I have
many friends from US who keep saying that sight words should be got rid of.
They
have been saying this for such a long time that they have begun to really
believe it themselves.
This once again proves the quote
by Hitler’s aide “A Lie Told Often Enough Becomes
The Truth”.
I
have successfully taught all my dyslexic students over the last 8 years using a
mixture of Phonics and Sight Words. It simply does not make sense to do away
with sight words. I teach dyslexic students who have already learnt their
alphabets. As such the day I begin teaching them I start getting them to read phrases
and sentences. There is no way one can start teaching a kid to read sentences on
his first day if we use only phonics.
A
dyslexic kid’s self esteem is immediately boosted when he finds out he can read
on the first day. Just imagine, for a moment, a kid who has been told he is
stupid, just because he cannot read, suddenly being told (by a teacher- me) that
he can read, and the kid actually finding himself reading just like his ‘new
teacher’ told him!
My
method of teaching a dyslexic is simple and yet effective. I start on his first
day with the family word “Bat”. I write ‘AT” and sound out the phoneme of the
alphabet “A” and “T”. “A” has the phoneme/sound “Air” as in apple. “T” has the
phoneme/sound as in the beginning of the word ‘table’. It is just ‘ttt’ and not
‘tur’ or ‘ter’ as taught by some of the phonics teachers. The child learns the
sound of the 2 letters together- “AT”. I also emphasize that the alphabet ‘A”
has more than one phoneme/sound and that I’ll teach him those other
phonemes/sounds as we get to them.
I
then proceed with the family words:
Bat
Cat
Fat
Hat
Mat
Pat
Rat
Sat
The
child learns these words very fast. Point to the words in any order and they
will sound it out.
I
then introduce the following words as sight words: ‘A’, ‘on’ and ‘and’. I then
tell them that this is another phoneme/sound of the alphabet “A”. Now it is ‘a’
as in ‘around’. Obviously ‘on’ and ‘and’ can be taught using phonics, but I
tell them to just learn it by sight. Believe me they can learn those 3 words in
a jiffy. Do not listen to people like Elizabeth Brown who obviously does not
know what she is talking about. (Incidentally I have written to her and asked
her for her comments on the article I had written.)
In
my first lesson itself, having taught the above, the kids begin to read the
following sentences with ease.
A
cat
A
fat cat
A
fat cat and a fat rat
A
fat cat and a fat rat sat on a mat.
A
rat sat on a hat.
Pat
sat on a mat.
Pat,
a fat cat and a fat rat sat on a bat.
The
second day I introduce the family words can, fan, man, pan, ran, tan and van. I
introduce another 3 sight words and the child is able to read more sentences.
Before
you know it I start them on Aesop’s fables and they read these stories
fluently. I underline words that cannot be learnt phonetically and we read
these words every day they come to class and before we know it they can read
these words with no difficulty at all.
Yes,
use phonics and sight words to teach your child to learn. Don’t be misled by
people like Elizabeth Brown who do not know the difference between her elbow
and her ….
3 comments:
Well,i would like to say that sight words should not be taught at all in a pure phonics program that teaches by sound. They should merely be taught phonetically along with other words.I am very much contended with this post!
Hi! Did u receive any reply from Elizabeth Brown re ur article?
Unfortunately no!I have also written many articles on many web-sites stating that dyslexics do not have a 'phonological awareness deficit' and I have had no comments.My contention is that if a child can read fluently in Malay and Han yu pin yin,how can one say that they have a 'phonological awareness deficit'?
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