A weekly sight word curriculum in a nutshell. Free for you to use or adapt into your teaching.
Many people look for a perfect year-long sight word curriculum, but the truth is that it’s a recurring weekly routine, taught flexibly using varied games and activities. This is by no means the perfect way to teach sight words, but it’s the system I use, that I have developed over many years of teaching them.
So have a read and take what you need, copy or adapt, incorporate into your own routine. They key is to avoid a rigid repetitive cycle of the same mundane tasks, or your learners will be bored to the extent that sight word lessons will lose their spark. Make them exciting, variety is the spice of life, inject some passion!
“The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” (Dr. Seuss)
Having said that, I do stick to a weekly routine, which I adapt to suit the mood of the learners or perhaps the current theme being taught for example.
Each week I introduce two new words for Pre-Primer learners, who tend to be kindergarten/pre-school age, or perhaps Grade 1 in an ESL school. These words will stretch through the entire year, and keeping it at two per week ensures I can fully support and assess learners so that they achieve mastery.
For Primer learners and above, I increase the words taught to four per week. They are now a little older and can cope well with this number. I will start the year by reviewing all the Pre-Primer words, maybe eight words per week, then complete teaching of the Primer words by mid-way through the year. In the second half of the year, I’ll continue onto the Dolch First words. I’ll add in total reviews of the previous groups of words throughout the year, at least once a month.
Total Review
For a quick review, I might display all the flashcards on the board and ask the learners to read them. Then ask the learners to close their eyes before removing one flashcard. Ask the learners to name the missing word, then continue in the same fashion until all the words have gone! Or I might give all the learners a flashcard, then ask them to line up in alphabetical order, before having them stick their words on the board with magnets. We can then read all the words and ensure the order is correct! Something simple, that involves reading all the words.
A great option for review and available free >>>here<<< are my Traffic Light PPTs. Each group of words (e.g. primer or pre-primer) is divided randomly into three colours. The PPT is set to automatically run through the slides, and you can manually change the time settings. I ask a learner to give me a colour, then start the PPT show. The learners must say all the words of the chosen colour and ignore the others – this is great fun for them!
A super exciting, but lengthier, review, is the word hunt. You can hide flashcards around the classroom, or in the playground, then ask the learners to find them, write them down, and later create sentences with them. Perhaps awarding prizes for the most words found, and/or best sentences created.
Weekly Routine
So, how about that weekly routine …
MONDAY
Monday is more intensive than the other days of the week, being the day the new sight words are introduced.
Previous Week Mini Whiteboard Review
At the start of each Monday, I lead the learners in a mini whiteboard review of the previous week, including phonics, sight words, science, mathematics etc. For the sight words part of the review, I ask the learners to write the words, I make up fun questions about the words, I ask questions with gaps for them to select the correct word, or perhaps ask them to draw a picture about a word in one minute. I might also ask them to create a three-word sentence, I’ll write it on the board, cover it, then they write it on their white boards. I vary the activities each week to make it fun.
Later on Monday, we will have a full Dolch words class (lasting about 45 mins), beginning with a Quick Review of all the words learnt from the current Dolch group.
Quick Review
For the review I use my Quick Review PPTs. (available >>>here<<<) I teach the words in a specific order, which the PPTs follow, but you can also jump to specific words using the menu system. From each word you can jump back to the menu for easy navigation. This takes about 5 minutes, give or take a few minutes depending on whether it’s towards the beginning or the end of the semester.
I’ll have the learners sat on the carpet, and ask them to read each word, then depending on how new the word is, I’ll spend more or less time on it. I use the Quick Review PPT as part of my Five Rs system (Repeat – Recognise – Recall – Reinforce – Review) discussed in my other article. >>>here<<< For recently introduced words your learners can repeat the words after you. To aid recognition of recent words, you can ask them to finger trace the words, or point to the word on your sight words display board for example. If they don’t know a word, ask them to repeat it after you, then ask them to say the word again, then include the word in a sentence and have them repeat it. A good little routine.
Each word will be displayed for reading, followed by a sentence with a gap. You can ask the learners for the missing word first, then click to display it and have them read the sentence. Sometimes I’ll ask a learner to write the missing word on the board before revealing it. Sometimes I’ll have them read the sentence in full without yet revealing the missing word, then reveal it afterwards, or you can reveal it at the appropriate point as they are reading the sentence. For words we have had lots of practise with, I’ll read the sentence myself and let the learners say the missing word, or quickly skip the sentence onto the next sight word. It helps to have the computer display monitor facing me, so I know which word is next in the sequence.
Pictures will be revealed before or after the sentences, which will reinforce understanding of the words’ meanings. Understanding the words is, after all, key to reading success. Knowledge of the words alone will not help a learner to interpret text and progress with their reading. I need to make sure that the learners can understand the words, ready for reading comprehension activities on Thursdays/Fridays.
