Pragmatic Cueing System

The pragmatic cueing system is one of the three deep structure systems that permit meaning making and relates to the manner in which readers and writers interact with ideas in text. Sharing and joint interpretation are elements of this system that serve as a tool to help readers remember. It is referred to as the social construction of meaning.

“The pragmatic system involves enhancing our understanding through multiple experiences with ideas from texts. It can be as simple as rereading portions of the text or as involved as writing about text. To understand deeply, to probe meaning beyond the superficial, often involves reliving the ideas in some way, having more than one opportunity to explore them. In classrooms as in the real world, this often involves several children working together, exploring each other’s interpretations and perspectives. Children use the pragmatic system when they interact in book clubs, use reader’s theater, or a skit to interpret a book, write response to or interpretations of what they read, and sketch or draw to show their thinking about a book.

The process of studying and rethinking an idea so extensively that we can teach it is an example of the pragmatic system in action. To do something with ideas we understand, to act on our insights, to reorganize our understanding in order to share it cogently with others-all this is to use the pragmatic system. This system use allows use to retain and reapply what we understand far more effectively” (Keene, 2008, pp. 122-123).”¹

The following video of a third-grade class focuses on the social construction of knowledge about the use of similes in student generated text. Students use each other and the classroom environment to remember and extend what is read and written.

¹Keene, E. (2008). To understand: New horizons in reading comprehension. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.