You know those pesky words that don’t follow conventional spelling rules…often referred to as sight words? Well, teaching sight words is very helpful for beginning and striving readers.
Students mastering sight words with automaticity drastically cut down on brain power needed to accurately read a passage. This means a student can use their extra brain power to decode more difficult words that DO follow traditional spelling patterns! Any teacher knows firsthand that frustrated kids do not find learning easy.
Sight words are words that cannot be decoded because they do not follow the typical letter-sound correspondences. The following words are perfect examples of words that sound nothing like they should if they were sounded out:
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- I teach sight words in groups that have similar visual and sound patterns. For example, when I teach the word come, I also explain that it is like some, above, and love.
- Make sure you also practice sight words in “connected text”. Students need to read sight words in the context of sentences and text passages.
- Play GAMES! Kids won’t even realize they are learning when they are having so much fun.
Sight word mastery helps create confident readers and if learning sight words is fun, then you have a win-win!
Give these free Sight Word Games a try!
