Phonics IS the V in MSV

Gonna be tacky for a while. (This is actually an old issue, but continues to have serious, unintended consequences. A bit scared to post it, as people will probably attack me because they think I'm stupid and misinformed or slamming phonics. Which I'm not. Well, not stupid or ignorant about this issue.) 

 To those who are demonizing the 3 cuing systems...I wonder if they realize that phonics IS the V in MSV (Meaning, Structural, Visual). To those writing legislation to outlaw curriculum with a V in it, do they really want us to NOT look at the phonics? I can just imagine us rowing through books with blindfolds like Sandra Bullock in Bird Box. Ridiculous. 

Friends, MSV isn't the devil some claim it to be. Here's some information to consider.

Semantics: 

Visual - What are the letters? What are the sounds they make to produce the word in print? Phonics IS the visual component of language that we use to translate ink and pixels into sounds. 

"Does it look right?" isn't a suggestion to guess what the word is. It's not really even a strategy. It's a piece of the way the language functions. 

And it's cultural. 

Marie Clay was Australian. They say, "Have a go" like Texans say "try it and see." "Does it look right" is a cue for kids to monitor and self-regulate. 

Let me translate this maligned question for those that don't understand the science: 

Here's what happens with the visual, phonics cue: 

• The kid says a word after looking at print. 
• Right or wrong, the teacher wants them to check their accuracy. 
• Texan:"Kid, match what you heard yourself say with the visuals/letters in the print. 
• Linguist: Use your phonemic awareness of sounds and connect it with your understanding of phonics." 

Is a kid going to understand the Texan or the linguist? Bless your heart.

A Solution: 

Isn't it easier to ask kids if what they said looks like what's on the page instead of asking them to explain the linguistic processes and names of phoneme types? I thought we were trying to look at words to say/hear them so we can understand what the words mean. House or horse. It's a big deal. 

If a kid can tell you what a digraph is but can't tell you what their mouth does to make the word, is the linguist helping?  Furthermore, neither the Texan or the Linguist will be successful in teaching reading if the kid says the word correctly and doesn't know the difference between a house and a horse. 

There's more to teaching reading than phonics. V is just one of many cues. (And for those that don't know the sciences, there's more than three.)