The Science of Reading: Sight Word Recognition - What EdLeaders Need to Know
In the first blog post of this series, I spent time introducing the Science of Reading within the background of the Reading Wars that have been raging for some time between Balanced Literacy proponents and Science of Reading advocates. If you have not read that blog post or listened to the corresponding EdLeader episode, I would like to encourage you to spend a few moments with it as it grounds the series and undergirds the deconstruction of Reading Comprehension that I am attempting.
In the second blog post of this series, I spent time unpacking fluency with the differing opinions among thought-leaders as to how to build a reader's ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.
In the third blog post, I found a strand of the Reading Rope that evokes consensus among literacy experts on both sides of the reading wars in the strand of background knowledge.
In this fourth blog post, I am planning to tease out the strand of sight word recognition. Seemingly a simple concept, there is still much for EdLeaders to understand when they walk into a classroom and find Word Walls listing sight words and consider which words are present, which are not, and how long they should be displayed. What are sight words, and why and how should they be taught?
As we get going, I want to pause for a moment and share with you a thread related to the Science of Reading that I came across on Twitter posted by William and Mary professor Dr. Kristin Conradi Smith. Over the course of 6 tweets, she shared,
In the second blog post of this series, I spent time unpacking fluency with the differing opinions among thought-leaders as to how to build a reader's ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.
In the third blog post, I found a strand of the Reading Rope that evokes consensus among literacy experts on both sides of the reading wars in the strand of background knowledge.
In this fourth blog post, I am planning to tease out the strand of sight word recognition. Seemingly a simple concept, there is still much for EdLeaders to understand when they walk into a classroom and find Word Walls listing sight words and consider which words are present, which are not, and how long they should be displayed. What are sight words, and why and how should they be taught?
As we get going, I want to pause for a moment and share with you a thread related to the Science of Reading that I came across on Twitter posted by William and Mary professor Dr. Kristin Conradi Smith. Over the course of 6 tweets, she shared,
“I am teaching a graduate course in research methods for aspiring reading specialists right now. We focus on accessing, consuming, and critiquing research. [This is] A thread regarding thoughts on research as it relates to the #SOR [Science of Reading] movement: (1/6)
It's imp [important] to look for converging evidence on a topic. We can never rely on just one study. Before a whole-hearted embrace, look for studies conducted in diff [different] contexts & conditions. Still, even then, the science is never "settled." Always ask questions. (2/6)
As practitioners, we have to look for research on the teaching of reading. SOR [Science of Reading] has to move beyond basic research and include more direct studies of pedagogy. (See Shanahan, 2021) (3/6)
I stress in class that the science of reading ought to include all the research out there. There are some glaring sins of omission when considering what SOR [Science of Reading] traditionally comprises--particularly as it relates to whose research counts (see Milner, 2021). (4/6)
Central to SOR [Science of Reading] is the goal of ensuring all students learn to read. We know of no one against that. However, in some circles and outlets, SOR [Science of Reading] oversimplifies the issue. Yes, kids need explicit phonics instruction and they need opportunities for knowledge building etc., But... (5/6)
Students also need clean drinking water, consistent meals, teachers who want to stay in the profession, etc. SOR [Science of Reading] alone will never entirely solve "the problem." There are deep, messy structural issues at play. Be wary of an oversimplification (see Durán & Hikida, 2022). (6/6)
This thread by Dr. Conradi Smith and the three powerful articles she cites from leading researchers in the field of literacy demonstrate the inherent need to be cautious consumers when it comes to advice on teaching and learning. While there is much good and much to be learned, I believe that we must always proceed cautiously when we begin to tinker with pedagogy and instructional practices. Students have no time to waste as we scamper down rabbit holes in search of some magical elixir or shiny new curriculum. Rather when we continue to consume valid research and identify “converging evidence” from multiple studies across varied contexts, we have the opportunity to fine-tune our practice in the interest of meeting the individual needs of each and every student.
Before focusing on this post’s topic, please let me again highlight the foundation for this series.
