Weaker on sight words

Early Learning Teaching Your Child to Read
1

I didn’t do early learning (not in the sense that I do now, at least) with my oldest (5 years, 1 month). He is in a Montessori school (in the middle of the 3 year cycle, next year is his kindergarten year…his birthday falls where he is one of the older kids in his grade).

Anyhow, his teachers have mentioned that he has very strong phonetic skills (we’ve worked hard on them!). But, that his sight reading isn’t as strong and if we can get him to do better with sight reading, he’ll be able to read significantly better. And I do agree. He’s never been that keen on learning sight words, is VERY rules-driven (always has been), and dislikes words “that break the rules”. We are going through Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, and he should finish it before he starts his kindergarten year. I know that will help because he’ll learn all those rules he’d rather know!

We are also using All About Spelling, but are still on level 1. His reading level is significantly higher than his spelling level. So, I’m not sure this will help him anytime soon.

This is a child that strongly prefers phonics instruction. He wants to know why a word says what it does.

I have plenty of whole word reading products that I use with my youngest (and bought to use with both), but he generally does not prefer them. For the sake of anyone have fresh ideas on how to use them with him, I have:

Little Reader
Preschool Prep Sight Words 1, 2, and 3
4 Monki See Monki Do DVDs
1 Baby Einstein that has words (Wordsmith, I think?)
Assorted Baby and Signing Time DVDs

He’ll watch the Baby Einstein (it was actually given as a gift to both kids for Christmas, so he thinks it’s his), and the Signing Time DVDs happily. Though, especially with the signing time, I do not think he’s getting whole word instruction from it.

Sometimes I’ll put one of the others on “for sister” when they are both playing, but I just don’t think he’s getting much from them when I do this. I think he can phonetically read most or all of the preschool prep words anyway.

So, this is a huge jumble, but if you made it this far…do you have any suggestions for us?

It does make me happy that I’ve been doing whole words AND phonics with my youngest. She looks at words and reads them if she knows them, and attempts to sound them out if not (she can only do CVC words right now and only if she’s in the mood), which seems better.

My son tries to sound out every single word and will frequently forget to check first if it’s a sight word.

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For example:

He wouldn’t pause to read “thumper” or “Montessori” but get stuck on “two”. He’s reading phonetically as he goes…I need to get him to try looking at the word to see if he knows it first (because sometimes he does!).

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I would probably put him on the ladybird key words reading scheme as it deals with the most common sight words and because he would be reading a book it would not be the same as flashcards and hopefully he would just learn to read the words as whole words.

This is a British reading scheme though I have not seen words in there that would be spelled differently by Americans (and my daughter has read up to level 6a so far) You can get these books through most book sellers too and they are relatively cheap. He would also be able to read some of the words phonetically if he chose to. I also find that the repetition in the books is enough that my daughter knows the words by the end of the book without having to drill them first.

http://www.ladybird.co.uk/ladybirdworldwide/keywords.html

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Hi,
i would suggest books too. I always go to the library and find a huge selection of different books. There are books for sight words practising using the words over and over again. My son is in preschool now and love to play that he is the teacher. I try to use thesse situations to make him do different things. He also loves races: who can find it first, who can read it faster…I would probably use flash cards you can play with putting them in different columns, making sentences with them…I’m sure you will find the right way to help him with his sight words.

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My daughter is absolutely addicted to an App called Sight Word Bingo! She just turned two, but has no trouble achieving a BINGO with what are classified as ‘third-grade level’ words. (you can change the settings to include different levels of words for different ages!). My nieces and nephews, who have never even heard the term EL, were all struggling with their sight word reading, and after two weeks of arguing over whose turn it was to play this ‘game’, are now way ahead of their peers!
When you get a BINGO with no mistakes, you earn some sort of cutesy bug, not sure what the allure is, but I have yet to meet a kid that didn’t love them…this App was highly recommended, and I now know why. I agree that reading a variety of books will help, but you can’t beat this for quick, easy learning, and most importantly, for confidence building!
They also have a version for math and a junior version for letter, shape, and color identification…
I think the company is called ABCYa.com, but if you search for ‘Sight Word Bingo’ it pops right up. I know they have it for IPhone and IPad, but I am not sure about Android

I hope this helps!

