Some May Call Me The Sight Word Nazi

Every chance I get, I discourage sight word lists amongst parents with young children. Why? I can't possibly know what I'm talking about? I'm not a reading specialist. Surely, they went to school to teach reading. They would know more than I do. Who am I to suggest such things?

The first thing we should recognize is that all educational approaches are just theories. While some are widely accepted, none of these theories have become law. These theories usually have been manipulated to show the theorist's desired outcome. Amazingly, our educational system is in the dumps while so many of these theories are "proven" to get results. Almost all, if not all, of these theories claim to be research driven.

Stance 1: Sight Words Are The Devil

At the time I decided to teach my child to read, all the programs I looked into for early reading were phonics driven. All of them cited research blaming the "look-say" reading method for the downward spiral of America's education system. They also reported that dyslexia was not a true mental disorder, but a reading impairment brought on by children using the look-say method of reading. Because these students are only remembering the shapes of words, instead of the sounds of word components, students can often confuse words. Also, imposing the order of letters would happen more frequently for those who don't know how to decode the word from left to right.

Stance 2: Sight Words Are A Necessity

Indeed, I thought sight words were the devil until I spoke with a reading teacher, a principal, and a reading specialist where I was working. They made points that I thought were valid. For example, there is the forever present reason given for the necessity of sight words- that some words can't be decoded but must be learned by sight. OK, that's a good reason. Then teachers everywhere will say sight words are necessary for fluency which is also aids in comprehension, yet another great reason for sight words.

Back To Stance 1: Those Devilish Sight Words

May the record reflect that while I taught school, I was a great academic teacher to all but my own child. Time just did not afford much reading instruction. We were blessed in that we spent time learning in between my teaching assignments and during the summers. At this time my four year old was almost a master at decoding CVC words, something that she was able to do when she was 3, but she wasn't at the point where she could pick up a book and read it, not unless it was a decodable reader.

Somewhat skeptically, I began to support the use of sight words, until... I had to test fourth grade students for remediation in reading. Quite remarkably, I had to test students of the teacher who touted the importance of sight words. Though I don't remember the exact word, I do remember that every person that I tested incorrectly "read" the word phone. Let's say that the word was prone. All of the students were using what the whole word resembled, instead of blending the phonemes to determine the word. Every single person said phone. Somewhere down the line they all must have learned phone as a sight word.

Here I was armed with all the ammunition my little heart needed to leave those pesky sight words alone. The Reading Lesson became our religious reading guide. At the end my daughter could actually pick up books, some of which were pretty hard, and read them.

Not quite a Nazi, but...

My position has softened just a bit. Do I think that every child should be taught sight words? Not in your wildest dreams. Can sight words be beneficial to some children? I think so.

When my child went to Kindergarten, she could read almost anything, but at first they wouldn't label her as such. Why? Because she wasn't fluent enough. Honestly, she had only been reading books for about a month. She was doing extremely well, but I knew what she was capable of reading and comprehending, and I wanted the school to acknowledge it. Soon, I learned not to care too much about what the school thought, but I also saw the value in her becoming a more fluent reader. This is where sight word lists could be extremely helpful.

Did we ever start working with sight word lists? Not really. We didn't even do what the school required. She came in knowing the words on the list, except for two. They ended up giving her the four first grade lists. Her teacher suggested all this sight word work. We just never had time to do it. I did occasionally, however, try to add decodable sight words to her spelling lists. That's all.

Because I wanted to give her a chance to practice her reading skills, we never dwelled on reading the same book(s) over and over again. This was probably really helpful in developing accuracy, but not at all helpful in developing fluency. In regards to fluency, I would have changed two things. We would have had special "repeat" books on deck, and I would have modeled fluent reading by reading to her more. Once she started reading it became all about reading practice. This is no longer the case.

Doing My Job and Teaching Sight Words

Last year, I taught PK4. I thought that it would be easier and afford me more time at home. Boy, was I wrong. At any rate, the curriculum called for sight words. In my opinion, most of the people were misinformed about sight words. One popular question among parents was, "How's she doing with her sight words." Somehow, parents believed that these magical sight words would mystically lead their children to the land of reading. No parent has ever asked about the blending of sounds. No parent ever asked me about the steps toward reading. Everyone only asked about those sight words. I tried to be as informative as I could without saying that these people have no clue in what it takes to ensure successful reading.

