It’s always a delight to stumble across a blog, website, or organization that supports and sustains reading strategies and excellence in education. Such was the case, Friday afternoon. I was working through a Google search on the term “dyslexia and sight words,” when I found the website, Improve-Education.org.
There is a lot of worthwhile content and strong commentary on this site, like MAX Your Creativity and Leading Boys to Reading, but I decided to choose this essay to share with you today.
You Still Teach Sight Words??!!
A reading coach sent me a letter with this question:
"I also would like to know how you respond to teachers who are married to sight-word drills and describe their rationale as, 'Well, there are just so many words that don't follow any rules.'"
Which prompted the following rumination (excerpts from the original page):
Consider a five-year-old American kid. English-wise, he is many years ahead of [a new ELL immigrant to the United States]. He is what anthropologists call “a native speaker.” He routinely says such things as, “Hey, Dad, how did Brett Favre end up with the Vikings? Is he going to play next year? What’s so great about Minnesota?”
Think how many years it would take us, as intelligent adults, to reach that sophisticated linguistic level in Thai, Czech, or [other foreign language]. Additionally, as Rudolf Flesch reported, this child recognizes about 15,000+ words and names. Probably he uses 5,000 words and names. Surely, he would already know 99% of the words he might encounter in a typical first-grade setting. He uses most of these words on a weekly basis! He already knows all the pronunciations (and is sublimely indifferent to whether they supposedly follow rules or not).
Here we arrive at the fundamental point: the boy has a vast store of knowledge to help him deal with text. All he needs is a little help to connect with the printed versions of all these words already in his head. Phonics is that help.
Here’s the remarkable truth. Based on all the anecdotes I’ve read, about half the average first-grade class will eventually figure out how to read, no matter what is [taught] (even sight-words). I suspect you could spend the first year or two singing songs, telling stories, and reciting poetry, with occasional pointing at letters or syllables, and most kids would figure it out.
Phonics programs basically promise to teach kids to read in about 100 days - just three or four months. But it takes years to master just the 300-word Dolch list; and doing this doesn’t produce a reader.
Note: The half of the class that won’t learn almost routinely is exactly the half most damaged by sight-words! These slower kids need systematic instruction in phonics. If they don’t get it, they are likely to become “functional illiterates.”
As you can see for yourself, the author and education activist, Bruce Deitrick Price is very passionate about systematic, explicit phonics. So are we.
Our programs are designed to help every student clearly understand and quickly internalize reading skills and strategies like blends, slides, and more. See for yourself with a free 30-day trial of Reading Horizons v5 for 4th grade – adult students! Let us know what you think about the reading trial - we'd love to hear from you.