Why learn Sight Words?
What are Sight Words? Sight Words – common words that cannot easily be sounded out by beginning readers so need to be recognized on sight High Frequency Words – words that occur frequently in reading and writing, they make up more than half of the words that the child will encounter in their reading and writing
Why learn Sight Words? The basic sight words make up about half the words that the beginning reader will be exposed to in their reading and writing so being able to recognize them quickly and write them easily is a big step to becoming a confident reader. A child should be able to read the majority of words in a text before they are asked to attempt to read it, so having a bank of words they can recognize allows them to concentrate on meaning.
Where do I find the Sight Words List? There are lots of different lists of sight words – Dolch, Fry, and Magic 100 are most commonly used in schools. There are about 100 basic words but the lists can go on to up to 350 words. An internet search will provide lots of lists or see the links at the end of this article for lists to match our Parrotfish Sight Words App.
What are the lists different? Sometimes these lists will be ordered in years that the child will be learning them and sometimes in order of frequency in the written language. Although many of the words on the lists may differ due to the year that they were developed, the geographical location, empirical data and samples used, it doesn’t really matter what list is used. What is important is that the child is learning to use memory skills and developing strategies to memorize these words. These strategies will later be applied to lots of different learning situations – not just reading.
How can I help? Parents can assist this learning by practicing the words with them using games and getting them to read the words from flash cards at increasing speed. See my article on “Ideas for Learning Sight Words�. Our app-Parrotfish sight word has 6 different games that require different reading strategies. This app has been proven to work, is great for practicing the words and gives immediate feedback.
Source: http://parrotfish.com.au/sight-words-parrot-fish-studios/why-learn-sightwords/