Research-Based Strategies for Teaching ELL Students
Research shows that ELL students prefer a kinesthetic learning style. Incorporating movement-based learning strategies into lessons can help bilingual classrooms thrive.
What are sight words, and how do they help students learn to read? Recognizing sight words and high frequency words are essential skills to develop, often starting in kindergarten. Selecting the right beginner reading words can make all the difference in your young students’ success.Â
We’re diving into research-based strategies for teaching sight words. Learn how to teach sight words in fun and effective ways at home or in your classroom.
Sight words are common words in the English language that young readers should learn to recognize by sight without sounding them out. Most sight words are high frequency words, or words that students will often encounter in any text they read. Furthermore, many sight words are irregular and do not follow usual phonetic rules. Hence, these words are not easy to decode or sound out.Â
Some examples of sight words include “the,” “and,” “of,” “in,” and “to.” By teaching students to recognize these words quickly, they can read more fluently and with greater comprehension.
Of course, you don’t want to overwhelm beginners with difficult reading words. Here are some standard guidelines to keep in mind when choosing which sight words to teach:
This collection of 29 mats (or stickers) lists all 220 Dolch sight words in large, kid-friendly text on colorful blocks. Young readers can learn these high frequency words by moving their bodies on the material. Introduce play-based sight word activities to your phonics lesson!
What advice does research have for you regarding how to teach sight words? Studies have concluded that multi-sensory teaching strategies can be very effective when it comes to learning sight words. Research-based strategies for teaching sight words encourage educators to incorporate visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements into their lessons.
In essence, students need to connect sounds to letters to read sight words. To start, have students break the word apart. They can do this by clapping their hands or tapping on their desktops while reciting the word aloud. Ask your students how many sounds they hear in the word.
Next, students need to identify which speech sound (phoneme) corresponds to each letter or letter pattern (grapheme). Encourage your students to make each sound of the word aloud, then point to or write the corresponding letters on paper. Or, students can air trace letters and letter patterns as they speak aloud.Â
Finally, have students combine the sounds and letters to make the word. This strategy is referred to as word mapping. Word mapping improves word recognition and helps students add vocabulary to their long-term memory.
By incorporating multi-sensory elements into word mapping activities, you’re boosting students’ learning comprehension and memory retention even further. Simple movements and verbal sayings keep students engaged. As a result, your lessons are more successful!
Math & Movement is all about multi-sensory learning, and not just for math – literacy too! While simple and effective movements such as clapping and tapping can be incorporated into lessons without any additional classroom supplies, Math & Movement’s Word Hop floor mats bring sight word activities and games to the next level. With these colorful learning aids, students can practice letter sounds and word recognition while hopping, skipping, stepping, crawling, and tracing.
Additionally, our 100 Word Hop mat lays out 100 high-frequency words on a large scale. Multiple students can move their bodies on this mat and interact with the words at the same time, promoting a collaborative learning environment.
A fun way for students to learn 100 first sight words while playing! Available in two sizes. 10×10 ft mats come in two parts and are held together by heavy-duty Velcro.
Furthermore, Math & Movement has its own activity database that includes lesson plans and game ideas using each of our mats. Learn how to play Sight Word Twister on the 100 Word Hop, write a short story with your class using a Word Hop mat as a guide, or get familiar with individual sight words in our Jump & Learn Words workbook.
Jump & Learn Words Workbook offers enjoyable practice with 203 Dolch sight words. Students trace, search for, and spell each word. Seven additional questions are included for each word to strengthen a student’s word knowledge. Word lists and pre-and post-tests are included.
Take a look at our list of high-frequency sight words for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students. Our list is based on the Dolch Sight Words list.
When asking yourself how you’ll teach sight words, remember that the goal is for students to be able to instantly recognize the word without having to break it down into sounds and letters. With repeated exposure, your students will be reading quickly and confidently! Plus, your students will be excited for reading time once you incorporate fun multi-sensory ways to teach sight words into your lessons.Â
Reach out to the Math & Movement team to start with research-based strategies to teach sight words today.
Featured image by rawpixel.com on Freepik.
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