What Are
Sight Words and Why Are They Important?
What Are
Sight Words and Why Are They Important?
Sight words
(high-frequency words, core words or even popcorn words) are the words that are
used most often in reading and writing.
In classrooms across America, the development of sight word
recognition continues to be a top priority when instructing emerging and
beginning readers.
They are called “sight” words because the goal is for your
child to recognize these words instantly, at first sight.
Why are
Sight Words Important?
Sight words are very important for your child to master
because, believe it or not, “sight words account for up to 75% of the words
used in beginning children’s printed material”, per Study to Identify
High-Frequency Words in Printed Materials, by D.J. Kear & M.A. Gladhart. There
are different sight words for every grade level. Each set of words builds upon
the other, meaning that once your child learns the sight words in Kindergarten,
he will be expected to still recognize those words as he learns new words in
first grade, and so forth.
Many of the over 200 “sight words” do not follow the basic
phonics principles, thus they cannot be “sounded out.” Beginning readers need
an effective strategy for decoding unknown words, and being familiar with sight
words is an effective method.
Other benefits of sight words include:
- · Sight words promote confidence. Because the first 100 sight words represent over 50% of English text, a child who has mastered the list of sight words can already recognize at least half of a sentence. If your child begins to read a book and can already recognize the words, chances are he won’t feel discouraged and put the book down, rather he’ll have more confidence to read it all the way through. And, choose another!
- · Sight words help promote reading comprehension. When your child opens her book for the first time, instead of trying to decipher what ALL of the words mean, she can shift her attention to focus on those words she is not familiar with. She will already know at least half of the words, so focusing on the other half helps strengthen her understanding of the text.
- · Sight words provide clues to the context of the text. If your child is familiar with the sight words, she may be able to decode the meaning of the paragraph or sentence by reading the sight words. And, if a picture accompanies the text, your child may be able to determine what the story is about and come away with a few new words under her belt.
Enjoy,
Nora Sierra
Early Childhood
Assistant Principal
Discovery School
(504)221-7790
(504)221-7791(fax)
(504)9500-1720(school
cell)
(504)9985-0732(mobile)
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