Should I still teach sight words? Teachers everywhere question whether they should pitch their sight words activities and resources and instead focus on phonics, phonemic awareness, and phonological awareness. We know that sight words are essential to helping our emergent readers gain confidence, fluency, and comprehension. We also see the importance of students learning to decode. I am here to say Don’t Pitch Your Sight Words! In reading, sight words AND decoding both play huge roles!
Defining Sight Words
Not everyone defines sight words the same way. Many people use this term interchangeably with high-frequency words. Then, where do decodables fit it?
High-frequency words include all of the most widespread words in the written language: to, and, the, as, it, etc. These words are components of many word lists, such as the Fry words or Dolch words. And many high-frequency words can be decodable.
Decodable words contain a phonetic pattern and can be sounded out using phonics skills. C-a-t spells cat. M-e is me. Some decodable words are also found in the word lists of Fry and Dolch words.
And Now on to . . .
Sight words are words that we expect kids to read instantly. They recognize them by sight, and they no longer need to try to sound them out. By the time they are fluent readers, all words essentially become sight words. But, in the beginning, as kids are learning to read, sight words are the words that we need students to read effortlessly. These words can also be high-frequency words, decodable words, and irregular words (words that don’t fit a phonetic pattern).
Since we need our students to instantly read words they will encounter often AND we need them to learn phonetic patterns in words to decode them, it seems our job isn’t to pick one type over the other. We should teach the majority of sight words with our decodable words since they can follow the same phonetic patterns we teach (makes sense, right?)
But, if a word doesn’t follow a pattern and isn’t decodable (irregular words), it makes sense that we find other ways to include these words in our instruction.
Why Teach Sight Words with our Phonics?
It is ineffective to have students memorize a list of words solely when it comes to reading. Children need phonetic knowledge! But, your words instruction goes together with systematic phonics instruction. Almost all sight words contain at least one regular phonetic pattern. Reading lessons can be comprehensive and include both!
Plus, some kids will not read sight words until they learn phonics. Using whole-word memorization can be a struggle for students! Thus, teaching systematic phonics and sight words will increase the likelihood of students learning them!
Word recognition that occurs automatically helps students to learn to read with ease! If students cannot read sight words and decodable words quickly, they will struggle with fluency and comprehension!
Some Basic Tips for Instruction
Are you always looking for new strategies to practice? If you are looking for different ideas on practicing words with your kids, we have lots of resources to meet your needs!
Are you constantly looking for activities to use in small groups, independent centers, or as a review? We have some suggestions!
–Begin each lesson by reviewing words from the previous lesson. Words often need lots of repetition for children to learn them thoroughly.
–Keep your lessons brief and only review a few words at a time. Make sure your students practice the words in isolation and context!
More Tips for Teaching Words
? Flashcards make a great warm-up to the start of your guided reading. Use sight words to get your students in the right mindset for what they are working on in the group. However, only memorizing the words using flashcards is a big mistake. It’s crucial that students learn the words and read them in context. If your students recognize them on a flashcard but don’t identify them within their reading, they don’t know them.
? Your students will always get excited when you get out the whiteboards. For some reason, everything seems more fun when they can do it on a whiteboard with dry-erase markers.
Sight Words Activities and Resources
? Word cards are great for warming up your students before reading their leveled reader or as a short game at the end of your guided reading group. Pictured is building words with blocks!
? Daily ELA Resources – ETTC’s CORE BINDER has several resources for words!
- Word of the Day has four different options with different content and lines for students to write on, increasing complexity. I use this with sight words or new vocabulary. Some of the options include rainbow writing the word and drawing the words.
- Editable personal word list in ABC order.
- Fry’s First 100 in ABC order
- Fry’s Second 100 in ABC order
- Third Fry’s 100 in ABC order
More Resources
? Sight Word Booklets are an amazing way to use booklets and passages to practice! Available for the first 300 Fry words!
- Repetition of the word will help with recalling and retaining each word.
- Target the words while practicing reading fluency.
- Improve comprehension skills.
- Students will have visual/picture cues to help read each passage independently.
? Sight Words Paint and Practice
- This FRY Words Bundled Printable set contains printable activities for the first 300 words. (1-300) These can be used for whole/small group instruction, guided practice, or independent practice. In this pack, you will find the first 300 words with 5 activities on each page.
? Swatting Sight Words and Fishin’ for Sight Words are activities in our First and Second Grade Centers Bundle!
- Students will love either swatting those words or reeling them in!
? Poppin’ Sight Words–Your students will love daubing on the bubbles as you cover standards for both high-frequency and irregular words!
- RF.1.3.G: Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words. ✅
- RF.K.3.C: Read common high-frequency words by sight. ✅
Want more resources? Check out our store at educationtothecore.com!
Want more activities? Check out these additional blogs from ETTC:
- 15 of the BEST Sight Words Activities
- 13 Digital Resources and Games for Sight Words
- 19 Sight Word Activities to Try Today
So with all of these amazing resources, are you still considering pitching your sight words and working solely on decodables? In this vast area of reading, phonemic awareness, comprehension, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary can all be addressed without scrapping one type of instruction for another. As teachers, we need to support our students in the ways they individually learn best. So keep all your words and keep, keeping on!
WRITTEN BY – SUZANNE KELLEY
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