WHAT ARE SIGHT WORDS?

Believe it or not, at least 50% of texts are made up of the same frequently used 100 words! We call these commonly used words ‘sight words’. Most of them are small and easily recognized, (I, is, the, and, to) but some of them cannot be easily sounded out or illustrated (like, from, what, good).

Using phonics or picture-reading skills for words like these is ineffective for young readers, especially for those who are in the early stages of developing their decoding skills. Therefore we need to know these words by “sight”.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO TEACH THEM?

It’s critical to teach children to memorize sight words as a whole so that they can recognize them immediately (within 3 seconds) without having to use any strategies to decode them. Imagine how frustrating reading would be if you had to stop and sound out every little word!

Once readers master sight words they are able to understand at least half of the words in any particular text. By eliminating the need to stop and decode sight words, readers are able to focus on words that are less familiar and more difficult.

And teaching sight words not only helps children read more fluently, it helps them write more efficiently too!