Strategies For Teaching Sight Words In Context

Why Is It Important To Teach Sight Words?

Did you know that sight words make up close to 75% of all words in early children's reading materials? It's no wonder we focus on teaching sight words so diligently. You can read more about what sight words are and why they're important in this blog post.

As students are able to identify and read sight words, they are better equipped to recognize sight words in the real world, such as on a stop sign, by pressing a help button, or understanding when it is time to slow down.

Sight words are everywhere in our schools, communities, online, and in the text of books and materials. By helping students master their sight words in context, they'll be able to focus more on applying phonemic awareness skills to decode words. Therefore, they'll become more fluent readers and will in turn be able to improve their reading comprehension.

When it comes to strategies for teaching sight words in context, repetition and practicing in various ways is key. Students learn in different ways and through different senses and learning styles. It's important to understand how each of your students learn. This will help you provide opportunities for them to master sight words in the way that works best for them.

Teaching Sight Words in Context

It is extremely important to introduce and practice recognizing sight words in context.

Picture this…you're handed a whacky looking kitchen gadget that looks like it fell straight out of outer space. You have no clue what it's purpose is and are asked to use it correctly. You sit there, dazed and confused, wondering if you should get out the apples or the avocados. What's this thing for anyway?

It's not until you see the packaging that you realize it's actually the newest gadget for slicing potatoes. (Yay for homemade french fries!) Without the context of the packaging, all you had was a crazy gadget that looked like it fell out of a spaceship.

It's just like this for students with sight words. You can use flash cards and isolated sight word activities all day long, but until they see the words used in context, they won't really understand the purpose of sight words. They'll be thinking to themselves, “why does my teacher flash these same words at me every single day?”

When you work on sight words in context, students will begin to understand their purpose. They'll begin to hear and see them used often. They'll soon realize how much sight words are found in reading and in the world around them.

Use a highlighter.

Giving young children a highlighter is like dropping a piece of bacon in front of a dog…they get so excited! Use that to your advantage (and to the advantage of your students' sight word recognition). Use highlighters to find sight words hidden in context.

Not only does this strategy for teaching sight words in context help students identify and pick out sight words in sentences and stories, but it also helps them see how much sight words really are used in day to day life.