What Are Sight Words?
You may come across the term "sight words" when helping your child with homework or teaching a young child to read and wonder, "What are sight words and what purpose do they serve?" Don't be intimidated---sight words are simply a special category of words that reading instructors teach children to recognize instantly by sight, rather than by sounding them out phonetically.
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Identification
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Sight words are some of the most commonly used words in children's books. Most sight words are not nouns, so they are not easily represented by a picture; beginning readers must learn to recognize them by sight alone. Usually, sight words are not phonetically regular, making them difficult to sound out. Some examples of sight words include the following: and, after, small, bear, thing, wash, why, your, and there.
Function
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Learning sight words helps children to read quickly and efficiently. By focusing on sight words, teachers will increase the chances that a child will be able to read any given text, because these words are so common. Comprehension is increased when children do not have to stop and decode every word, and reading confidence will grow as these words are mastered.
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Types
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There are two lists that educators often refer to when teaching their students sight words: The Dolch List of Basic Sight Words, which contains 220 words, was composed by Edward William Dolch, Ph.D in 1936, and published in his book, Edward Fry's "300 Instant Sight Words" lists 300 of the most commonly used words in the English language. These words are listed in order of frequency, with the first 25 words comprising one-third of all written text, and the first 100 words on the list comprising about half of all written words.
Methods
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Sight words can be taught using a variety of methods. The most important element of teaching sight words is to give the child constant exposure to these common words through games, flashcards, magnetic letters, copy work, independent practice and books. The more frequently children see and interact with sight words, the more quickly they will learn them.
Dr. Seuss
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Dr. Seuss' well-known book "The Cat in the Hat" was written entirely from words found on the Dolch word list. This book, as well as other similar easy readers, provides a child with excellent practice reading sight words.
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