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 For some students, sight words are particularly difficult to learn.  They find themselves continually mixing up words like for and of, they and them, or this and that.  Not only is this frustrating for the student, but it also interferes with comprehension.  Many of these confusing words are common and carry a lot of the meaning of the text.  It’s important to help struggling students learn to distinguish these difficult words.

One way to help students learn to differentiate confusing sight words is to focus on word shape.  Students who have not been successful with learning the sequences of letters may be able to see differences in the shapes of the troublesome words.  The idea is simple:  letters can be classified into one of three shape categories.  Short letters are only half a space high.  Examples include a and n.  Tall letters, like d, t, and k, are one whole space high.  The rest of the letters, like y or g, have tails that hang below the baseline.  Because of this, many common words have different shapes.  The word for is a tall letter followed by two short letters.  The word of, whish students often confuse with for, is made of one short letter and one tall.  The words themselves look very similar with f’s and o’s, but the pattern of their letter shapes is quite different.

You can quickly see the shape of any word by drawing boxes around each letter.  Have your student practice doing this, too, because it will help him or her to cement the shape of the word in memory.  Try providing empty boxes to fill with letters and matching word shapes to given words.  Just be sure to include a word bank when you are working with empty letter boxes; a few pairs of words have the same shape, like man and was.  Be careful that your word list does not include pairs of words with the same shapes so that you do not add to your student’s confusion by accident.

Once your student is proficient at recognizing the sets of boxes that match troublesome words, you can eliminate the individual letter boxes and simply use the outline of the entire word.  In other words, take away the vertical lines that separate one letter from the next, and just leave the lines that show the shape of the entire word.  This step will help your reader get into the habit of checking the word’s silhouette when trying to recognize it quickly and efficiently.  You can provide these by drawing them on a paper, and you can also teach your student to create them by using a pencil to draw around the tops and tails of the letters in the word.  Color the silhouettes in and have your student match these shapes with words from a word list.  This activity helps train the eye to focus on that outline that can help them differentiate the confusing pairs of words. 

Working with word shapes is a great alternative for students who are having trouble mastering basic sight words and seem to confuse words with similar letters and spellings.  It provides a memory aid and an alternative teaching strategy that just might be perfect for your struggling or special needs student.  Give it a try!

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© 2007 Sandra Fleming

 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