Blog post: 'How to teach reading - sight words'

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Blog post: 'How to teach reading - sight words'

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This is a very easy-to-read post on the issue of teaching words by whole global shape as an initial 'sight vocabulary':

http://howtoteachreading.org.uk/sight-words/
Sight Words

What is a sight word? – It is a word that can be read on sight, the implication being without the need to decode it.

The concept was developed in the 1930s and 40s by Dr. Edward William Dolch in America, who analysed popular children’s books of the time to come up with a list of words for children to be taught to ‘read’ on sight i.e. without having to decode. The well-intentioned idea was to short-cut the sometimes lengthy process of learning to read, and thus quickly achieve fluency. His ideas have been long-lasting. They laid the foundations for the ‘whole word” or “whole language” methods of teaching reading and a quick Google search will confirm that Dolch and other similar sight word lists are still in widespread use, particularly in the U.S.
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