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My son has learned alot of the sight words through Readeez dvds.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Readeez?feature=watch

The preschool prep ipad apps have helped reinforce and given him confidence in identifying sight words.

If you do not have an ipad here is a link to a sight word bingo game that my friend uses with her child. Or you can customize your own cards with the words you know your son needs to practice.

http://www.epinions.com/review/Trend_Enterprises_T_6064_Bingo_Sight_Words_Ages_5_and_Up/content_472143007364

I also helped her modify a battleship game and we placed sight words on the grid.

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Try a few of the games on this site
http://www.mrsperkins.com/dolch-games.html
I have taught many 4-7 year olds confidence with site words using these simple but fun games. All you need in a printer, a dice and something like a bottle top or counter for each player. All the words are by level and based on the dolch list.
If he really likes learning by phonics and knowing why I would suggest you look into “thrass” it’s a phonics program that explains every single possible sound in the English language. Including those tricky site words :slight_smile:

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We have the Kid2020 DVD on sight words. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtKSgHLojgg&feature=relmfu

Each list is read through in about 3 minutes, with music in the background. Check the link for an example. I usually show it after or before a different learning DVD.

I also saw that Rock N Learn has a Sight Word DVD (we don’t have this one). Both this and the Kid2020 videos are directed to 5/6year olds, but my son began watching the Kid2020 video when he was about 3, and other Rock N Learn DVDs at about the same time (phonics 1 & 2).

Also, when I was a kgtn classroom teacher, I would often go on word hunts with the kids (time filler before a transition). Everyone would grab a book, together we’d pick a sight word and we’d spend the next 2-3 minutes paging quickly through our books looking for that word, making tallies on a paper each time we’d find it. They thought it was hilarious fun! (Who can explain 5 year old humour???) Your son might like this, too.

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Thank you everyone for your suggestions! The more the merrier, keep them coming!

I’ve been thinking on this all day. We do sight words games and videos and apps sometimes. He’ll get more during these activities than he does when he’s actually reading though.

Today, he brought home a first grade reader which seemed like a good challenge level for him right now. But, he CAN read so much more difficult words! IF I can help him with this sight word weakness.

While thinking about it, I think he is only engaging his left brain while reading (perhaps because of a lean towards systematic phonics? Perhaps both at the same time like “Native Reading” suggests would have suited him better.

Anyway, while he reads, he doesn’t have that stop-and-look-to-see-if-it’s-a-sight-word step before he starts reading. And he isn’t saying, “c a t, cat”, he reads the words fairly quickly, just not engaging this “could it be a rule-breaker word I’ve encountered in the past” step? Am I making any sense whatsoever? Lol

I’ll look at the games and videos suggested here, as I’m sure any could help. I’m thinking I may add some right brain non-reading activities, like EK flashing. Both the kids love that anyway. Heck, I do too! My husband and I took turns doing it for each other and I can totally see the draw.

This word hunt in books idea sounds like it might be a really great bridge for what I’m trying to do. That type of thing might be what I’m most looking for. Some way to encourage him to engage some whole word reading into his reading of books.

I also looked at “thrass”, I couldn’t find anything in particular specifically about explaining sight words, is it just a very thorough systematic phonics program? The one we are going through right now seems like we will eventually get there with it too. It just won’t be for another 6 months or so.

Thanks everyone!

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Thrass is a very thorough phonics program yes. Te reason I suggested it is because you said your son prefers to use his phonics to decode words. Thrass gives kids all 44 phonemes (sounds) that are used in the English language for speech and every possible spelling combination also. Thrass explains the sounds in site words so kids can use phonics to read them. If you are half way through program that may do that anyway I would read ahead and be sure it will then stick with it.
From some of your comments I think perhaps the books you are having him read may be a bit too challenging for him. I may be wrong! It is important that he finds them fairly easy or he will quickly loose confidence. The books you choose he should be able to read with between 90 and 95% accuaracy. To test get a piece of paper and a book. Have him read it. Make a dash on the paper for every single word he gets right and a different dash ( not a cross if he can see you!) for every mistake he makes that he doesn’t correct immediately. Add up all the words in total, then all the mistakes and figure out the percentage. Some teachers will be spewing I told you all this lol But since so many of your kids read before school it’s handy to know how to select the right level of books :yes: The trick for parents is to be totally un biased and mark every single mistake no matter how trivial or out of character…I know it’s hard, I do my own kids too!
Also if you want to encourage the use of right brain reading try playing classical baroque music in the background while you flash the sight words and read.

