Joanna Kasda

Author Jan
Richardson
Educational Consultant
Taught every grade K12
• Reading specialist,
Reading Recovery
teacher leader, and
staff developer
• PhD in reading
•
•

“As early readers build automaticity with
sight words and decoding strategies,
their fluency should improve.”
 Allington (2009)

“There is evidence that children rely on a
range of different reading processes in
their develop of early sight word reading
and that this enable children to become
more proficient in learning to read.”
 Farrington-Flint, Coyne, Stiller, & Heath (2008)
Students should be taught at least one
sight word EVERY lesson.
 You need to help students build visual
memory, and increase their bank of
high-frequency words.
 The same sight word should be taught for
two days, and longer if needed.
 Don’t introduce a new sight word until
the original is mastered.

Pick a sight word from the book for your
lesson.
 Spend one to two minutes on:

› What’s Missing?
› Mix & Fix
› Table Writing
› Whiteboards
Whiteboards for each student
 1small cup/container for each student
 Magnetic letters
 Dry-erase markers

Write the word on the whiteboard, so the
students can see you write it.
 Point to the letters while you have the
students chorally spell the word.
 Turn the board towards you and erase a
letter. Turn it back around and have a
student tell you what’s missing. Write the
letter when as the child tells you the answer.
 Continue to erase different letters until the
entire word is erased.

In advance, prepare cups containing the
sight word, using magnetic letters. Each
child will need his/her own.
 Give each child a cup and a whiteboard.
They are to put the letters in the correct
order. Have them check their answers by
sliding their finger under it.
 The student should pull each letter down
from left to right to remake it, and check.
 Then, the student should scramble the
word, and fix it.

Collect the magnetic letters.
 Have the students “write” the word with
their finger.
 Encourage them to say the word as they
write it, and check it with their finger.

Once the child has traced the word
correctly with his/her finger, give him/her
a dry-erase marker.
 The student should write the sight word,
and say it as he/she does so.

Repeat the process with the same sight
word.
 At the beginning of the lesson, review a
sight word from a previous lesson (not this
same lesson).
 Spend a third day on the same sight
word if necessary.


Visit each center to practice!
BOOM!
 Sight word fishing
 Bingo
 I Have, Who Has?
 Peer check
 Funny Faces
 Any other ideas?

What procedure has students mix the
letters to remake the word?
 What procedure has students use their
finger to write the word on the table?
 What procedure has students identify
the missing letter in the word?
 What procedure has students write the
word and say it aloud?
