Well, the academic year is almost over. I took Dr McDowell's advice to teach sight words in order to improve reading fluency and I must say that I was pleased with the results. Pupils who were not reading before were motivated to do so now because they were recognizing the words and making connections. I must emphasize this to my fellow teachers so that they too can enjoy the satisfaction of seeing our young ones recognize words in print which they would not have known before or even been able to pronounce if they had depended solely on phonetic analysis. It is important also to help the pupils to understand what they are reading because as we know comprehension is a key component of reading. Being able to call words on a page is one thing but, understanding what one reads is one of the main goals of reading.
Part of my reading programme was the establishment of a literacy centre which attracted even the most challenged learners to sit with their peers and share a story. Parents also came to the class and donated books to the library and they did some shared reading with the children. Some even granted their approval for me to use their children's photos for any of my reading projects at the University of the West Indies and I am indeed very thankful for the opportunity to show my children at work.
The use of sight words and the reading of sight words are very important. I try to teach my students at least two or three sight words for the week. I also give them a spelling test to ensure that they learn the words. I have created an environment of competition in my classroom with sight words. These words are all over the classroom and when I point them out the ones who can read them stand quickly and say them, they usually bolt out of their seats to show their peers they can read them. It encourages the slower ones to make the effort to learn them as well. When I call parents for meetings I usually indicate to them the following about sight words.
ReplyDelete• What are sight words?
• Why are they important
• They consist of three quarters of all words in primary reading texts.
Once the awareness has been created I get the parents on board so that they can also help with the building of their child’s sight word vocabulary. I also give them a list of the Dolch basic sight word list so they can also track their children’s progress. Denise you are right on track sight word instruction is extremely important and the more people we involve in helping the students the better the success rate.