The Science of Reading is undergirded by theories of how students learn to read and comprehend text. At the very basic level is the Simple View of Reading Theory which states that there are two elements that combine to result in Reading Comprehension. The Simple View of Reading formula states:
Decoding x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension
From this grew Scarborough's Reading Rope as conceived by Dr. Hollis S. Scarborough. Dr. Scarborough believed that the elements of Word Recognition and the elements of Language Comprehension all weave together into the rope of Reading Comprehension. Just like a true rope, the more strands present and the stronger each strand is, the stronger the rope is. It is surmised that if a student is weaker in one strand, the strength of the other strands can still help the student comprehend what she is reading.
The strands of Word Recognition include Decoding, Phonological Awareness, and Sight Word Recognition.
The strands of Language Comprehension include background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge.
In this series on the Science of Reading, my goal is to peel apart the individual strands of reading comprehension and build our shared understanding of what EdLeaders need to know about learning to read.
In my mind, I can’t help but play out a movie in my head where a young reader stops mid-sentence to say with excitement, “Oh, hello, Mr. Sight Word, I recognize you!” Granted, that is a bit silly, but if students have mastered sight words, or Tier 1 words, or high-frequency words as they are sometimes called, then they have the ability to breeze right by that word, spending no mental energy trying to decode it, because they have already mastered the word and know it by “sight.”
In my elementary classroom, I have witnessed the visible relief a striving reader clearly shows when they encounter a sight word in the middle of a difficult string of words that have to be decoded. Sight Word Recognition, despite the simplistic name of the strand, is a powerful tool in a reader’s toolkit and must be purposefully taught by teachers.
What, then, are sight words? Dr. Cheryl Lyon, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut, whose dissertation was titled, “Support From Bound Roots in Semantic and Orthographic Word Learning From Context: An Investigation of Word Learning with Adolescents and Young Adults,” defined sight words this way, “Sight words are words that students are expected to recognize instantly. With the right support, students can become so familiar with these words that they no longer need to pause and try to decode them. Some sight words are regularly spelled words, and some are spelled irregularly.”
Students often encounter these sight words as they read. That is the reasoning behind the term sometimes used by educators, “high-frequency words” that I referenced earlier. In the second blog post of this series, I discussed fluency. Hearkening back to that discussion, when students have sight words “down cold,” their fluency improves because they can put more energy into reading with improved prosody because their automaticity has been ratcheted up.
Alright, I used some of those “high-falutin” words there to borrow a phrase from my Dad. If you are not familiar with “automaticity” and “prosody,” I spent time breaking them down in the second blog post of this series on Fluency.
By explicitly teaching sight words, teachers help students master the words they will encounter over and over again. Dr. Devin Kearns has collected lists of sight words, sight word cards for teaching, the Fry Word List, the Dolche Word List, and other resources for teachers teaching sight words. Lists of sight words may be used for pre-assessments to help teachers know which sight words to begin teaching. I have linked the materials Dr. Kearns shares below.
Dr. Michelle Hinzman and Dr. Deborah Reed, from the Iowa Reading Research Center, agree that “Given the need to recognize high frequency and irregular words automatically, sight word instruction remains one component of a comprehensive literacy program for early readers and, for older students experiencing reading difficulties, a part of reading intervention.” However, they also caution, “To prevent students from becoming reliant on the ineffective practice of memorizing lists of words, the instruction should be delivered in small doses (i.e., less than 10 minutes) and occur alongside systematic phonics instruction.”
In an article titled, “Sight Words: An Evidenced-Based Literacy Strategy,” Dr. Lyon shares a three-part strategy to teach sight words. The strategy begins with sound-letter mapping. Sound-Letter mapping helps students associate sounds, called phonemes, with letters or letter combinations, called graphemes. In the article is a 90-second video of a teacher teaching students a sight word using sound-letter mapping.
The second part of Dr. Lyon’s strategy uses a flashcard activity to allow students to practice with sight words. She begins the activity with the teacher reading the sight word on the flashcard and then giving students 3 seconds to look at the word, looking at the word’s letters and patterns. The teacher then asks the students to read the word. Once through the sight words being used, the teacher shuffles the deck of flashcards, shows a card, and then three seconds later asks the students to read the word. For words they miss, the teacher teaches the word again, pointing out unique features of the word to help students learn and memorize the word.
The final part of the strategy involves explicitly pointing out the sight words as they are encountered in other activities. Teachers may also move these words onto their word walls or into student word banks to help students track the words they have learned. This reinforcement of learning is especially important.