Notes on Assessment
For small groups and one-to-one classes, you can assess which words each learner knows well, and focus on the other words. This is not easy to do for my class of 32 learners, as they each have different knowledge of the words, so I continue to teach all the words to the class as a whole. At the midway point through the year, I and my teaching assistant assess the entire class with a one-to-one oral test. The TA can then pull these learners out of class for quick review sessions over the next months, the aim to have them achieve mastery before the end of the year.
If you are lucky to have a small class or teach on-to-one, this is how I would assess the learners in class:
For each learner, ascertain the following …
(a) Words, which are confidently and immediately read. (No need to focus on these mastered words – Put them aside or keep them in a pile for occasional review. You might also begin to focus on the spellings of these words)
(b) Words, which are recognised and read within a few seconds. (More practise is needed with these – Incorporate them into reinforcement/review activities.)
(c) Words, which are not recognised, or which are read after a few seconds using decoding skills. (These are your focus words – Persist with recognition/recollection activities.)
New Word Introduction
After the Quick Review, I’ll open my weekly Dolch word PPT and briefly show the learners the words we’re learning that week. Then I’ll display the first word on screen and ask them to close one eye and air trace the word with their index fingers, using my laser pointer to guide them.
Next, I’ll play a little spelling game to reinforce the letters of the word. One I like to play is Missing Letters. I’ll show the word on a mini whiteboard, and ask the learners to orally spell the word. Then turn the board away from the learners and erase a letter. I’ll show the word again and ask which letter is missing. A volunteer fills the gap with a magnetic letter.
Mix n Fix is also fun. Ask a learner to make the word with magnetic letters, then mix the letters up and ask the learners to fix it, perhaps having a volunteer up to rearrange the letters. I might do this a couple of times for each word to ensure a few learners are involved in the game.
I’ll then ask the learners to spell the word orally, show them the word again and ask them to read it a few times, after me and independently.
PowerPoint Session
After this introduction, I’ll go through the current weekly PPT, which includes the more familiar different meanings of the words, using them in multiple sentences for each meaning. Pictures will also appear before or after the sentences, as with the Quick Review PPTs, aiding in teaching the words’ meanings. (The PowerPoints are all available >>>here<<<)
The PPT also includes some activities, for example asking learners to create sentences based on pictures shown, or asking learners to interpret pictures using the new words.
I’ll go through the above routine with each word as it comes on the PPT, using a quick pace, but taking time to focus on the more difficult words. PPTs can vary in length a little, depending on the sight words that week, whether they have multiple meanings (e.g. by/over) or are very simple words (e.g. I/he/she). You can ask questions as you go through, play some spontaneous games or ask different groups of learners to read words and sentences, have some fun!
Quiz
At the end of each PowerPoint is a quiz, using the newly learnt words. There are 10 questions, which consist of sentences with gaps, wherein one of the new weekly words will fit.
I’ll have the Primer and above learners sat at their tables. I’ll give them 2 minutes to write the title (Primer Week 1/2/3), date, and then the new words and 1. to 10., ready to write the then one-word answers. I always remind them not to copy down the full sentences!
Younger, Pre-Primer, learners can use mini-whiteboards to start, moving on to their books when they’re more confident with their writing.
The Quiz slide will reveal each sentence upon a mouse-click, leaving the previous sentences above for them to return to later if they need to. Upon each sentence revelation, I will read the sentence and make a fun sound or say “blank” to indicate that they must include a word there. I’ve tried to make the sentences simple and level-appropriate as possible, but they are fully editable for you to adjust as needs arise.
I’ll read each sentence a few times, and when finished will ask the learners to swap books, giving them 10 seconds to do so. Usually, there’ll be a little fuss, but this subsides when I move to the next PPT slide and start to reveal the answers. Each time I’ll read the sentences in full, including the correct word. If the learners are more confident, I’ll ask them to read the sentences for me, or perhaps ask a volunteer to step-up.
Learners tick the correct answers and add-up the scores. It’s up to you whether you award prizes or stamps etc. I’ve found they work very well, helping to keep the learners focussed and encouraging them to listen and try hard. If you have some low-level learners, who regularly underperform, you can award table points to the best performing tables, or award participation stamps for example.
The quiz is great for reinforcing knowledge and understanding of the words.
Sentence Creation and Writing Exercise
For Pre-Primer learners, I would skip the writing exercise here, at least for the first half of the year, until you are confident in your learners’ ability to write. But from Primer onwards, writing the sight words is important for their learning, using the words in context. In order to write the words, learners must look at the word on-screen, hold the spelling and image of it in their minds, and then recreate the word by their own hand.
I’ll spend a few minutes eliciting simple sentences from the learners, which include the new sight words, helping and prompting them as required. I can’t emphasise enough here how important it is to keep the sentences simple and easy to understand. This is foremostly a lesson on learning the sight words, and including difficult vocabulary/grammar/punctuation just leads to confusion.
Learners can include a couple of new words in one sentence if they so desire, and in fact mine love to do this as they see it as cheating the system, meaning they write less in their books! I’m all for that if it gets them excited about learning! But generally, I aim for a sentence for each sight word.
I’ll write the words in a word document, so they are super clear, then ask the learners to copy them into their books. After copying the sentences, I ask the learners to read their written sentences silently, and double-check their spellings. This way they are again reading the new words.
