What exactly are "sight words" (AKA high-frequency, instant, Dolch or word wall words) and why are they so important? These are two very important questions that many parents have.Let's tackle the what first. Generally speaking, sight words are the words that good readers instantly recognize when they encounter them on the page. They are also often the words that we most commonly use. I once read somewhere that the 100 most commonly used words actually make up about 50 percent of the material we read! Okay, now we're getting into the why...
When a reader must focus on (or "figure out") ALL the words in a text, he will most likely run into trouble getting to the meaning of what he is reading. Additionally, many sight words do not sound like their spellings would suggest (i.e. is or of), so "sounding them out" is futile.
In order to read quickly and effectively children must learn to identify and understand these words instantly. So what's a mom or dad to do? Have fun!
- my favorite approach- play lots and lots of games that incorporate sight words (like bingo, memory or go-fish)
- go old school and create a set of sight word flash cards (these can also double as your game cards)
- point them out in books (just make this a separate activity after you have already read the text at least once before) and in the environmental print around them
- create a sight word notebook or wordwall where your child can maintain a list of the ones he's mastered or is currently working on
3 comments:
I was just thinking on what I could do to help my neice along this summer. What a great idea with the bingo thanks!
Another great activity is playing a board game called Er-u-di-tion that incorporates both sight words and phonics.
This award winning game helps children learn to read, spell and understand the most common words in the English language while playing an entertaining board game.
Cards are categorized so children of all reading levels can play together!
thanks for the tip denise, i'll have to check this game out!
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