I want 100% accuracy with reading the words. They might know ALL of the words except one. If a student misses one word, that is the list they will work on. Students work their way through the lists while I check off the words on their individual tracking sheet. If they can read all of the words, then they move onto the next list.įor the pre-assessment, I print off a copy of each of the lists and staple them together in order.
These words are a combination of the Zeno, Fry and Dolch word lists. The system consists of 9 lists (total of 146 words).It combines student readiness and accountability and ongoing, developmentally appropriate assessment.
Therefore, I have developed a student-guided sight word system which focuses on reading. In addition, the more words my students are fluently and accurately reading, the higher the likelihood that they will include them in their writing. Spelling and reading are closely linked in the findings that children who are good readers are usually good spellers. And, according to research, “By having a large bank of words that they can read automatically, students spend less effort attempting to decode words and can devote greater cognitive resources to text comprehension” (January, Lovelace, Foster & Ardoin, 2017). I had to ask myself “Which one is more important?” Yes, that is a tough question but, ultimately, being fluent readers who comprehend is the top priority. How can I incorporate sight words into our daily routine AND assess in a meaningful way so that students are reading and writing sight words accurately? This is where I got stuck–reading and writing. This prompted me to do away with traditional spelling homework and tests. However, we have a lot of “Friday spellers” aka students who do well on the test but never apply that to their writing and it doesn’t provide data about which words they know how to read. Students practice at home Monday-Thursday and then test on Friday. My team has used Fry’s 1st and 2nd hundred words as our weekly spelling lists. I have come to realize a system with intention and purpose is better than no system at all. It is by no means perfect but I don’t think there is a perfect system out there (trust me, I did a lot of researching but if you have one, let me know!). Taking into consideration that the top 300 sight words make up about 2/3 of all written material, this area of instruction is crucial for my students to become stronger readers.Īfter brainstorming and researching, this is the sight word system I have developed. Of course, we practice throughout the year but it hasn’t been as focused or individualized as I would like it to be. This is partly because we assess them at the beginning of the year and then we don’t do it again until the end. The sight word lists that you see in this post come in black and white or you have the option of color-coded lists that match sight word cards and other activities throughout the book.Teaching sight words is an area of reading instruction that I have tried to organize but by mid-year, I don’t have a clear idea of what words my students have mastered and which ones they still need to work on. The two most common sight word lists, Dolch and Fry, are both copyrighted and since I don’t have permission to post them word for word, I thought I’d combine them together. Now, am I saying that all readers need are sight words? Absolutely not! You can read more about where I stand on that issue in my post about why sight words AND phonics are needed to teach reading. Each sight words list is printable and combines the best of the Dolch sight words and Fry’s first 200 high frequency words, two extremely popular word lists. What are the sight words kids need to know? I’m so glad you asked because today, I’m sharing five sight word lists from my ebook, Printable Spelling Activities and Games. This can make their reading sound choppy and also have a negative affect on comprehension. Otherwise, much of their time reading may be spent decoding words. Sight words, sometimes called high frequency words, are common words that readers see a lot. They see them so much that we want them to learn to read them by sight.