Although the Science of Reading can be traced back as far as the 1800s it is recently gaining in popularity in current educational practices. It makes sense that we may wonder if sight words are still important or if they conflict with these “new” practices.
Sight Words Are Everywhere
Any text or book that you read contains sight words. It’s estimated 75%-80% of all the words used in books are made up of the 220 Dolch words. Writing a sentence is impossible without using sight words.
Sight words are also a part of our everyday vocabulary. This can help make sight words easy for many children to learn. Once students learn sight words it can free up cognitive resources to focus on the words they don’t know.
Sight Words Boost Student Confidence
Since so many sight words are everywhere in print, knowing sight words can give students a big boost of confidence. This is especially true for beginning or struggling readers.
When students find familiar words in texts, they experience a sense of accomplishment and are more likely to engage with the material. Confidence and motivation are crucial factors in nurturing a love for reading, and sight words offer a way for students to experience success, building a positive reading identity.
Sight Words Can Improve Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read accurately, smoothly, and with expression. Since improved fluency relies on students being able to quickly read and process what they’ve read, sight words are an important factor.
When students can recognize sight words instantly, they can spend more mental energy decoding unfamiliar words, comprehending the text, and gaining deeper meaning from what they read. By incorporating sight words into instruction, we can help students achieve greater reading fluency and overall comprehension.
Sight Words Support Whole-Word Recognition
The Science of Reading emphasizes phonics instruction to decode words which is fantastic. Knowing letter sounds helps students gain even more word power than memorizing the same amount of sight words.
However, sight words often contain irregular spelling patterns or phonetic exceptions, making it more efficient for students to memorize them as whole words. By explicitly teaching sight words, teachers equip students with a bank of words they can recognize quickly, reinforcing their ability to comprehend texts independently.
Bridging the Gap with Science of Reading and Sight Words
As we learn and study more about the shift towards the Science of Reading, we may feel we can’t use traditional approaches to teaching sight words. Sight words should not be viewed separately from phonics instruction. Instead, sight words help complement phonics instruction as many sight words can be decodable.
By incorporating both phonics and sight words, your class will have a comprehensive literacy education that supports students’ diverse needs. Not all students learn the same way so it can be important to have multiple approaches to learning. Using sight words in your instruction alongside a systematic phonics program offers the best of both worlds.
Related Post: Why You Need Sight Word Centers
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