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 Sight words are the basis for all reading skills.  These are the common, everyday words that often defy phonic analysis.  If they are not completely and fully committed to memory, reading is halting, slow and laborious.  Many lists of common sight words exist, including the Dolch list, the Essential Sight Words list, and the Fry Instant Words.  These vary slightly in their order of presentation, but include most of the same words.  Many early reading textbooks and stories rely on knowledge of these simple words.  It is absolutely vital that your young reader learns them and learns them well.  It’s also important to master them as quickly as possible. 

As you work with sight words, remember that it is vital to keep records of the student’s progress.  Make a checklist to monitor mastery, and be sure to review mastered words several times to maintain the skill.  Remember that for these words, simply figuring the word out is not good enough.  The words should be recognized instantly, with no hesitations or miscues.  Anything less will interfere with fluency and comprehension, and is likely to make reading more difficult in the long run.

Help your child or class along the reading path to sight word mastery by paying special attention to this vital skill.  These tips and tricks will provide you with an array of ideas and options to accomplish the task.  Choose the ideas that best match your situation and your students’ needs, learning styles and preferences.  The activities are flexible and fun, and you can use them with any list of words that need to be recognized automatically. 

Tip #1

Scatter the sight words on index cards, face-up, around a play area.  Use one copy of the word for each child playing the game.  That is, if three children are playing, use three copies of each word.  Call a word from the list and challenge the students to be first to find and run to the target word.  You can make this as competitive or cooperative as you’d like, or even try to beat previous records.

Tip #2

Spell the sight words using magnetic letters.  If possible, use a lower case letter set.  You can begin by arranging the letters and having your student read the word, then progress to dictating the word and allowing the student to spell. 

Tip #3

Make one set of word cards for each child playing.  Shuffle all cards together and place face down in the center of the play area.  Choose a word to be the “Secret Word.”  Have each player take turns turning over the top card from the deck and flipping it so all can see.  When the “secret word” is turned up, the first player to read it correctly gets to keep the word.  The player with the most cards at the end of the game can be declared the winner if you wish.

Tip #4

Hide word cards around the play area.  Have the students find them and return to you to read their cards.  When one card has been read, the student can go out and look for another.

Tip #5

Make a set of word cards for the student.  Show the cards one at a time and if the child reads it correctly, put a checkmark on the card.  If ten checkmarks are accumulated, the word is often nearing mastery level, which can be cause for celebration.

Tip #6

Use a double set of word cards (two of each word).  Remove one card so that there is a word without a mate.  Play a card game like Old Maid: deal the cards evenly to all players.  Each player can take a turn choosing one card in secret from another player.  If a match is made, those cards are laid down for a score.

Tip #7

Highlight the targeted words in a passage of text.  Read the text in unison, but allow the student to read the highlighted words alone.

Tip #8

Make a worksheet with misspelled and correctly spelled versions of the target word.  Challenge the student to mark those letter groups that spell the target word correctly.

Tip #9

Make a sign of each word being studied and tape the signs to the walls around the play area.  Call out words and have the students run (walk, crawl, hop, etc.) to the correct sign.

Tip #10

Make a paper showing the target word at the top.  Have the student copy the word in each of three to eight different colors.

Tip #11

Use letter cards to spell the target words.

Tip #12

Give each student a newspaper, old magazine or other text and a highlighting marker.  See how many times each can find the targeted word or words in the text and highlight them.

Tip #13

Write the word in large printing, and have the student glue yarn or string to the letters.

Tip #14

Put the words on slips of paper and place inside plastic eggs.  Hide the eggs around the play area and have students find them and read the slips to you.

Tip #15

Print the word on a whiteboard or chalkboard.  Read the word together several times, spell it out loud, then erase a letter.  Read the word again, visualizing the missing letter.  Be sure to spell again on each round.  Continue to erase, then read and spell until the word is no longer visible.  Challenge the child to put it back.

Tip #16

Give children letter cards that will spell the target word or words.  Challenge them to sort themselves into the correct letter groups and stand in order to spell their word.

Tip #17

Have the student type the target word on typewriter or computer.

Tip #18

Bury word cards in a tubful of sand or rice, then have students find them and read them.

Tip #19

Write the word in large print on the whiteboard or chalkboard and have the student trace over it several times with new colors.

Tip #20

Write the word in large print on paper.  Cover the lines in liquid glue and layer with sand.  Allow to dry, then have students trace with their fingers.

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© 2007 Sandy Fleming

 Dr. Fry’s 1000 Instant Words book is a fabulous resource for teaching sight words.  The words are listed in order of frequency, and mastery of even the first 300 will help improve reading dramatically, because even this short list accounts for around 60% of common text in everyday reading tasks.

Once you have the list (or any list of sight words, for that matter), you have a clear plan for what to teach your students.  All that is missing now is the method.  Choosing appropriate methods is just as important as selecting the content.  You need to match teaching vehicles to circumstances, age, personality, learning style, and other individualized needs.  In short, you need a strategy for teaching sight words.  The following strategies are grouped by learning style and are appropriate for a wide range of ages and settings to assist you with selection.

Visual Learning Style

• Flashcard games are suitable for all ages and stages.  Make two sets and you can play lots of games.  Be sure the words cannot be seen from the backs of the cards.  Try playing Memory, Old Maid, or Slap Jack games with the cards.  Nearly any game that involves matching will work.  Be sure to have your student read the cards at some point in the play.
• Make worksheets requiring the student to choose the correctly-spelled version of each word.  This activity is also excellent practice for proof-reading! 
• Spell words with letter cards, magnetic letters or letter dice.  If consonants and vowels are two different colors, your student may be able to recall the color patterns of each word.
• Word boxes, where the shape of the word is outlined, can help many students learn to distinguish similar words.  When you create word boxes, make tall boxes for the tall letters like l and k, short boxes for the short letters like e and v, and hanging boxes for hanging letters like g and p.
• Use a colored highlighter to mark troublesome words as you preview text.  You can even use a different color of mark for different words if there are only a few that are tripping the student up.
• Highlight target words in text from newspapers or magazines.

Auditory Learning Style

• Try putting tunes to the letters as you spell words out loud.  Some students can remember best if material is set to music.
• Read the words out loud in unison.  Your stronger, more confident reading will be a guide to the student and allow him or her to gain strength.
• Use Neurological Impress Method.
• Try spelling a word in rhythms to help distinguish one from another.  Instead of simply saying each letter in turn, try dragging some out and clipping some off so you get things like peeeee-you-teeeeeeeee for PUT.
• Some students can recall sequences of tones better than other sorts of sounds.  Try using a telephone keypad to dial the words and let your student listen to the tones.

Kinesthetic/Tactile Learning Style

• Arrange letter cards, tiles or dice to spell sight words.
• Use rubber stamps of letters to spell sight words.
• Try rainbow writing.  You’ll need lots of colors of fine line markers, colored pencils or crayons.  Write the sight word in large print, then trace several times, using a different color with each pass.
• Write the words on chalkboard or white board, the bigger the better!
• Scatter the letters of a word on the floor and have the student move from one to the next in order to spell the word.

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© 2006 Sandra Fleming