Cross Checking
Cross-checking is a strategy that combines phonics and meaning. Struggling readers often have a lot of difficulty recognizing words. Many struggling readers are taught to just “sound it out.” For this reason, they often confuse phonics with reading. Reading is more than simply sounding out words. Students need to learn that pronouncing words is only one part of reading to understand the author’s meaning. Good readers are always asking themselves, “Does this make sense?” as they read. Students also ask themselves, “Does this sound right? Does this look right?”. Cross-checking is a strategy used to teach students to actively think about what they are reading as they read. The goal is for the students to think about what would make sense and think about letters/sounds as they cross-check words.
With this strategy, the teacher writes a sentence that contains one word covered up. The teacher then asks the students to fill the missing word. In order to provide this word, students “cross-check phonics clues with context clues in the sentence” (Caldwell, Lerner, Jennings, 2014, p. 185). Together, the teacher and students read the sentence with the blank word. The students then offer suggestions for what the missing word could be. The teacher writes the suggestions on a list on the board where the students can see them. When students offer a suggestion that does not quite fit, the teacher can read the sentence out loud, insert the word, and demonstrate how the sentence does not sound right, so that word cannot work. Finally, the teacher uncovers the word, one letter at a time. The class checks the list on of possible words on the board, one letter at a time, making sure to erase or cross off any words that do not follow the letter-by-letter cross-check with the uncovered word. The teacher explains that although many words may fit in the blank, the pronunciation must match the letters chosen by the author exactly (Caldwell, Lerner, Jennings, 2014, p. 185).
With this strategy, the teacher writes a sentence that contains one word covered up. The teacher then asks the students to fill the missing word. In order to provide this word, students “cross-check phonics clues with context clues in the sentence” (Caldwell, Lerner, Jennings, 2014, p. 185). Together, the teacher and students read the sentence with the blank word. The students then offer suggestions for what the missing word could be. The teacher writes the suggestions on a list on the board where the students can see them. When students offer a suggestion that does not quite fit, the teacher can read the sentence out loud, insert the word, and demonstrate how the sentence does not sound right, so that word cannot work. Finally, the teacher uncovers the word, one letter at a time. The class checks the list on of possible words on the board, one letter at a time, making sure to erase or cross off any words that do not follow the letter-by-letter cross-check with the uncovered word. The teacher explains that although many words may fit in the blank, the pronunciation must match the letters chosen by the author exactly (Caldwell, Lerner, Jennings, 2014, p. 185).
The video above is of a 1st grade teacher showing a cross-checking lesson in action. This teacher has a slightly different variation than what was described above. In this lesson, the teacher uses a movement to go along with the strategy where she uses her arms to make an “x” across her body. One arm symbolizes “does this sound right?” and the other symbolizes “does this look right?” This action is popular when using the cross-checking strategy.