I do understand the buzz about sight words. Lots of kids can begin learning to read with only sight words. It's simple to include sight words in lessons. The turnaround time in being able to "read" one's first sentence/ book is irresistibly fast. My best "reader" in my class was the youngest of the students. She was the last to be moved into my class. On the first day, she sight-word-read circles around the other students. Why? Because she had 0 knowledge of letter/ sound relationships. She had not yet begun to identify the individual letters with their corresponding sounds. It was much easier for her to learn what the whole word looked like without the need to associate the individual letters with anything. That week, I constructed sight word books for my students (See. I can't possibly be a SWN.) Her mom was so proud that the child who had only been in my class a couple of days was already "reading." This student became disinterested with the exactness needed for true reading. While some of the others were starting to decode, with me, she never got so far. She began to disengage in lessons until sight word time. I'm afraid that she gained a false sense of reading accomplishment that could only be overcome with a good phonics reading program, though not offered to students in PK at that school.

Teaching students to read without the use of sight words can be taxing, but is rewarding. Honestly, I think it's hard to teach a phonics program to a group of students. I really would advise parents to start teaching their children how to read before they get to school. That way you can ensure that your child has the basic building blocks for good sound reading. A program/ book can be as cheap as 10 bucks. Choose an affordable but highly rated program and just get started.

I Actually Love Sight Words

My daughter and I do sometimes go over sight word lists, but I like to think that a sight word is word that becomes recognized by sight after it has been decoded several (maybe several hundred) times.Sorry, but there's no Nazi here.

The Revamp Failure

The last two weeks were stop and go. I like to research things to a tee. This is beneficial, but for me most of the time it's a problem. It's a problem because I often find myself looking and learning and knowing, but never doing. This has been the case for the last few weeks. I really wanted to make sure that what we were doing was helping her to be well-rounded.

In the past, I really liked some of the Charlotte Mason curriculum suggestions. My daughter and I were supposed to do the nature science curriculum, but didn't get very far. I recently returned and really like the selection of classic books/ readings. I really like the way that language is used in classic books. The only thing I don't like about classical education is the hint of racism. Culture helped to ready Europe for what she was to do to the rest of the world. Those everyday symbols that accustom people to act like savages in the name of Jesus are present in some of the literature in the Classical period. Moreover, I am not a believer that all things this period are the standard. While classical music is great, I do not share the belief that it's the best music the world has ever heard.

All that being said, I still think that with some tweaking CM with some adjustments could be a great model for a well rounded/ complete curriculum. I don't agree with all of CM's ideas. Waiting till a child turns six to read? Only if you're going to homeschool through 1st grade. My advice would be to teach your child to read before sending them to anybody's school. The way a lot of schools teach reading is like unto osmosis. For some students this works well, but a lot of students go lacking in the reading department because they really haven't had sound teaching in reading. I am a strong believer that kids as young as 2 1/2 can start learning to read. Give your child what she is willing to receive.

So I returned to amblesideonline.org checking out CM's first grade curriculum. Usually in reading I would go straight to the third grade curriculum, but the language is a little more advanced than everyday 1st grade curriculums and fits perfectly for us. What I am most excited about is adding Spanish. I chose Pimsleur. All I do is let her listen, and then we practice the conversations every other week. We spend about a two weeks on one lesson. We work about 3 days a week. She's pretty decent.

Anyway I went through a lot to make sure all the materials were collected and mapped out my whole month, but quickly learned that it was too much. It is very rewarding work, but we've had to lay back just a bit. My revamp basically turned into a no-vamp. I'm going to relax just a little bit and just work her extra hard during the winter and spring breaks. She is my world. I might as well enjoy.

We're Learning Cursive

I've been pondering whether or not to teach cursive to my daughter. There are those who argue that cursive can be taught before manuscript writing. There are also those who say that cursive is dying, and there is no need to teach it. I decided against it until she started showing interest in it. Now, she wants to read notes sent home from the teacher, etc. So, I thought it would be good just to go ahead and teach her. We've only had one lesson. What I've decided to do is to break the letters up into combinations of strokes. The actual strokes, to me, are a little too simple. You can find the basic strokes for cursive, here.

I thought that we would have a hard time. I thought crying would be involved, but much to my surprise. We made it through the lesson without any drama. I think the key to success was that we didn't try to do to much, and their was an objective with a foreseeable outcome. Unlike our mini math lessons of recent, she enjoyed this one. Maybe it was because she's slightly interested.

