Explicit but not exhaustive
- natasharichards051
- May 18
- 3 min read
Updated: May 19
This phrase resonated with many conversations I have had with teachers and SLPs about the direction of literacy instruction. I first heard this phrase used by Mark Seidenberg who is a researcher and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is the author of the book "Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can't and What Can Be Done About It". I listened to Mr. Seidenberg at the Accelerate Literacy conference as he spoke on Where does the Science of Reading Go Next?.
It is important to teach students explicitly the most common spellings. For example, Long O can be spelled with o, ow, o_e, oa
It is also important to teach the spelling that, while not spelled that way in many words, there are a few words that are used frequently in text that have that spelling: ough (e.g., dough)
Then there are the other spellings of /o/ that perhaps would be considered exhaustive:
oo (e.g., floor), ou (e.g., four), eaux (e.g., beaux)
If you are interested in all the ways to spell a sound, check out this website:
Teaching ALL possible ways to spell a sound, however infrequent, would take substantial time! It could also bog down the cognitive load. What is needed then is to know the most common and most frequent and have strategies to use this knowledge to read unfamiliar words.
Since the National Reading Panel's report, and here in Canada, the Right to Read Inquiry, schools have started to shift towards using the science of reading to inform classroom instruction. More time is being devoted to phonological awareness and phonics. Specifically, more time is being devoted to explicit phonic instruction and this is a great shift! However, as teacher's and parent's are well aware, phonics alone will not teach children to read all the words in the English language. Or at least, any attempt to teach ALL English spelling patterns would be exhaustive. There are many books that have the rules of English spelling which are a great resource for teachers, parents, and interventionists; however, a valuable tool you can teach students is set for variability.
The very poignant point that Mr. Seidenberg made at the conference was that we need explicit instruction at first but then implicit learning must take over at some point.
So what is set for variability? Once a child knows that there is variability in how to spell sounds, they can use this to flexibility think of the different sounds those letters represent in order to sound out an unfamiliar word.
Basic phonics will start with a 1:1 mapping for sounds and letters. As a student advances, they will learn:
2 letters can represent a sound (e.g., sh)
There can be many ways to spell a sound (e.g., long a - a_e, ai, ay, eigh)
There is overlap in the system (e.g., <ow> in 'snow' and <ow> in 'plow')
A great resource for taking children from basic to advanced phonics is "Reading Reflex".
Think about set for variability in context. The student has learned that the letter <a> can be used to spell the short a sound (as in 'cat') and the long 'a' sound (as in 'face').
The student may have learned that when they see a CVCVC pattern, they split the word as CV / CVC to create an open syllable, followed by closed syllable.
E.g., bacon > ba / con
The first syllable is open and therefore the vowel says its long vowel sound (or letter name).
What happens when words don't follow this pattern? Consider the word CABIN.
The student may first apply the most likely pattern and read this as "caybin".
Upon not recognizing this word, the child uses flexes the sound to the short vowel and reads it as "cabin". Success!!
This process requires phonics knowledge as well as the word to be in the child's vocabulary.
For some students, learning to apply this strategy of flexibility can be challenging. At first, they may need prompts such as "What is another sound those letters can make?".
Learning set for variability will be key for readers as they transition from explicit learning to implicit learning.
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