The great debate
There is much in the education world to debate. Homework, parental involvement, recess numbers, and the most beloved sight words. Can you sense my sarcasm. Reading specialists either love them or hate them depending on what Instagram hole you jump down. One reason to hate them is too much power to place on a word that sometimes can or can’t bememorrized. Some kids get penalized for not having them memorized when they have a dissability that makes this challenging. Sight words don’t play well with our nomral sounds we learn. This is why we have to memorize them/ For me, I don’t see them as pure evil I just see them as something that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. So I think we have a choice.
Choice one: Go to war.
We could fight our child's teacher and come bearing research that makes a point that sight words do more harm than good. Arm ourselves with solutions to help our teacher make better teaching choices. *** just so you know they love that ;)
Option two: Embrace.
My son is currently learning how to read. Well, he’s continuing the tools I’ve given him, if I’m frank. So even though I see kind of little value out of drilling certain words over and over, I post the lists on my wall. I put the words in his sight at all times, especially ones he’s curiently learning. I know his reading teacher is doing an excellent job because when he reads to me, he’s sounding out words letter by letter, AND when it comes to a sight word, he’s reading them quickly.
Guess what, sight words are likely here to stay. We can all take a breath and settle on this, but when we practice them we give our kid confidence. I’m not saying go out now and get to target to buy flash cards I’m talking exposure. When our son, reads with us at night, or when he notices words in his environment he sees the sight words and he is excited. He recognizes these words, likely becaue he practices them the most at school. Why would I take away his spark? Why wouldn’t I embrace something that’s happening at his school with reading, and let him be.
HOW CAN YOU PRACTICE?
-If you have a child who is wiggily shaving cream will be your best friend. Say the word slowly, and (Like we did with letter sounds here) and trace the words in shaving cream. This goes well for our kids with dyslexia as well.
-Post the sight words around the house.
-Play a game where when you read to them your kiddo finds the sight words ( this will make bedtime longer ;) )
-Find the sight words in movie and show discriptions while watching TV
Enjoy and happy reading!
