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Sight Words: How are they defined, how should we teach them, are there too many ways?

Svetlana Cvetkovic, PhD

Dystinct Magazine featuring Structured Linguistic Literacy

What I Should Save Learned in College Showcase

January 30, 2024

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Defining the term “sight word”

According to the nationwide results of my 2022 dissertation open-ended survey (624 k-2 classroom teachers) …

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Is it a Sight Word?

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“To be recognized instantly, words must be stored in long-term memory as wholes, where spelling, pronunciation, and meaning are fused together.”

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~Dr. Stephanie Stollar Every Word Wants to be a Sight Word When it Grows Up (2020) blog

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Going From Decoding to Sight

Wunce uhpawn uh thyme, thare wuz uh liddle gurl hoo lift wif hurr muhther inna liddle coddij, awn thuh ehj uhva larj fahrrust. Dis liddle gurl offun war a liddle kloke wif a priddy liddle rehd hood, anfer this reesun peepl calder Liddle Rehd Rye Din Hood.

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(Willingham, The Reading Mind, 2017, p.46)

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived with her mother in a little cottage on the edge of a large forest. This little girl often wore a little cloak with a pretty little red hood, and for this reason, people called her Little Red Riding Hood.

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Orthographic Mapping

  • Describes the process where the precise letter string/spelling is “mapped” onto individual sounds

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  • The starting point is SOUND – we start with what we already have innate access to (sound/pronunciations) then attach their corresponding written graphemes

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Photo credit: Sarah’s Teaching Snippets

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Alphabetic Principle

  • If all written words represent spoken language then all words can be sounded out

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  • Stick to sound for decoding/encoding ANY unfamiliar word

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Choice Overload Theory

  • 40+ “essential” sight word practices were identified from my dissertation survey results
    • Are teachers/students inundated with TOO MANY practices around “sight word” learning?
    • KEEP practices guided by the alphabetic principle and TOSS the rest!

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Definition of Terms

sight word: any word that is recognized instantly and effortlessly when reading

high frequency word (HFW): words that appear most frequently in text

alphabetic principle: describes the insight that oral sounds in spoken words are represented by printed letters

orthographic mapping: the mental subconscious process used to store words to permanent memory for immediate and effortless retrieval

phonemic awareness: is having the conscious awareness of individual phonemes (sounds) within words–essential for efficient sight word development

phonic decoding: describes the process of combining letter-sound knowledge and oral blending to sound out unfamiliar written words to spoken words

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Let’s talk about practice

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A little Bogota story…

Why/how have these words become “sight words” for me?

  • Frequency/repetition highly integrated in daily applied reading opportunities
    • I didn’t chant, arm tap, draw hearts, or write in sand
    • I read/wrote every word via letter- SOUND correspondences in authentic text

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Meet Thatcher 11 yrs.

  • Accelerated sight vocabulary after about 20 hours of EBLI remediation
    • #1 he fully cracked the alphabetic principle in that reading/spelling are two sides of the same coin
    • #2 TONS of authentic reading practice via sounding-out ANY unfamiliar word

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Visit my site to learn more https://svetlanacvetkovic.my.canva.site/

Remember— Every word wants to be a sight word

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~Chart created by Dr. Tiffany Peltier -When Learning to Read Sight Words Goes Wrong (2023)

Nonoptimal vs Optimal Practices

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Nonoptimal Practices

  • Purely visual (whole-word flash cards)

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  • Box/shape/word tracing/writing/letter chanting that does not incorporate accessing grapheme sounds

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Optimal Practices

  • Breaking down a pronunciation orally first (using fingers or tiles)

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  • Saying the sounds simultaneously as child/teacher writes graphemes of the word

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  • Pronouncing the word before and after writing the word

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Show me the resources!!

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Free resources to support sight word development:

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Photo credits: phonicbooks.com

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Free resources to support sight word development:

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Photo credits: phonicbooks.com and Sounds-Write

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Free resources to support sight word development:

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  • Shifting the Balance (Burkins & Yates, 2021)109 power words = 50% of text *note top 13 words = 25%

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  • Fry’s sight word phrases (listed by top 100, 200, etc.) & ChatGPT

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  • Repeated reading opportunities via authentic text and decodable passages– Reading Universe, easyCBM lite (free)

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Photo credits: TheSixShifts.com

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It’s no surprise Thatcher instantly began adding hundreds more words to his sight vocabulary once all practices (spelling and reading) aligned to the alphabetic principle.

Nora Chahbazi (founder of EBLI)- “We’re going to stay on the same horse for any word we want to spell/read.”

Source: EBLI- https://eblireads.com/

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Mark Seidenberg’s Thompson Center Summit on Early Literacy 2023 Recording

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  • “Keep the eye on the prize”-- The goal of reading instruction is reading!”
    • HFW instruction somehow gets treated as it’s own little island and/or requires entirely different instruction (e.g., drawing hearts, arm tapping-letter chanting etc).

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  • Time is limited– “We need to get in, get out, and move on -- just because we can teach it doesn’t mean we should.”

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  • All words are made up of sounds�Stick to practices that align with the alphabetic principle and toss the rest
  • Instructional time to benefit ratio�Every classroom minute is gold— seek out integrated subskill practices that give students (and you) the biggest bang for your instructional buck!
  • The eye on the prize is READING�Less time on isolated word skills and more time with integrated/applied contextual word reading/spelling via authentic reading and writing

In summary…

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Website: https://svetlanacvetkovic.my.canva.site/

Email: svetcvetkovic@gmail.com