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Friday, November 25, 2011

Sight Word Fluency & Romance Ruined

Do you have a systematic way to make sure your students can read the sight words fluently?

I noticed that many of my students were still trying to sound out these words so I came up with a program I call Sight Word Superstars. I typed all the Fry Words up (6 groups of 100) and broke them into 5 lists of 20. I color code mine to make it easier for myself.
All of my first graders start on the 1st 100. If they can read the first list (20 words) in 20 seconds or less  then they earn a sticker for their star. I have them practice with their whisper phones in guided reading while they are waiting to read with me. {You may want to set a different time requirement or start on a higher list based on the age or ability of your students.}

 
When a student's star is filled the class cheers for them and they receive a certificate. I send the completed star home and they start on the next list (2nd 100) with the matching colored star.

My students are much more motivated to practice their sight word fluency since I started this program. This is also an easy way for me to differentiate for my advanced students.

I also made a game that focuses on reading sight words quickly called
I color code these cards as well so I can quickly pull the words I want a particular group to practice. When I have students stuck on a particular list I will only give them that list (20 words) so they practice them over and over. My district also requires my students to be able to spell the first 100 words so later in the year I will change the rules of the game. Player 2 will read the card and Player 1 will have to spell the word. These cards can also be used as flashcards.

I have posted this program to TpT and included it in my 20% off sale if you are interested.

In other news, I saw Breaking Dawn with my girlfriends. I am a big fan of the books. Own them all. Read them all more than once. Team Edward here. So,  I could have done without the guys yelling out comments and young kids loudly calling for their mommy in the middle. Kinda ruined the fantasy world I was trying to lose myself in. Now I am l counting the days until The Hunger Games. Not sure if I will like the guy they cast for Peeta. I may have to switch and root for Gale because Liam Hemsworth is a cu-tie.  If you haven't read that series you need to. Seriously good. Anyone have any other must-reads for me?

25 comments:

  1. I love your sight words program!!! I will be buying it to use with my class. Thanks for such a great way to track the kids progress !

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  2. Oh my gosh, I think this is the best sight words system I've seen! Often it's difficult keeping up with sight words but even more difficult to get students to read them fluently. I'm so excited about this system, I can only imagine how excited students would be! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  3. I really love this too. I was talking with my colleagues about sight words just the other day. We include them in our newsletters each week but all we say is "practice nightly". We all know that if not given something formal to do - a good many do not practice them. These words are so important to know in a snap because they anchor us into the text...not knowing them definitely impacts fluency. Thanks for sharing!!!!!! I think I may use this with my two lowest reading groups...(to get my feet wet - then maybe next year I'll do whole group).

    Holly
    Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade

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  4. Oh, Jenn, Jenn, Jenn... How do I thank you? Let me count the ways!

    This looks fantastic. I used to have a retired teacher that took care of the sight word lists and practice for our classroom. This year she retired from retirement and I have been floundering a bit. This is just what I need. Thanks!

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  5. Thank you for putting this together. My students need some more motivation and this is perfect for it.

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  6. You are all welcome! I am so glad you can use it.

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  7. I love this for sight words!!! As for must reads...Divergent by Veronica Roth and Matched by Ally Condie are good if you like Hunger Games :)

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  8. totally just added this to my wishlist because of the top 3 linky :)
    Jen Ross
    The Teachers’ Cauldron

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  9. Wow! What a great idea! I'm definitely going to pick this up at your TpT store. It will give my higher kids an extra challenge. :)

    WILD About First Grade!

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  10. Love the whole site words idea. I will see how this works out for me.
    If you haven't read 'The Mortal Instruments' series I highly recommend! I have read the ones mentioned above: Twilight, Hunger Games, Matched, etc.. I think you will enjoy!

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  11. Terrific sight word program. Looks great and I can see how it motivates students

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  12. This is wonderful! I teach 3rd grade in the ME and this will even work for my class. I also like that it isn't too girly or overly distracting with prints. Classes are separated here and I teach boys. There are so many beautiful resources with butterflies, hearts, and lots of pink, all which does not go over well with my boys!

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  13. HI Jenn,
    Would you consider making this for letter recognition? I would buy it in a heartbeat. I was going to make it for letters, but I did not know if that would be ok.

    Erica
    Sprinkles to Kindergarten
    erica_crowder0612@yahoo.com

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  14. I love this! I do a math counting challenge that looks so similar. It has stars with 5 numbers on it that we display in the classroom. I just blogged about it - you should check it out!

    Emily
    Tangled with Teaching - Shoot for the Stars Post

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  15. I love this idea! I'm not a teacher, just a stay home mom with an early reader (he's 4 now but started reading at 3.) I've been looking for different games and teaching methods to help him improve his reading. Luckily he enjoys it, but I want to keep him motivated to improve. Thanks for sharing your teaching method here, especially since my education is in science, not education for youngsters! This is so helpful. Side note: I am in the middle of reading the Game of Thrones series and it is great. Highly recommend!

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  16. very cute idea!! Where can I get a copy of the sight word system?

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  17. Click on the word TpT above and it will take you there. :-)

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  18. Love this and can't wait to try it out! And it sounds as though we like the same genre of books. My husband laughs at me all the time because I buy my books from the young adult section. I love the House of Night series and of course the Sookie Stackhouse books. I've also recently finished the Beautiful Creatures series and love the vampire academy books!! Apparently I like vampires and the weird and supernatural! LOL!! Anyway, happy reading and keep posting amazing stuff!!

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  19. We used this in our primary grades this year and it worked wonderfully!!! We even added a Color Club Parade that increased parental involvement. Thank you for an amazing resource!

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  20. I believe that our current education system (at least in Canada where we live) is not doing the right thing by teaching the young students sight words first! 1st of all, English is NOT an ideographic language (symbols), but it is an alphabetic language and should be taught as such! There's no reason why children should be forced to memorize 5 words every week in 1st grade, when they could EASILY learn to decode if the education system knew the proper process of accomplishing that goal!

    This is easily accomplished through the combination of teaching synthetic phonics and phonemic awareness where very young children can learn to decode/read fluently and PHONETICALLY! NOT by word shape memorization. I taught all of my children to read phonetically by 3, and I help teach many other children, so I know firsthand. I have a little niece in grade 1. She brings home 5 "sight words" to "memorize" every single week. Children who learn to "read" by memorizing shapes will often confuse words simply because they're unaware of the many nuances of the words. ie. in - on, barn - burn - born, there - three - their, and so on...

    See article at link below for why it's not a good idea to start off by teaching sight words:

    http://www.readingbyphonics.com/early-start/teach-sight-words-to-children-2.html

    Besides, most sight words are easily decodable, with the exception of a few.

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  21. Awesome! Loving the sight word activities. Come over and check out our hundreds of literacy stations.
    http://www.teacherbrain.com.au

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  22. Jenni know this is an old post but do you have this on tpt or some place like this. I would like to use this. I work with low readers this looks like a fun way to learn these words. dwatson@mtairy.k12.nc.us
    Thanks Des

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  23. Jenni know this is an old post but do you have this on tpt or some place like this. I would like to use this. I work with low readers this looks like a fun way to learn these words. dwatson@mtairy.k12.nc.us
    Thanks Des

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  24. Any place to get a copy of the star and certificate?
    Mscott1040@bellsouth.net

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