

      Reply to this comment
  2. Shelley

    March 25, 2023 at 11:30 am

    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

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      March 26, 2023 at 4:48 pm

      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!

      Reply to this comment
  3. N. Handel

    March 23, 2023 at 7:03 am

    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.

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      March 23, 2023 at 7:04 am

      That word would not follow the pattern, but “read” as in “I have read a book” would.

      Reply to this comment
  4. Taryn

    March 23, 2023 at 6:22 am

    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!

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      March 23, 2023 at 6:48 am

      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.

      Reply to this comment
      • Ell

        April 4, 2023 at 8:10 pm

        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.

        Reply to this comment
        • Anna Geiger

          April 5, 2023 at 5:17 pm

          Thank you, Ell, I appreciate this feedback!

          Reply to this comment
      • Abigail Caumartin

        April 26, 2023 at 8:51 am

        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.

        Reply to this comment
        • Anna Geiger

          April 30, 2023 at 12:47 pm

          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.

          Reply to this comment

Trackbacks

  1. » New Flex-It games says:
    May 30, 2024 at 8:47 am

    […] of Set for Variability in reading here, including references, or you can listen to her on the Triple R Teaching podcast. So here’s a quick version, please see hers for more details (and yes, I’ve sent Marnie […]

    Reply to this comment
  2. Set for Variability: Reading Strategy You Might Not Know About | Reading Simplified says:
    July 27, 2023 at 2:05 pm

    […] Listen to the Podcast […]

    Reply to this comment

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