I have probably asked this question here before but can’t remember!!
My son, age six, needs to learn new spelling words each week. The teacher has said they are all sight words. To date they have been “and, in, is, the, was, are, to”
Since my son is still having difficulty learning the sounds for the alphabet, teaching him that these same letters have different sounds is very frustrating for him!
The teacher and head of school, (he attends small private school) have decided to reduce his work in spelling and we are only working on “the, in, is”
I don’t want to push what he is not ready to learn but also don’t want him to fall far behind.
K.
Re: Teaching sight words
I am using PG to teach him reading and I can see that he has made great progress. He does well with the PG words and lessons. I don’t understand what is holding him back with the sight words. He was also diagnosed dyslexic and I don’t know how much that is affecting the spelling.
The teacher has decided that it would be less frustrating if he just did three words a week, or until he is comfortable with those three words, this week it is in, is, the. He has in and is fine but when it comes to the, he has to remember to remember what the first and second letters are and then it seems to trigger it. The other words are to, are, was, and. He has to, are. When it comes to and, he remembers it when he sees it in a sentence but has trouble remembering how to spell it.
I am glad that he doesn’t have “regular” words like your daughter did. I don’t think anyone in his class is ready for that. As frustrating as it is , I am glad they are small sight words.
Also, how to you decode them, I seem to confuse the issue if I try and help him sound them out.
K.
Re: Teaching sight words
K., I would only consider helping him decode them IF you have already taught the sounds in your PG lessons AND if the word is decodable…”in” is very decodable, for example. “Is” is, also…the “s” has the “z” sound which is one of the two sounds represented by that letter.
Dyslexia really just means reading disorder. Many children with dyslexia have auditory or language processing problems. However, some have visual issues. See Rod’s posts for information about getting developmental vision exams. If he is having trouble remembering the spelling of two letter words, I’d consider that there may be more than just auditory problems.
Janis
Re: Teaching sight words
I will check out Rod’s post. What else should I be considering other than the already diagnosed dyslexia and auditory processig problems? Also, wouldn’t he be having trouble with other words?
K.
Re: Teaching sight words
I’m not sure I understand what you mean about having trouble with other words. Reading has to do with sounds and symbols of a language. You are already working on the sounds portion with PG. But if he is having trouble with visually remembering two-letter words, it could indicate some visual issues. Not for sure, just possibly. I need to look, but Rod wrote a good post either today or yesterday regarding the developmental vision issues. I’ll look and see if I can find it for you.
Janis
Re: Teaching sight words
Rod’s post is in the section right above where we are talking:
http://forums.weta.org/ldonline/phorum/read.php?f=3&i=5589&t=5587
Janis
Re: Teaching sight words
I guess I am getting confused! He is having trouble with sight words like “and, are, was, the” He seems ok with “in, is, to” I am just wondering if he would be showing symptoms of visual problems in other ways too.
We did a bunch of PG work last night and he did fine!
K.
Re: Teaching sight words
It does seem like a lot of kids will substitute the wrong word for one of these short words when reading. They’ll say “saw” for “was”, “said” for “and” or vice versa. I’m not sure why he is unable to commit them to visual memory in order to spell them. Ask Rod as he knows more about the visual issues. Glad he is doing well with the PG!
Janis
Re: Teaching sight words
K—
PG is really very auditory in its orientation. Sight words rely more on visual memory. That could be the issue for your son. My LD son had a devil of a time learning any sight words in first grade. Now it isn’t an issue but he has had lots of therapy in the mean time.
My K aged son is learning sight words. I am not totally impressed by the approach but he is learning words like the, in, is, an. He is also getting phonetic instruction. He is capable though of learning the sight words without much difficulty and I would not say he is any more than in the middle of his class.
I would agree with Janis that you ought to keep an eye on the visual end of things too.
Beth
Personally I prefer a phonetic spelling program that will compliment the phonics instruction, but I suppose there is nothing actually wrong with having a child memorize those little words that are frequently found in any reading passage. Have him practice the words with a colored maker on a white dry-erase board. Since he has not mastered the code yet, do not get bogged down in having him decode these words right now. Just let him memorize them by sight. I do not think 6 words of two to three letters is too much for a child to learn in a week. My child was having 10 words of much greater length in first grade (which she couldn’t read) and I was wishing she could have been memorizing those little short words instead. If he is having difficulty memorizing these 2 and 3 letter words, you may need to consider visual (or other) problems in addition to the auditory problems you already suspect.
Oh, and most “sight words” are decodable, by the way. Are you using PG to teach him to read?
Janis