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I’ll check the percentage tomorrow. I’m interested now. :slight_smile:

Before he brought books from school home and was reading books I gave him, I had him read the same one every night until he could read it completely fluently with no mistakes. Maybe even a few nights of this. But I’m not certain at what percent he got correct, or with quick corrections (you said that counts, right?) at the first reading.

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I was actually just on the Amazon website ordering the Scholastic Parts of Speech Tales, when a recommended product caught my eye…we have several other sets by this company/author and have yet to find a bad one…I just ordered this one as well, and can let you know how it turns out! :slight_smile:
In the meantime, here is the title and the short description:

Sight Word Tales: 25 Read-Aloud Storybooks That Target & Teach the Top 100 Sight Words [Paperback]
Liza Charlesworth (Editor)

“Jumpstart reading success with these lively titles that systematically teach the top 100 sight words! Each book contains a read-aloud story that introduces four key words PLUS several engaging activities that reinforce the words. This special set also includes a BIG 144-page teaching guide filled with easy lessons, practice pages,
and reproducible versions of all 25 storybooks. That’s everything teachers need to help kids learn these all-important sight words once and for all! For use with Grades K–2.”

Hope you find it useful…

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Based on what you said in your second post I would advise more reading with him - and I would give him fairly simple books (grade one readers probably as they should contain most early sight words - depending on how he does you could move to grade 2 books also, but start easy) then just read them with him and make sure he points to the sight word while you say it if he doesn’t say it fast enough then just keep reading. The reason I say this is that the sight words are some of the most commonly used words so you will come across them endlessly and they will eventually sink in. On top of that another method for teaching reading that seems to occur naturally when reading books is to figure out what word fits best by intuition based on language patterns. If a child is reading for meaning (and they should be) then the words must makes sense. I find my four year old will correct herself and automatically read past tense words without having the phonics to sound them out (we are still getting to that phonics) She just figures out the words based on what fits best. This can ONLY be done while reading real books as if I showed her the words on flashcards she would likely get it wrong as there is no context to help her. The same goes with the sight words. She is doing very well reading grade 2 readers now.

I also like the idea of looking for specific words in text - you will most likely need large print text to do this initially with fewer words per page - I think the Usborne beginning reading series is quite nice for this.

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Okay, the book he brought home today:

He read 76 words, 73 with no problems. 3 misses (“what” twice and “no” – non-phonetic sight words–both of which he could identify in sight word games. Actually, he usually doesn’t miss “no” in reading either, but did today.). His book yesterday I did not take stats on, but I’ll guess it was more at a 90% accuracy rate.

But it was with 96% accuracy, so this means it’s a good level, or should be very slightly harder?

He also did his phonics work with me today, reading 72 words with 0 misses. He can read much more complex phonetic words than are in the books he’s reading (because of the sight word weakness).

Kerileanne99, I hope you’ll give a review once you use those books. We have the Bob Book Sight Word series we’ve gone through in the past. Perhaps we could review them again though.

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Oh! And we did a word search hunt with his book from yesterday. I picked a book and he picked a book and we both looked for the same word, alternating who got to pick the word. Then we put tally marks and decided who had the “greater” number of a certain word in their book.

He enjoyed it, so we’ll probably do that more often. :slight_smile:

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Sounds like you have him on the right level :slight_smile: and well done mum it sounds like you gave him an honest test too :slight_smile: aiming for the exact right level is very difficult if you don’t have a set of leveled readers so close is good enough! I think you just need to give him some time with these new games for sight words and you will probably find he jumps pretty quickly. I can’t give you more specific advise without more info, like a picture or text copy of the book he got yesterday or a video of him reading. Overall I don’t think you need any more advise you seem to have it all working :yes: Thumbs up!
If he is reading simple sentences or one sentence per page books then the site word books are useful, ( and any series will be fine, they all do the same thing, some do it in a more interesting story ) if he is beyond that he may not like them and the games will be better…plus they are free!

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Thanks! I probably just need to be patient. :slight_smile: