The “Look Before You Leap” Routine: Problem-Solving Using V-MS

This tool is designed to help you teach children to use visual information as a starting point for problem-solving words, relying on meaning and structure for cross-checking. This routine promotes orthographic mapping and the accumulation of orthographic knowledge while also supporting reading for meaning. Learn more about this important shift in balanced literacy instruction in chapter 5 of Shifting the Balance, “Reinventing the Ways We Use V-MS (3 Cueing Systems).”