Sight Words

In his 1948 book, "Problems in Reading", Edward William Dolch published a list of 220 frequently used 'service words' and a separate list of 95 common nouns. These lists are estimated to contain 50-75% of the words in children's books.

These are often referred to as Dolch words and are broken up into levels.  The levels are pre-primer, primer, 1st, 2nd and 3rd level.  Obviously easier words, such as A and I are in the earlier levels and words such as yellow and because are in the upper levels.

Midge has struggled with reading and so we've been practicing sight words.  Today I thought I'd share our sight word activity schedule. We do this every weekday, every week.

Sunday:
*I choose the next 10 words and write them on the chalkboard in the dining room so they're ready for Monday morning.

Monday:
*Review words from previous weeks (yes, all the words from previous weeks).
*Introduce 10 new words and he writes them on 3 X 5 cards (one word per card) using his best handwriting.
*Roll a 10 sided die to assign each word a number, writing the number on the appropriate card, then putting the cards in the correct order.
*Use stamps to "write" each word in his Word Book (a steno pad).

Tuesday:
*Read this week's words together.
*Copy each word two times on the back of the card, using whatever medium he wants (crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint, stamps, etc....)
*Roll a 10 sided die and say the corresponding word - continue until all words have been said.  We usually do this as a game - he writes 1-10 twice on a paper, labeling his column and mine, then we see who can roll all 10 numbers first. 

Wednesday:
*Review this week's words together.
*In the Word Book, write a short sentence for each word, then he illustrates if he wants to.  Typically The Boy writes the sentences on a piece of scrap paper, then Midge copies them.

Thursday:
*Review this week's words together.
*Using pasta we've dyed in rainbow colors (that was seriously fun!), "write" each word.  I put a towel on the table, so the pasta doesn't roll away.
*If he's struggling with any words, we practice those a few extra times and I'll randomly ask him to tell me what the words on the chalkboard are.

Friday:
*Review this week's words together.
*Randomly choose words and ask him to find the correct card.
*He alphabetizes the words for the week.
*He reads all 10 words to Bryant, The Boy or Scooter.

So that's what we're doing.  It seems to be working pretty well - I can see the difference in his confidence level when he reads and that's really what I'm going for.  I know that he CAN read, he simply thinks he can't, so anything that builds his confidence and helps him feel like he's doing well is good with me.