| Why Teach Sight Words? | | | | components. |
| Sight word instruction involves rote memorization | | | | Why don't some students know the sight words |
| of non-decodable high frequency words (outlaw | | | | and how does this affect their reading? |
| words), word families (rimes), and common | | | | Some students have auditory processing, visual |
| Greek, Latin, and English affixes (sight syllables). | | | | processing, or language processing problems which |
| Although most of the rimes and sight syllables are | | | | interfere with rote memorization of sight words. |
| decodable, their high frequency in text makes | | | | Inability to discriminate between speech sounds |
| rote memorization desirable. The goal is reading | | | | (phonemes) may have prevented fully developed |
| automaticity. | | | | phonemic awareness. Students may have |
| Sight word instruction is not a substitute for | | | | difficulty in identifying the symbols or with the |
| explicit, systematic phoneme awareness and | | | | spatial arrangement of letters in words. Others |
| phonics instruction. The "Look-Say" reading | | | | may have problems connecting the alphabetic |
| method is not an efficient nor effective reading | | | | symbols to meaning. |
| methodology. | | | | Since phonemic awareness is a prerequisite to |
| Why is sight word instruction important? | | | | effective reading, students who lack this ability will |
| Because older students generally have a more | | | | have severe problems learning how to pronounce |
| advanced vocabulary and bank of sight words | | | | words sound by sound (decoding) and spell words |
| than do younger students, it is important to draw | | | | (encoding). Inability to automatically process |
| upon these strengths to improve reading ability. It | | | | non-decodable outlaw words and non-decodable |
| would not be wise to "start from scratch" with | | | | sight syllables retards reading fluency. Students |
| remedial readers. Teachers shouldn't narrow | | | | spend time trying to pronounce words and |
| instruction to solely remediate phonemic | | | | syllables that are impossible to decode. Inability to |
| awareness and phonics deficits. Remedial students | | | | rapidly recognize the analogous relationships of the |
| should quickly "fill in the gaps" as indicated by sight | | | | rimes also retards reading fluency. |
| word diagnostic assessments through | | | | Can remedial readers with learning disabilities learn |
| concentrated practice. The teacher should teach | | | | sight words? |
| to these deficits concurrently with other program | | | | |