The letters we practiced were t,i,c, a, d. The goal was to be able to write a and d, but in writing those two letters one can also learn to write t (without the cross), i (without the dot), and c. The pic is her tracing of my writing. The top a's are of her own doing before we even began the lesson. People take lots of liberties when writing in cursive. I had to look everything up to make sure I taught things the right way. Gee, I love google!

Brag Post

We've had a very busy week, but I had to take the time to congratulate Lyla on a job well done. She was very nervous about her cheerleading debut, but she got there and did wonderfully. She didn't want to leave when it was time to go. Last week was grandparents week or grandparent's day, or something, and we were all very moved by what she wrote about her grandmother. Usually, I would make her correct her writing, but I'll probably just let this one rest. Just know that grandma will be on a spelling list somewhere. Then, we learn that according to the STAR reading test, my DD is reading on a 5.3 grade level. Lastly, her fabulous report card. I don't know if mine ever looked this great. I am very proud. Check out the pics below.

CLICK TO ENLARGE AND REDUCE

How I Taught My Daughter To Read/ Teaching Reading Advice

Just after Lyla turned two, I finally bought her the Teach Your Baby To Read program. We received the program. It looked great. We tried it out, and my DD hated it. It was boring as all get out. It felt like flash cards on video. We plowed through it a couple of times, and she was starting to memorize words, but we didn't do it often because it was just so tedious. If you choose to do this program I suggest starting at a younger age. If your child has played video games or enjoys watching and can learn from Sesame Street, then this program will probably be a snore fest.

Not doing anything, I noticed that Lyla had picked up a couple of sight words. Her first was lock. She saw this word everyday on our car door. She asked me what l-o-c-k spelled, and from there, her next word was toy which she learned from Toy Story. This was not unique to her. Others in her 3 y.o. class (I have always requested that she be put in a class slightly older until public school) were doing the same.

For about 6 months, we really didn't do anything. What happened next? My job let me go. Enrollment was low. The school had to make adjustments. They decided to get rid of the music department all together at the school (as well as security guards, guidance counselors, and academic coaches). So here I was back to staying at home which gave me time to do some research.

Out of Sight (Words)

I searched the internet for the best ways to teach reading. I was heavily influenced by youtube vids. I decided that we weren't going to do site words at all. I began searching for the perfect program. Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons kept coming up. We tried. Lyla didn't like. Five lessons is about all we could make it through. Actually we could have done more. I was a bit inconsistent, and my DD was happy to miss those reading lessons.

Although we only got through 5% of the book, I learned a lot. I had been trained on teaching phonemic awareness, but this program found a way to focus on phonics (blending of phonemes into words when reading) and phonemic awareness (ability to hear phonemes or the smallest units of sound represented by letters within a word) without having to segment the sounds at all. Our next venture led us to Teach Your Child to Read in Just 10 Minutes a Day." This stuck for a while. The book offers fun ideas for teaching reading, but I didn't build the wood toy that it suggested, nor did I tape letters to any blocks. I simply typed out words and letters and laminated them. Like most other phonics programs, you start out with a letter, learn it's sound, recognize the sound in words you here and then learn more letters. Once you have two letters you can start blending. This book starts with u then it adds p. The first word to learn is up. From there they add a c and then an a and the subsequent words that can be made from these letters. From doing these I learned that Lyla was already decoding words. I think that those five lessons from Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons really worked. We just needed practice reading CVC (consanat-vowel-consonant) words. We progressed but we kinda got hung up on what I call n-controlled vowels. For example, to my ears it's kinda confusing to teach ing to me the i sounds like a long e. The same is true for -ink or -ank. We hadn't learned any words with long vowel sounds. This was a bit confusing. How many people say a short a sound in bank? It's doable, but there is a bit of grey area there. Our relationship with this Kindle download ended abruptly.

What Stuck

What did we try next? Finally we did The Reading Lesson: Teach Your Child to Read in 20 Easy Lessons. WARNING: You will not be able to sit down 20 times and teach your child to read. It takes more consistency. If you work hard, you can do a lesson a week. If you want a more fluent reader then take longer on the lessons and make sure your child repeats each page. Have your child work on each page until he can read it smoothly. Then move on. We didn't do that, and although my daughter can just about read anything, we're working to increase her fluency and speed. She can read a 5th grade book, but would she read it as fast (frequency) or as smoothly as a fifth grader? She does great, but there is always room for improvement.

It's All About the Process

While the process started at 3, we really didn't pick up a book (aside from decodable books) for her to read on her own until a month before kindergarten. She was 5 1/2. This is the normal time for most kids to read. However at this time she could pick up a 2nd grade book and read it, not as fluently or as fast as a second grader would read, but she could read these books and gather meaning from them. The month before school. We read like crazy.

