4 Common Misconceptions about Teaching Sight Words

6 Comments

1. Kristy

   September 1, 2022 at 6:22 am

   Hi Anna,
   I am posting all the way from Australia! I absolutely love your podcasts and have learnt so much about the science of reading. I am confused on one thing though which I’m hoping you can clarify. I thought I heard on this podcast episode that as even skilled readers we cannot memorise all words as a whole. Does this mean that we (adult proficient readers) still use orthographic mapping to retrieve words from our own personal sight word bank in order to read and make meaning? So, say when we read a book, are we using orthographic mapping to read the words we already know, just at a rate much faster than the kids we teach? Or do we just know the words as wholes because we’ve seen them so many times over years and years of being fluent, proficient readers? I’d love to know the role that orthographic mapping plays in adulthood for skilled readers. Do we keep doing it, or does it drop off once we become proficient at reading?
   Many thanks! Looking forward to tuning into another podcast episode soon 😊😊

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   • Anna Geiger

     September 3, 2022 at 6:41 am

     Hi Kristy! You have 30,000-70,000 words in your “sight vocabulary.” All those words have been orthographically mapped. When you encounter a new challenging word (like a technical term) and have to sound it out, it only takes 1-2 exposures for that word to be orthographically mapped as well – that is, you recognize it instantly the next time.

     This isn’t to say that kids don’t ever memorize words as wholes – they do some of that at the beginning, but it’s not sustainable and not a good teaching strategy. Does that make sense?

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2. Jody

   February 9, 2022 at 8:11 am

   When should we ask students to write sight words correctly?
   For example, If we teach a, the, my, and, & can in Kindergarten, is it ok to expect them to spell them too?

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   • Anna Geiger

     February 10, 2022 at 6:04 am

     My thinking has changed on this over time, Jody, but now I believe that if we’re teaching them to read the high frequency words, we should also be teaching them to spell them. If they’re not ready to learn to spell them, I think we need to ask how we’re teaching them to read the words. While teaching early readers to memorize a few (emphasize FEW) high frequency words is okay to get them started, we really want them to sound out what they can so they can orthographically map the words. Spelling plays a big part in this.

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3. Siobhan

   February 8, 2022 at 7:39 pm

   The reason the Dolch list is leveled by grade is that he used the prevailing reading primers as the gauge. So the 1st grade words were from the 1946 reading primers… Fry updated the list in the 1980s, but that still makes it outdated for today 😉

   I really appreciate you talking about this! I’m a 16-year veteran, National Board Certified Teacher, but the more senior teachers don’t listen to me because they keep saying their way works (memorizing, calling all memorized words sight words, not understanding the importance of “decoding” the sight words). Ugh. Thank you for sticking up for research-backed practices!

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   • Anna Geiger

     February 9, 2022 at 6:11 am

     Thanks for clearing that up, Siobhan – and thanks for working to be a voice for change at your school! Your kind words are very appreciated. 🙂

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