How to Teach Sight Words

Don't rely on memorizing shapes

It's tempting to treat a sight word as a picture. But children don't remember words by their shape. They remember them by connecting the sounds in the word to the letters that spell it. Researchers call this orthographic mapping. So even for an odd word like said, start with the sounds: /s/ /e/ /d/. The s and d are regular, and only the middle needs learning by heart.

Use a routine you can repeat

1. Say it and use it in a sentence. 2. Tap the sounds on your fingers. 3. Match sounds to letters, and mark the tricky part. 4. Read and write it a few times, from memory if you can. 5. Find it in a book or sentence. Once the routine is familiar, one word takes only a couple of minutes.

Plan for forgetting

A word learned on Monday can be gone by Friday, and that's normal. Bring words back the next day, a few days later and a week later. Keep look-alikes such as was and saw apart until one is solid. When a word is instant across several days, it's done, and it can move to occasional review.

How to do it with Wordburrow

1. Run the checklist to find the words to teach.
2. Teach five words with the routine above, using flash cards.
3. Put those words in the list maker and play a round a day.
4. Use each word's page (like said) for its sentence and tricky part.

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