AboutStoreFavorite LinksHomeFavorite Blogs

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Sight Word Fluency

Sight words...they can be so tricky for the struggling reader.  
I knew I needed a new way for me to make them stick, as whatever I was doing wasn't working.
I started out with a set of Dolch Fluency reads that I made for a few kids last year.  

I saw success with them using it.
Then this year, I started working with a few students who are on IEPs and need intensive instruction.
I was awaiting for the Edmark kit to come in, but I needed to have something to use for our daily lessons.

I took out this set of readers, and I saw success.  
One of my kiddos mastered his whole list of pre-primer sight words (before the Edmark kit came in) 
He only knew 6 of the words when I assessed him.  
I knew something was working, so I made the next Dolch set.
His Edmark kit is in, but he loves reading from these sets.
Actually, he has passed all of these sight words and is now in the 1st grade set.

He even developed his own strategy to become more fluent.
This is an example of his strategy.
(This image is from the Primer set)
He would quickly scan the image and look for words he doesn't know.
He would ask me what they say.
I would give him the word.
Then he would read through the read on his own.

I took his idea and ran with it.
The next time he came to an unknown word, we would finger write it on the table, 
spell it with letters, and locate it each time in the fluency read.
(Mind you, I only have about 17 minutes for a lesson with him.)

The great thing about the fluency reads is that the students begin to notice that 
the words all go at an angle.  For example, if you look at the top, then draw your eyes at an angle to the left, you will only see the word they in each sentence.  My students are easily able to identify this.

One of my groups have started this on their own.
When we use these as a warm up, they will go through at an angle and say the words down on the angle.
They will say the word they over on each line, then move back up to the word saw and touch and repeat it.
Then they go at the other angle and read the sentence.  Example, start at the word they in the image above and draw your eyes to a right angle.  You can read the whole sentence if you just read the last word.
Then the students go back through and read it.  

While these may not be difficult reads, they are learning their sight words.
If we play games, I come back to these reads and we work on it.
I want to teach the word WITHIN text.

I have used these as 
1) one-on-one sight word teaching
2) Small group warm-ups
3) Homework practice 
4) Book boxes in their classroom

But what makes me the happiest is when they smile because they are reading.
They get so excited, and feel so proud.
AND THEY WANT TO READ IT!
That alone is success that they are wanting to read and feel comfortable. :)

If you would like to try these out with your students, I have now made 4 sets.

Pre-primer
Pre-primer Dolch Reads




Primer
Primer Dolch Reads


1st Grade
First Grade Dolch Reads

2nd Grade
2nd Grade Dolch Reads

You can click on the image of each set above to be redirected to read more about them.




 


1 comment:

  1. Finally, on the off chance that you are not completely enamored with a particular vehicle on the parcel, consider requesting what you need. Without a doubt, this may bring about a postponement, yet settling on an auto that has choices you don't need or need just implies that you are paying for those alternatives too. usacheckcashingstore.com/corona

    ReplyDelete

First Grade and Fabulous

Total Pageviews