How can you help early literacy learners master sight words?

Question

What activities can you utilize that engage young literacy learners as well as help them learn to both read and spell basic sight words such as "the?"

Answer 1

I use two techniques in my spelling instruction: phonics and the Orton-Gillingham method. Phonics is a system that focuses on patterns of letter clusters and groups of words that have the same letter clusters. Let's talk about the Orton-Gillingham method, and more specifically, what they call red words.

The Orton-Gillingham method is (and has been for a long time) one of the most popular methods of spelling instruction used by instructors, not only for early childhood, but even for ESL! It is a very structured approach that focuses on multi-sensory techniques that stimulate the learner through tactile (tracing the words with their finger), auditory (verbalization), motor/muscle memory (spelling the words in the air/simply writing on paper) senses.

The red words are a list of high frequency words that learners are expected to master (that is, read without "sounding out" or know on sight) at an early level. These words can be found on the Dolch List or Fry Instant Words list.

Message me or do some research on the Orton-Gillingham method if this sounds interesting to you.

Answer 2

Hello,

I would recommend that in order to engage young literacy learners and get them to read and spell simple, basic English sight words, you could begin by reading books aloud to them that are very phonemically oriented such as Dr. Seuss books which focus on specific language patters in their content and have pictures to go along with the given vocabulary words themselves illustratively.

You can/should also have your young students listen to music and watch educational media that contain lyrics and dialogue at their literacy level, delivered in ways that are easy for them to catch onto and participate in (i.e. singing and reciting the given lyrical and spoken dialogue) and subsequently remember long-term.

Flash cards with individual vocabulary words, their definitions, and corresponding illustrations printed down on paper are also extremely helpful teaching tools.

Good luck in your instruction!