Teaching Sight Words to Children

Tips on How to Teach Sight Word Vocabulary

Sep 16, 2009 Jackie Parsons

Dolch sight words are the important building blocks for beginner readers. Once known these words can unlock stories for young learners and open the world of reading.

Sight words are words that cannot be sounded out and need to be memorized. These words are the most common words found in sentences. Once memorized a child can begin to read sentences and make sense of the written word. Learning sight words is the most important part of learning to read.

Dolch Sight Words

There are two hundred and twenty words and ninety five nouns most commonly encountered in children's storybooks. They are known as high frequency words that are most likely to appear in a story. Words such as is, in, it, with, on and under. These sight words are first broken down into three lists called Pre-Primer, Primer and Grade One. Then the lists are listed by grade level. Teachers can download these Dolch Sight Word lists to give to parents to work on at home.

Dolch Sight Word Activities

When a child is learning sight words, it is important to remember there are five lists of words with over fifty words on each list. It is important to work at these lists slowly and give as much exposure to these words as possible.

Most common way of teaching these words is through flashcards. This way of teaching sight words is a very effective way of learning. However, there are ways to make this activity fun and enjoyable for all.

It is very important for a child to work through these lists at home. Parent involvement is a key component with sight word development. Parents should have a letter accompanying the word lists explaining the importance of these words to young readers. Parents should be reminded that it is may be difficult for a young learner to memorize many words at once and to focus on five at a time.

When working one on one, take five words at a time each week, so that the young learner isn't overwhelmed. Taking only five words at a time, and working through these words until all are mastered, is not intimidating for a young child and an easy way to begin learning words. Once mastered, can a child move to the next five but always reviewing words that have been learned so that these words are memorized in the long-term memory.

During circle time, teachers can review five words at a time from the pre-primer word lists and write these words on a large paper for the whole class to see. Review these everyday, and then move to next five words when memorized.

Teachers can use sight word flashcards as a way for classroom management. When the class is lined up ready to go out for recess, a teacher can stand at the front of the line with the flashcards. Using the sight words reviewed for the week, each child has to read the word on the flashcard in order to exit the room for recess.

Recording Progress

Setting up a system for recording the progress of a student is a struggle, since not all ways work for all teachers. The best method that works is breaking down each list into groups of twenty words called Steps. Using a blank class list record sheet list the first twenty words from the pre-primer word list this would be Step One. Then move on to Step Two and Step Three and so on until all words are grouped.

Photocopy a set of Steps depending on the grade. Grade One students would have all the lists up to and including Grade One list words. Teachers then make flashcards for each Step and place each group of flashcards into baggies labelled Step One, Step Two and so on. Hole punch each student's package of Steps and place in a binder.

When working one on one, review the flashcards of the step being tested before having the child read the list words. Then ask the child to read the list of twenty words and record missed words to give a score out of twenty. Once a Step has been mastered, the child can move on to the next group of twenty words.

Sight words are the building blocks to reading. Sending home word lists for parents to review with the child and reviewing five words at a time in class will help reinforce these important words. Making flashcards and reviewing while in line going out for recess or gym is a fun way to reinforce sight words in the classroom. Also, developing a system to record a student's progress is very important when monitoring that student's progress with learning sight word vocabulary.

The copyright of the article Teaching Sight Words to Children in Teacher Tips/Training is owned by Jackie Parsons. Permission to republish Teaching Sight Words to Children in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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