Children can
have a lot of trouble learning their common ‘sight words’, so you may need lots
of strategies to help them.
One aid is to
write out the words to be learnt in different colours and styles, to help build
a mental picture of the words in their surroundings. I developed this sheet to
help a student who was having a lot of difficulty with some words.
You can download
it to use with your child/students if you like; you can write in the words they
are struggling with, or better still get the child to write in the words (just
make sure they are correctly spelt and that the letters are facing the right
way – write softly for them to trace over if necessary!). The child can use
coloured pens or pencils, and can decorate the page with colours, drawings or stickers
as they like.
The boxes are
big enough for 2 or 3 ‘related’ words (e.g. where, there; would, could, should;
he, me, we; go, no, so) – or you can
just focus on one word in each box.
When the
child practises the words, you can tick those remembered correctly and quickly.
The child may
want to highlight or circle the words that prove most difficult (giving them
the option of doing this also gives them some ‘ownership’ of their learning).
Discuss
why those words are difficult and see if you can work out together a way to
help them become easier (break them into letter sounds or ‘chunks’, look for
patterns, draw a shape around them, etc.).
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