Remember when I shared the name of Dr. Lyon’s dissertation, “Support From Bound Roots in Semantic and Orthographic Word Learning From Context: An Investigation of Word Learning with Adolescents and Young Adults?” I did so because this strategy that she shares is appropriately called orthographic mapping. Let’s turn to Dr. Lyon to help us break down what is meant by orthographic mapping. She writes,
“When you use this strategy, you’re teaching a skill called orthographic mapping. It’s a process we use to store printed words in our long-term memory. Orthographic mapping is essential for learning sight words.
Here’s what happens when we use orthographic mapping: When we see a word, we break it apart by the sounds we hear in the word (phonemes) and the letter and letter patterns (graphemes) that correspond to those sounds.
This process fixes the word into our long-term memory. Eventually, we recognize the word immediately when we see it. We still see all the letters, but we know the word so well that we don’t have to sound it out.
Research shows that most readers need between one and four exposures to a word to commit it to long-term memory. Struggling readers need even more exposure to new words because orthographic mapping can be hard. Repeated practice with sight words gives students the exposure they need to build their sight word vocabulary.”
Drs. Janice Light and David McNaughton from Penn State University point out that “learning sight word recognition skills will help learners read:
- Irregular words that can not be sounded out
- For example, words such as: there, was, said, come
- Words that are governed by more complex spelling rules that have not yet been taught
- For example, words such as: boy, eat
- Longer, more complex words that are of high interest to the learner
- For example, words such as: Spiderman, Darth Vader, Hannah Montana, horse”
In the same article, though, they make a point of reminding us that readers also need instruction in decoding skills. “Instruction in sight word recognition supplements,” they say, “but does not replace, instruction in decoding.”
Recall that decoding is a separate strand in Scarborough’s Reading Rope, yet grouped together with the Sight Word Recognition strand with other Word Recognition strands. Without saying so explicitly, they are reminding us that we cannot rely on a single strand like “Background Knowledge,” “Sight Word Recognition,” “Decoding,” or any of the others if we want our students to master Reading Comprehension.
Recognizing that the strands, separate though they may be, do work together, Dr. Light and Dr. McNaughton recommend that “As soon as the learner is able to recognize some sight words, target these words in shared reading activities along with decoding words. Doing so will:
The Iowa Reading Research Center offered some additional tips for teaching sight words:
“Introduce new sight words in isolation (i.e., the sight word by itself), but immediately follow this with repeated exposures to the same sight words in books and other text materials.
Do not introduce two sight words that are similar or easily confused at the same time. For instance, “will” and “well” should be introduced in separate lessons as should “on” and “no.”
Provide brief (i.e., less than 10 minutes per session) but frequent sight word instruction, especially for beginning and struggling readers.
Offer students numerous opportunities to practice and receive immediate, specific feedback. For example, if a child reads the word “this” correctly, respond with positive feedback: “Yes! The word is this.” If a child read “this” incorrectly, respond with corrective feedback: 'The word is this. Say the word this.'
Immediately encountering the words in a book provides an opportunity to practice reading them, but building the ability to read them with automaticity, or effortlessly upon sight, will take repeated practice. If a child is struggling to remember previously introduced sight words, continue practicing with those before adding new sight words. Finally, it is important to remember that sight word instruction is only one part of a comprehensive reading lesson.”
I have linked a great Reading Racetrack activity for teaching sight words from the Iowa Reading Research Center below as well.
I will also mention the Georgia Preschool Association has provided a comprehensive website devoted exclusively to sight word instruction. The site includes instructional activities like See & Say, Arm Tapping, Air Writing, and Table Writing. The site also provides lists of sight words and references to the research that provides the foundation for the instruction.
In the end, “Sight words are words that should be memorized to help a child learn to read and write. Learning sight words allows a child to recognize these words at a glance — on sight — without needing to break the words down into their individual letters and is the way strong readers recognize most words. Knowing common, or high frequency, words by sight makes reading easier and faster because the reader does not need to stop to try and sound out each individual word, letter by letter.” (sightwords.com).
Thank you again for hanging with me as we pull apart the strands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope to understand what EdLeaders Need to know. I’ll keep pulling out the strands, please keep sharing your feedback on Twitter @Dr_Rob_Jackson, through email, or by commenting directly below.
