Any ideas on how to introduce sight words?

[sagira]

Ds is starting to read (yay! :w00t:) and he's sounding out phonetic words well. He asks me why "one" is not "one like cone", and why "are" is not pronounced as in "mare". Do I just say, that's just how it is?

How do you teach sight words? Flash cards or just have him read, read, read and he'll get it eventually?

:bigear:

[Chris in VA]

I preread some of the readers I knew dd would like, and gleaned some sight words from them. I also knew she'd want to know our family names.
I kept a word box for her made out of a pretty, cardboard recipe box. I put "M___'s Words" on it and wrote words on 4x6 notecards. I'd only do maybe two or three a week. We'd review everyday. Sometimes I'd play Lotto or Bingo with the words (write the words on a grid--use something fun for markers, like Skittles or raisins). I also did the Command Game from Montessori--use small strips of paper, write a simple command and incorporate a sight word--"Kiss the dog" was a favorite! Child draws a strip from a pretty container (make it attractive, always attractive!), reads it silently, then acts it out. Mom claps, ooo's, ahh's, "you're so smart!" etc.

We'd also use post it notes to write the word, one time on about 500 notes (jk--maybe 15) and post them all over the house. Each time dd passed the note, she'd read it. Sometimes I'd surprise her with a word and she'd go on a "hunt" for a new sight word. I also labeled the room, and sometimes she'd "write the room"--go around copying the labels onto a sheet of paper clipped to a clipboard.

Lastly, I wrote tiny readers for dd. I'd just take about a quarter of a sheet of construction paper, write a simple story, and fold and staple it to make a 4-5 page book. Our first was called something like, Mom. Page one--Mom sews. (No, it couldn't have been that. Mom here does not sew! but you get the drift). Page two Mom smiles. Page three...and so on.

Make sight words fun. Repetition is key.

[Karin]

When my dc were young, I told them the inconsistencies were because English is a silly language because words came from different places. I introduced sight words as needed. For my ds, we combined Phonics Pathways with Dick and Jane. Dick and Jane is great for sight words and word repetition, but mostly it was great because he enjoyed it.

[sagira]

Wow, great ideas! I've been using Nora Gaydos' pre-readers and copied down a few of the sight words on index cards yesterday. I guess I just didn't know what to do with them except using them as flash cards :001_huh: I like the idea of games, and sentences.

Thank you!

[Ellie]

Ds is starting to read (yay! :w00t:) and he's sounding out phonetic words well. He asks me why "one" is not "one like cone", and why "are" is not pronounced as in "mare". Do I just say, that's just how it is?

How do you teach sight words? Flash cards or just have him read, read, read and he'll get it eventually?

:bigear:

Sometimes there is no reason :-) And yes, those are things he will get eventually, because there really aren't that many. I would *not* do flash cards.

Now, if you want to, you could go to Spalding (http://www.spalding.org), which will teach the rules and all the reasons--if there are reasons--for words being spelled the way they are.

[ElizabethB]

I have a list of the Dolch sight words arranged by phonetic pattern, and also some of the reasons for a few exceptions, for example, "During the Middle English period, a certain type of angular writing was in vogue which resulted in some ambiguity for the reader when u was followed by an m, n, or u (sometimes written v or w.) Consequently, scribes replaced the u with o, and that spelling is retained in some words used today, e.g. come, monk, love, tongue, some, honey, son."

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

One actually has an explanation, but it's long and not that interesting, and I like words and their history! I think are is just padded with an extra e, I'm not sure, many strangely spelled 3 letter words were "padded" with extra letters so they'd look better. Even when I know the explanation, young students don't seem to find it helpful. Explanations seem to help older remedial students and adults, they just run off my daughter's back like water. (She's 6.) In fact, she'll say, "Mom, just stop, please" if I start explaining things like this.

When taught phonics well, students are fine with exceptions. I do find it helpful to teach them in groups of similarly spelled exceptions when possible. "The ABC's and All Their Tricks" by Bishop is a good book that shows the most common exceptions from the most common 17,000 words in English. It has lists of words by their spelling patterns, with exceptions on the side of the page. It's worth the money if you're going to be teaching more than 1 child to read.

[newbie]

Just an idea, what about post its or cool colorful flash cards stuck to things, like door, books etc. Keep it simple.

[kalanamak]

How do you teach sight words? Flash cards or just have him read, read, read and he'll get it eventually?

:bigear:

I have a set of flash cards. Some of phonetic, some aren't. For the odd ones like "one", we chant O-N-E spells "one" and we hold up one finger. For the two, to, too business, I ask him to put it in a sentence and the further-fetched the better. For some ("far") I'm introducing the SWR cards. For something like "find" I give a cue...it looks short but it isn't (the i). Then, when we are reading books and he pauses, I say "this is one of your sight words". Sometimes that's all that is needed, sometimes I do the cue ("O-N...and he gets it).
Right now we are reading Seussy things and his job it to read the sight words, and I read all the words that aren't on the sight list. What fun!

[TengoFive]

For my then 4 year old, I got the Sight words post-it notes. I put hang about 5 a day on one window. If she could read it right off without having to guess, she'd get to move it to another window. If she couldn't read it, we'd leave it there for the next day. The next day I add a few more words. It took her less than 2 weeks to go through the whole pack. We'd review all the ones on the "know" window every day. It made her feel really proud to have this whole window full of words she knew how to read.

[myfatherslily]

for example, "During the Middle English period, a certain type of angular writing was in vogue which resulted in some ambiguity for the reader when u was followed by an m, n, or u (sometimes written v or w.) Consequently, scribes replaced the u with o, and that spelling is retained in some words used today, e.g. come, monk, love, tongue, some, honey, son."

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html


Thanks for this page! "Sight words" drive me crazy cause I know they all make sense if we just know the reasons for them! I just need to learn the reasons, so I can teach them! lol:)
Is your quote above on the page you linked to? I don't see it...

[sagira]

Thanks for this page! "Sight words" drive me crazy cause I know they all make sense if we just know the reasons for them! I just need to learn the reasons, so I can teach them! lol:)
Is your quote above on the page you linked to? I don't see it...

:iagree:

Thanks, ElizabethB! :)

[ElizabethB]

Thanks for this page!
Is your quote above on the page you linked to? I don't see it...

You're welcome! It's in the footnotes at the bottom of the page.

I like to know the reasons, too! It seems to make things easier to learn. I also like the rules for spelling, even if it's only a few words that it's useful for. For example, I used to misspell truly as truely repeatedly until I learned the rule that the final e is dropped after u or w when adding a suffix. It applies to maybe four words, awful being another example, but just knowing the reason made it easier to memorize the spelling for me.

[woolybear]

Not really a way to teach, but www.janbrett.com (http://www.janbrett.com) has a page of the Dolch word lists. Her work is just so pretty. You could print it out and post and then just go over the words on a regular basis. Maybe you could have him memorize one and then find it in a book he likes or can read already to reinforce it.