Logographic Cues: Helping Comprehension Without Hindering Fluency

I think kids are good at creating remembering shorthand, especially in today’s digital world.  For instance, “TTYL” when typing it to a friend means “Talk to you later” and “YOLO” even when spoken aloud means “you only live once.”  I’m surprised, then, that that upon first reading about logographic cues in Kylene Beer’s When Kids Can’t Read, I was skeptical that they would be effective.

A logographic cue is a “visual symbol” – created by students – that they are able to “insert into texts as they read to become ‘signposts’ that show them the direction the text is taking” (Beers 129).  I was doubtful that they would work as well as sticky notes in keeping a student engaged in a text.  Would students think that memorizing a visual system is an annoyance?  Would students remember the cues they created?  It was actually during my reading of my book club text, What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee that I began to realize just how visual kids are.  Kids love video games – and video games are made up of many visual cues (amongst other things) that help kids to navigate through various world and levels.  It certainly seems plausible that using visual cues could be effectively transferred to aiding in unlocking the meaning of a text.

It took me longer to grasp why logographic cues might sometimes preferred over sticky notes or double entry diaries and other during-reading comprehension strategies.  The realization came while reading about fluency.  Fluency is “the ability to read smoothly and easily at a good pace with good phrasing and expression” (Beers 205).  How could kids work on reading smoothly, and at a good pace, if I as their teacher was constantly asking them to stop and record a question, personal connection, or prediction in the middle of their reading?  While I still would argue that this is quite valuable – I think it’s equally important to give students a strategy to maintain comprehension while working on fluency.  The logographic cues seems like the perfect strategy since it only requires the student to make a quick note in the margins of the text – a question mark for example – to allow them to remember to go back to that particular section.  “Logographic cues are designed to offer readers a high-utility message in a minimum amount of space” (Beers 129).  While I agree, I would also say it delivers this message in a minimum amount of time -- making it a perfect way to advance during-reading comprehension without hindering fluency.  

Works Cited

Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do:  A Guide for Teachers, 6-12. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2003. Print.