Wait! Where's The Rewind Button?

If I could find that rewind button and do it all over again I would have started with Teach Your Child to Read in Just Ten Minutes A Day or any phonics based reading program (you can design your own) at 2 1/2. No pressure- this would just be done in a fun, leisurely way, maybe a letter a week type situation. Then, at three I would make sure she could decode. The previous book should have given her decoding skills, but if she couldn't decode, we would spend our time learning. At this point I would introduce decodable readers (we made some of ours). If she decodes well at three, then I would introduce The Reading Lesson at three. If not, I would wait until she's 3 1/2. If the child is nowhere near decoding,then I would start with a few lessons in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesson and then continue to The Reading Lesson.

Back In Sight?

I personally don't think sight words are harmful. It's just better to learn to decode first. With that being said, I would try my hardest to teach my child to read before she starts kindergarten. Sight words would add to her reading, rather than take away. For kids with great memories, sight words may come easy. I personally (I am only a mother, not a reading specialist) would neither encourage, nor dissuade sight word practices. Let the child do what comes naturally to them in this regard. If your young child teaches himself to read by memorizing what words look like, I would immediately begin teaching letter sounds. I worked at a daycare where a genius four year old boy could read. I sat him down and asked him to read for me. I was blown away. His fluency was so much better than that of my daughter. Depending on what kind of reading he did at home, he probably could read harder books than she could, but he wasn't accurate in his reading. He would say what he thought some of the words and phrases were, rather than reading what was on the page. It wasn't a bad thing. I was thoroughly impressed. I am sure that as he embraces phonics in school, he will do well, but for some kids this is not an easy fix.

My Unsolicited, Yet Earnest Advice

My advice to parents who have a kindergartner who will be introduced to sight words? Let the school worry about sight words. You run a phonics program at home. If you have to help your child with sight words for school, do so, but try to relate it to phonics as much as possible. When your child starts school, the teacher does an assessment. I probably did too much, but everyday I would ask my child did the teacher call you up to her desk today? Did you read for her, today? Did anyone take you out of class, today? First grade is a bit different, but in kindergarten gather as much information as you can about assessments from your child. Ask your teacher what reading level your child is on. Ask to see how this was determined and what measures were used. Familiarize/ research the form of reading assessment and how a child is moved along from level to level. Ask your child's teacher for reading level information about your child. More than likely, they will not offer you this info. You have to ask. You don't want to be too pushy. As a teacher, I have seen how a parent's pushiness can affect how people treat the child. You always want to remain in good standing with the teacher (a lesson I am still learning), but let that teacher know that you know.

Once you have been given a reading level for your child, get books on an easier level (if applicable), on level, and on the next level. Can your child read books on the easier level? You want to give your child random books on random subjects. If your child can't pick up a random book at an easier level and read it, your child is probably not reading, but practicing memorization. Run you phonics program. If your child can read the easier level, keep giving them books to read. Use the easier and on level books to build fluency. Find a book your child likes and let them read it over and over and over again. Also make sure to model good reading to your child. Your child is on his way, but still run your own phonic and/or word study program at home.

If you're homeschooling, read up on Fontas and Pinnell or any trusted system for determining reading levels.

More Word Sorts

Short a, CVVC Long a

Short o, CVVC Long o
Short u, CVVC Long u
Short e, CVVC Long e
CVVC Short e, CVVC long e
CVVC Long Vowel Sounds

Again, you will have to access the links with a flash enabled device.

Bad Mommy -- n. music teacher who hasn't taught her daughter music

I ran into these vids of me teaching a music lesson to my daughter and her friend. This was over a year ago, just before she began kindergarten. Her friend was going to the first grade. The ironic thing about it is I've been a music teacher in a public school. My preschoolers could do amazing things, but I never really did the lessons with my daughter. While we've shared lots of cool musical experiences, I really haven't had any formal lessons with her, except for the one below. The funny thing is she remembers it. She can still clap her quarter notes. We're going to do more. I have to remind myself that the goal is to raise a well-rounded kid, not just an academic.

Rhythm sticks are inexpensive and nice to have around. The make shift ones in the video were leftover dowels from a woodworking project. They were a little long. Over the years we've made a few instruments. Egg shakers are so easy. Electrical tape over a picture frame could make a nice hand drum. Also electrical tape atop of the widest pvc pipes of various legnths can make great bongos.