Disrupting Racism and Whiteness in Researching a Science of Reading by Dr. H. Richard Milner, IV
Literacy Instruction for Individuals with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and Other Disabilities: Sight Word Recognition by Dr. Janice Light and Dr. David McNaughton
Making sense of reading’s forever wars by Dr. Leah Duran and Dr. Michido Hikida
Reading Materials by Dr. Devin Kearns
Reading Racetrack Sight Word Activity by the Iowa Reading Research Center
Sight Words by sightword.com (Georgia Preschool Association)
Sight words: An evidence-based literacy strategy by Dr. Cheryl Lyon
Sound-Letter Maps video from Literacy How
Teaching Sight Words as a Part of Comprehensive Reading Instruction by Dr. Michelle Hinzman and Dr. Deborah Reed
What is the Science of Reading? by Dr. Timothy Shanahan
Recognizing that the strands, separate though they may be, do work together, Dr. Light and Dr. McNaughton recommend that “As soon as the learner is able to recognize some sight words, target these words in shared reading activities along with decoding words. Doing so will:
- "Increase motivation to learn to read
- Provide additional practice recognizing sight words
- Enhance generalization of sight word recognition”
The Iowa Reading Research Center offered some additional tips for teaching sight words:
“Introduce new sight words in isolation (i.e., the sight word by itself), but immediately follow this with repeated exposures to the same sight words in books and other text materials.
Do not introduce two sight words that are similar or easily confused at the same time. For instance, “will” and “well” should be introduced in separate lessons as should “on” and “no.”
Provide brief (i.e., less than 10 minutes per session) but frequent sight word instruction, especially for beginning and struggling readers.
Offer students numerous opportunities to practice and receive immediate, specific feedback. For example, if a child reads the word “this” correctly, respond with positive feedback: “Yes! The word is this.” If a child read “this” incorrectly, respond with corrective feedback: 'The word is this. Say the word this.'
Immediately encountering the words in a book provides an opportunity to practice reading them, but building the ability to read them with automaticity, or effortlessly upon sight, will take repeated practice. If a child is struggling to remember previously introduced sight words, continue practicing with those before adding new sight words. Finally, it is important to remember that sight word instruction is only one part of a comprehensive reading lesson.”
I have linked a great Reading Racetrack activity for teaching sight words from the Iowa Reading Research Center below as well.
I will also mention the Georgia Preschool Association has provided a comprehensive website devoted exclusively to sight word instruction. The site includes instructional activities like See & Say, Arm Tapping, Air Writing, and Table Writing. The site also provides lists of sight words and references to the research that provides the foundation for the instruction.
In the end, “Sight words are words that should be memorized to help a child learn to read and write. Learning sight words allows a child to recognize these words at a glance — on sight — without needing to break the words down into their individual letters and is the way strong readers recognize most words. Knowing common, or high frequency, words by sight makes reading easier and faster because the reader does not need to stop to try and sound out each individual word, letter by letter.” (sightwords.com).
Thank you again for hanging with me as we pull apart the strands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope to understand what EdLeaders Need to know. I’ll keep pulling out the strands, please keep sharing your feedback on Twitter @Dr_Rob_Jackson, through email, or by commenting directly below.
References
Dr. Kristin Conradi Smith on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KConradiSmithDisrupting Racism and Whiteness in Researching a Science of Reading by Dr. H. Richard Milner, IV
Literacy Instruction for Individuals with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and Other Disabilities: Sight Word Recognition by Dr. Janice Light and Dr. David McNaughton
Making sense of reading’s forever wars by Dr. Leah Duran and Dr. Michido Hikida
Reading Materials by Dr. Devin Kearns
Reading Racetrack Sight Word Activity by the Iowa Reading Research Center
Sight Words by sightword.com (Georgia Preschool Association)
Sight words: An evidence-based literacy strategy by Dr. Cheryl Lyon
Sound-Letter Maps video from Literacy How
Teaching Sight Words as a Part of Comprehensive Reading Instruction by Dr. Michelle Hinzman and Dr. Deborah Reed
What is the Science of Reading? by Dr. Timothy Shanahan
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