How to Introduce Sight Words

Do you know the current, best practices to introduce sight words? If not, keep reading to find out!

Why Teach Sight Words?

Sight words make up over 70% of the words in texts students read. That’s why we should teach students to identify them! We want students to read sight words with automaticity so they can read a text fluently. Also, we don’t want students to sound out every word they don’t know.  Also, not every word can be sounded out.

We need to teach sight words systemically and use hands-on activities. I use Jan Richardson’s The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading (affiliate link) to introduce and reinforce my sight word instruction.

What are the best practices in sight word instruction?

Here’s what Jan Richardson recommends:

1. Choose sight words from your students’ instructional leveled text. 
2. Teach sight words that are phonetic such as am, at, is, it, in and up first. However, Richardson writes there is no specific order for teaching sight words.
3. Be systematic about it – teach it the same way every time.  

How to Teach Sight Words

1. Introduce the word by writing the word on a dry erase board.
   1. I use large letter cards. It’s bigger and I can show students how to build the word letter by letter. Then I write it on a white board.
2. What’s Missing?
   1. Using a whiteboard, write the sight word with letter(s) missing. Ask students, “What letters are missing?” and have them write the missing letter(s).
3. Mix and Fix
   1. Give students magnetic letters and have them make the new word.
      1. If you don’t have magnetic letters, you can use index cards or alphabet cards.
         1. To increase engagement, I let the students mix up the letters and have another student put it in the correct order.
4. Table Writing
   1. Have students write the word on the table using their index finger.
5. Write it and Retrieve it
   • Write the word on an alphabet chart.
   • After they write the word, have them erase it and write it again.
   • Dictate students to write a familiar word and then write the new sight word.  
   • Don’t ask students to spell or sound out the word because the goal is for students to learn the word as a complete unit.

Jan Richardson recommends that you don’t teach a new sight word until the old one is mastered.

What are some strategies that work for you? Let me know in the comments section below.

Do you need sight word activities? Read this article!

Download these free sight word practice worksheets by clicking the link below.

Happy Teaching!

Tee