Newsletter 4

A Focus on Sight Words

Sight words, often also called high frequency sight words, are commonly used words that young children are encouraged to memorize as a whole by sight, so that they can automatically recognize these words in print without having to use any strategies to decode. However most children find it really hard to automatically recognise more than a handful of words in this way. They actually need strategies to decode ALL words. When using the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach all but two words in the WHOLE of the English language are decodable. Sight words account for a large percentage (up to 75%) of the words used in beginning children's print materials. Arguably around 90% of PM Readers consist of sight words, and these are used in virtually every Australian classroom. So if children struggle to remember them they will struggle to move past PM Level 8 - 10. When using SSP children start at PM 10, when they have worked through the Code Levels (in around two terms) By then they confidently use around 100 phonemes, and can code around 100 sight words. This is why it only takes them 4 terms to learn to read with accuracy, fluency and comprehension, and to be able to spell anything, when SSP is used as a

complete reading and spelling program from Prep. With phonics programs, where sight words are still taught using Look, Cover, Say, Write (as whole words) there will still be around 6-8 children benchmarking at less than 10 after four whole terms, and some are still learning to read when they enter Year 2 (ie after 8 whole terms!) Within SSP ALL learners will be PM 15 after 4 terms, and PM 30 after 8. There is an agreement that no child enters Year 2 still learning to read, or needing a 'spelling program'. Most importantly, they will be READERS when SSP is used, as the reason we are doing this is the central focus. Not for academic outcomes, but for life. The idea of children being able to recognize sight words automatically is that a beginning reader can therefore, supposedly, identify the majority of words in a beginning text before they even attempt to read it; therefore, allowing the child to concentrate on meaning and comprehension as they read without having to stop and decode every single word. Advocates of Whole Language Approach believe that being able to recognize a large number of sight words gives students a better start to learning to read. However, the science does not support this idea. This is especially exclusive for Dyslexic learners and children with poor phonemic awareness or those who want strategies, and to be organised (eg many Autistic learners) Recognizing sight words automatically is said to be advantageous for beginning readers because many of these words have unusual spelling patterns, and cannot be sounded out using the phonics knowledge taught in 'phonics programs'. The Reading Whisperer therefore developed a third alternative. Something completely new. By using the SSP Approach you are able to ensure that children are able to decode (and therefore instantly recall) hundreds of 'sight words' quickly and easily. They link the speech sounds to sound pics (phonemes/ graphemes) - taking 'phonics' teaching to a whole new level !

No other program in the world is doing this. Innovative resources are also used, to excite and engage students- eg coding 5 sight words to a Katy Perry song! (th/i/s i/s h/ow w/e d/o) Students are also given sequential readers allowing them to learn the most frequently used sound pics phonemes) ALONGSIDE the frequently used whole words. PM readers are used towards the end of Phase 2 ie the Learning to Code Phase. See sspreaders.com site. and also the RethinkingPMBenchmarks.com web site Within around two/ three terms even the lowest achieving children are able to move to PM readers, as they can not only recognise (and code) all sight words used in the books, but also code words at all four SSP Code Levels. You can start the at around PM Level 10. Sight words are taught within 7 Duck Levels, at the student's own pace. So they could be on the SSP Green Code Level and ALSO know the words at Duck Level 1-3. Everything within SSP is about the individual, who is able to work at their own pace, but with the help from peers. Duck Level 1 - 10 words Duck Level 2 - 20 words Duck Level 3 - 20 words Duck Level 4 - 50 words Duck Level 5 - 100 words Duck Level 6 - 100 words Duck Level 7 - 140 words A number of sight word lists have been compiled and published; among the most popular are the Dolch sight words and the magic 100 words. Duck Levels 1 - 7 go through all of the words found to be most used within Australian classrooms ie 440 words. Within the Speech Sound Pics Approach the 'phonics code' is also taught explicitly, through four levels - Green Purple, Yellow and Blue.

The remaining 150 or so 'sound pics' that make up the whole code (every word in the English language except 'one' and 'once' are discovered within the Spelling Clouds. Children can go through all 7 Duck Levels, and all 4 Code Levels within 4 terms. This is the amount of work children in most AU schools cover in two to three years- because a brain training approach is used, that is again 'different'. Join us, and build the new! The 'old' has failed too many Australians. Every Aussie deserves SSP! Visit the new site www.codedsightwords.com