WEEK TWO Approaches To Teach Reading

Group members: Nadeera Terence Azim Naresh

Sight words are words that children instantly recognize without having to decode or analyze them. It is an approach that uses the word as the basic unit of language. (Halvorson 1992) In this approach, new words are learned by sight and memorize it as the learner sees it written and with picture cues.

The sight word method is basic memorization. Goal: to recognize high frequency words and say the word in less than a second. The student shouldn't have to analyze the word and just say it out.

Sight words are typically high frequency words contained on common lists like the famous Dolch Sight Word Series and the Fry List. Dolch sight words provide an excellent base for reading at an early age, some of them cannot be sounded out, and need to be learned by sight. The Fry word list or instant words are widely accepted to contain the most used words in reading and writing.

How Do We Know Which Words Are Sight Words?

Teachers rely on a few different lists of words to come up with appropriate sight words for each grade level. At the early grades, you may see that your childs teacher has included his name and those of his classmates on his sight word list. While not technically sight words, they are words he will see in the classroom over and over again and should learn to recognize.

Each grade level has its own set of words to know and they build on one another. That means once your child has learned the words for kindergarten, he will be expected to know those words in addition to the new ones once hes learned his first grade words. This is known as scaffolding.

What is Sight Word Approach?

Sight word approach is also known as whole word approach; method for teaching reading which relies heavily upon a child's visual memory skills, with minimal emphasis on sounding out a word; child memorizes the word based on its overall configuration.

 Teach sight words by first using a "whole word" language approach. According to a well-known study regarding how to teach sight words was conducted by Edward William Dolch in the 1940s. Dolch developed a list of the most frequently used words that children can memorize using a "whole word" language approach. The list consists of about 220 words. Teaching the whole word approach means teaching the entire word instead of breaking it down. This approach is similar to teaching the word as if it were one of the letters in the alphabet. The whole word language approach can be taught by using repetition, listening and saying sight words, and playing games.

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Select visual cues in or around the word to help the child associate the cue with the sight word and vice versa. The Science of Reading: A Handbook" by Margaret J. Snowling wrote about this approach by explaining the study conducted by Phillip Gough in 1980. "Cue reading" can be taught by teaching words by associating them with pictures or through picture books, using flashcards with pictures of the word next to the written word, and creating or singing songs that incorporate the use of sight words.

 Point out and read aloud signs, labels and instructions when performing everyday functions. As you take your child to the grocery store or come across transportation signs, ensure that your child becomes aware of the words on boxes or signs. A good example is pointing out the words and symbols on public restroom signs or yellow "Caution" signs. Evidence base studies and research was conducted in 1998 by D.M. Browder and Y.P. Xin relating to utilizing the functional approach to learning sight words.

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Teach both phonetics and the "whole word" language approach by helping children to memorize the word in conjunction with teaching children about the way the word is written and spelled. According to the 1992 NAEP, most teachers in the U.S. adopted what they described as a balanced approach to reading instruction.

 Emphasize the reading-writing relationship by making a goal to teach kindergarteners 20 sight words by the end of the school year. Ten of those words should be high-frequency words. This method is stressed by Dr. Timothy Shanahan, who is the professor of urban education at the University of Illinois in Chicago, where he is director of the Center for Literacy. He based his suggestion on the seminal research review ("Prevention of Reading Difficulties") and the National Research Council implementation guide for schools, titled "Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Reading Success."

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In conjunction with the above steps, customize your method of teaching sight words toward a technique that is best suited for your child's learning style based on your own assessment of his learning style and behavior. It should go without saying that every child is unique. Dr. Sebastian Wren made an interesting statement when he said, "The focus needs to shift to the student and the individual learning needs that can be revealed through ongoing, diagnostic assessment. Only when all teachers learn to diagnose student reading skills and respond with focused, deliberate instruction will literacy be available to all children."

Benefits of Using Sight Word Approach to Teach Reading

1) Sight Words Promote Confidence

The ability to identify sight words when reading a book provides a child with confidence in their ability to read. The 100 most frequently used words represents over 50% of all English text. Thus, when a child can easily recognize over half of a sentence, they typically possess the confidence to attempt to read it.

2) Sight Words Assist in the Decoding Process

When a child opens a book and recognize over half of the text, they can shift their focus to decoding the more challenging words. A child does not need to decode each word in a sentence, the challenge shifts to the individual words and not on the sentence as a whole. As a result, their ability to recognize sight words improves reading comprehension.

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Sight words free up a childs energy to tackle more challenging words

Reading is tough work! As fluent readers we often underestimate the amount of focus and energy reading takes when you dont know most of the words on the page before you. When children have to decode each word that they encounter in a sentence, they not only become frustrated they begin to lose the meaning of the text. They become so focused on sounding out the words that they are not able to think about what the words are actually saying. Once children know Dolchs sight words, they only need to slow down their reading to focus on decoding new, challenging words.

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Sight words provide clues to the meaning of a sentence

Even though many of the sight words contain fewer than five letters, they are critical to a texts meaning. While many pieces of childrens literature use illustrations as a companion to words, ultimately we want our young readers to be able to decipher the meaning of a text primarily by reading and understanding the words. Sight words help children make sense of what they are reading by providing clues to the overall meaning of a sentence. Take for example a few of the verbs from Dolchs pre-primer list: jump, play, see. The sentence I jump in the pool takes on a whole new meaning when one of the other two verbs are substituted. Similarly, understanding the meaning of pronouns such as I, you, she and he (all sight words on the pre-primer and primer lists) is essential to comprehending the sentences they are used in.

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Sight words enhance ESL instruction

With the increasing number of ESL students joining todays communities and classrooms, it is incumbent upon teachers to find ways to reach this unique group of students. One of the main goals of ESL instruction is to teach children functional English language skills. Teaching sight words to ESL learners gives them tremendous advantages. Because many of the sight words on Dolchs lists not only occur frequently in childrens stories, but also daily conversations, it is extremely beneficial to focus ESL instruction on sight word learning. Beyond this, some of the verbs that form the foundation of the lists (and of English language texts) take on irregular forms. Consider the changes that the common verbs go, be and do go through when applied to different singular and plural nouns. Because they do not follow standard rules, the only way to learn these conjugations is through memorization.

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Sight word instruction builds a foundation for reading new, more complex words

The benefits of sight word instruction extend far beyond their immediate use in helping young people learn to read. Not only do these words continue to appear in more advanced texts, the process of learning sight words builds important learning behaviors that the reader will forever use to learn new vocabulary. When children learn a sight word they are making a connection between their prior knowledge of the word (its pronunciation and meaning) and its spelling. The process of merging the two is mediated by their knowledge of the alphabet. The letters and their corresponding sounds create a mnemonic (assisting or intended to assist the memory) that helps the child remember the word.

 Researchers say once a child has repeatedly practiced this skill for learning vocabulary by moving through the lists of sight words, the process becomes ingrained in her repertoire of reading skills. She will then instinctively begin using this method for integrating new, more complex sight words into her knowledge base.