![]() ![]() Such continuity in instructional approach would be out of “sight”! In sum, we recommend you approach the teaching of high-frequency words, or what you might have been referring to as “sight words,” much as you approach the teaching of other words. It is critical that young children understand that reading high-frequency words enables them to unlock meaning within texts of interest to them. Although we want children to analyze words individually, they also must read them within the context of sentences and books. Principle Five: Practice reading high-frequency words in sentences and books. Children taught the words with full graphophonemic analysis were better able earlier on to analogize from those words to new words-for example to say, “If I know long, then I know strong.’’ In one study, children were taught high-frequency words, such as long, can, and her, either with relatively little attention to the letter–sound relationships within them or with extensive analysis of their letter–sound relationships (Ehri, Satlow, & Gaskins, 2009). Principle Four: Use high-frequency words to help children learn to decode new words. For example, instead of teaching the word some as a rule breaker, explain that it is like come, above, and love. Principle Three: Teach high-frequency words in groups that have similar patterns. This kind of instruction builds a phonological representation of the word, which supports learning of the word. For example, for the word was, we teach that w says /w/, a says /ŭ/, and the s says /z/. Do this even for words that are not spelled using common letter–sound correspondences. When working with a full alphabetic reader, teach that in the word and, the a says /ă/, the n says /n/, and the d says /d/. For example, when working with an emergent reader who is solidifying consonant sounds, focus them on the /t/ in to. But be sure that instruction intersects with children’s developmental stage (e.g., Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2012). Principle Two: Ask students to use graphophonemic analysis to read high-frequency words (Ehri, 2005). High-frequency word instruction should occur on basically the same pace as instruction in word decoding in general. Without a concept of word or alphabetic insight, children will have the mistaken impression that words are unsystematic, and learning will be inefficient in any case. For example, some children do not even have a concept of word or understanding of the word boundaries in print and how these map to letters, and yet they are memorizing letter sequences in “sight words.” Similarly, before they even understand the alphabetic principle they are chanting words. In our observation, a great deal of high-frequency word instruction occurs too early-before children have these important pieces in place. Principle One: Teach high-frequency words along with phonemic awareness, individual letter–sound relationships, and a concept of word (e.g., Flanagan, 2007). ![]() Here are five principles to keep in mind when teaching high-frequency words: ![]() The most powerful mechanism for eventually accessing words by sight is use of the graphophonemic structure, a process that amalgamates the word’s units into memory (Ehri, 1978). Memorizing high-frequency words holistically is not the answer. In the remainder of this post, we explain that this is not the case, and we use the term high-frequency words, meaning words that are very common in English, whether regularly or irregularly spelled. They think that these high-frequency words must be learned by sight, without graphophonemic analysis, because of their irregularities. In contrast, often people use the term sight words to mean high-frequency words, many of which do not follow typical English letter–sound relationships (e.g., said, some). At this point, readers no longer need to engage in decoding (e.g., /c/-/a/-/t/ = /cat/) using an analogy (e.g., cat: like bat with a c) or using sentence context to figure out the words (Ehri, 2005)-they can now read them automatically, without conscious attention. For skilled readers, virtually all words have already become sight words. Ultimately, any word can and should be a sight word, not just words from the Dolch or Fry lists, for example. In this post, we explain why sight words should be taught much as you would teach any other words.įirst, a note about terminology: The term sight word means any word that can be read automatically (Ehri, 2005). In many classrooms we visit, “sight words” receive a very different kind of instruction than other words, taught primarily as an exercise in visual memorization. ![]()
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