Reading with TLC

Sight Words You Can See: Aligned with the Research
Research has indicated that students achieve highest gains in reading when given balanced literacy programs, featuring phonetic-based instruction combined with instruction in sight word identification, fluency, and comprehension. As students learn to decode words phonetically, they begin to acquire a growing bank of sight words. These are the words that appear most frequently in text, and it is necessary to be able to identify these words quickly and automatically for fluent reading. Unfortunately, many of the sight words in our language happen to be phonetically irregular (they do not follow the rules of phonics). Before progressing to books that contain many irregular sight words, students need to be able to identify these types of sight words (words like “have,” “come,” and “what”). Some students first need mnemonic strategies to initially associate the printed word with the spoken word. Mnemonics have proven to be an effective way to initially build these associations, followed by drilling for automaticity.To learn about our materials or to place and order, click on the "Products" button. To learn about our or sign up for a workshop, click on the "Professional Training" button.

Research has shown that students are better able to build orthographic images of printed sight words for later recall during reading and spelling if they have an understanding of the phonetic base of the words. In order to understand the phonetic irregularity of the word, they must first acquire this basic phonetic knowledge. This is why, in the Reading with TLC program, it is recommended that students first progress through the Lively Letters program (or some other phonic-based program) before attempting to utilize Sight Words You Can See. Unlike traditional sight word training approaches, which rely solely on the drilling of letter patterns, “Sight Words You Can See” uses imagery and mnemonics to teach initial acquisition of the words.

In their research, Mastropieri and Scruggs (1991) found that using embedded pictures and mnemonic stories was a highly effective instructional method for training recognition of difficult sight words. The Sight Words You Can See program utilizes engaging stories, imagery, and mnemonics to initially teach the associations, and later progresses to drills for rapid, automatic naming of the sight words. Pictures are drawn in and around the printed words, and students listen to short, mnemonic stories that associate the spoken words with the printed words, often highlighting the phonetic irregularity in the word. In the word “come,” for instance, the phonetic irregularity is that the silent “e” rule does not apply in this word. If one read the word phonetically, it would sound like the word ”comb.” On the flash card for this word is a picture of someone beckoning, “Come I want to comb your hair.” By initially reading “comb,” the student’s memory is jogged, and the word “come” is quickly elicited. After having the words drilled with the picture cues, students are drilled with the plain word cards (no cues). They quickly learn to automatically name the words without having to refer to, or even think about, the images or stories. These now become true sight words, and a new world of books is open to the students. As the students begin to build a bank of automatically recalled sight words, reading becomes less stunted and fluency begins to develop.

Instructors are also encouraged to utilize the methods and materials to train students in the spelling of these difficult words, as they are generally among the most commonly misspelled words.

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