Towards the start of the year, I find that many learners don’t complete the exercise, but they always improve as their confidence grows. This year, I offered stamps to those who finish, but found some lower ability learners felt a bit sad. To rectify this, I found that printing off the sentences for them to have in front of them increased their pace. I also awarded them stamps for working hard, even though they hadn’t actually finished. Keep them smiling!
TUESDAY
For five minutes on Tuesday, I’ll review all the sight words to date, using the Quick Review PPT or flashcards (depending on time). For some great ideas on using flashcards in the classroom, see my other article. >>>here<<<
After review, we’ll have some kind of fun activity for ten minutes, focussing on the learners’ ability to recognise and recall the new weekly words.
I might have a quick spelling session, asking learners to spell and read words with flashcards, then spell and say words without flashcards. Followed by an acrostic poem, which is great fun.
To write an acrostic poem, I first write (or have a learner write) one of the new words on the board. I then ask the class to spell the word, and write the letters on the board vertically using magnetic letters e.g. her:
h
e
r
Learners must choose words beginning with those letters, which combine to make a funny poem e.g.
happy
elephants
roll
I repeat the activity for all the new words that week, and if they’re good I might write them down and re-visit them another day.
Hangman is another great game to play for spelling and imagining words, you can easily review a selection of difficult words in one session. Word Scramble, i.e. deliberately misspelled words, also gets the learners thinking about the shape and format of the sight words. Word searches too can be effective, and easily created using online generators featured on many websites.
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, we’ll again review all the sight words to date for five minutes, using the Quick Review PPT or flashcards (depending on time). Then, we’ll spend ten minutes focussing again on recollection and recognition of the new weekly words.
I’ll normally have some kind of team or individual game on Wednesdays, perhaps BINGO! using words instead of numbers. I display flashcards on the board as I read each word. No need to work hard on this, click >>>here<<< for pre-prepared ready-to-go free BINGO game cards, and there’s a game creator if you need it!
The Memory Game is also good fun. I’ll print two copies of a selection of sight word flashcards (the words they most need practise with), then arrange them face down on the board using magnets. Each player/team can turn two cards over per turn. The aim is to remember each flashcard’s word and position after it is revealed, then match two the same on your turn.
I have … Who has …? Is also exciting, but the class has to be in the right mood, as each player only has one card (due to the size of the class), and some learners can quickly switch off! The game snakes its way around the class, as one learner says “I have he, who has she?” for example, and the next learner says “I have she, who has be?” etc. etc.
THURSDAY
On Thursday, we’ll again review all the words to date for five minutes, using the Quick Review PPT or flashcards (depending on time). Then we’ll spend ten minutes reading a sight words story, recalling, recognising and reinforcing the new weekly words.
Sight word story books are excellent for reinforcing and teaching understanding. Scholastic Sight Word Readers, Scholastic Sight Word Tales, BOB Books, these are all great. Every week I’ll choose a book (or books) that contain the current week’s sight words. If it’s short, I’ll read it to the class first, or else we can all get stuck in together. I’ll use all the usual story reading techniques, but ensure I focus on sight words and the sentences they’re written in, using the pictures for support.
If I have time to prepare, I might also create a crossword using an online generator (available on many websites), to help reinforce the meaning of the new words.
Online games are also exciting, racing games or some kind of level climbing games with multiple players to represent different teams in the class. I’ll then ask them questions about the sight words and their meanings and award the winners! This word has three letters. It means “to be allowed to,” or “to be likely to.” It can also be a noun. The noun is a month of year. I asked my Daddy “____ I have an ice-cream?” Yes, it’s May! :O)
FRIDAY
On Friday, I like the learners to put the Dolch words into practise themselves and get their minds thinking creatively. Reinforcing sight word knowledge and teaching understanding of their meaning by creating silly or serious sentences, poetic verse or stories about your favourite character, is loved by all learners. Rather than staring blankly at sight word flashcards on your board held up with old plastic magnets in a higgledy piggledy mess, we can easily something inspirational with them.
Before we start creating a fun limerick or alien invasion story, I’ll Display the sight words either side of the whiteboard ready for inclusion. Then we’ll begin creating sentences together, substituting the Dolch words in the story, with the flashcards. Learners can now read their sentences with pride, write them in their books, develop them with adjectives and punctuation etc. but always with the flashcards as the focal points.
The end of the day on Friday is also a great opportunity to read a book and have learners pick-out the sight words that they recognise in the text.
HOMEWORK
Each week I set my learners a homework page, which is a challenge to change words in given sentences to create new sentences. If the new word is “we”, perhaps the sentence will be “Tomorrow, we will go to the cinema by car.” The learners must change two words, then write the new sentence, for example “Tonight, we will go to the zoo by car.”
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I hope you can use my ideas and adapt them into your routine. Good luck, and feel free to send me emails with any ideas you have that I can incorporate into my teaching, I’d love to hear from you. All the PPTs I discussed are available via my Teacher Pay Teachers store: >>>here<<<
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