Rationale of Sight Word Blog

What are sight words?  Many parents ask me this question early in the school year.  According to www.k12reader.com,  "[sight words] are critical in early reading development because they represent high-frequency words and are difficult to sound out or to illustrate."  I try to ensure that parents understand that their children should not try to "decode" or "sound out" sight words.  Knowledge of sight words contributes to a child becoming a fluent reader, thus leading to better comprehension or understanding of what is read.

My purpose of this blog is to offer suggestions and resources to parents, and perhaps other teachers, relating to sight words.  I plan to include links to sight word resources found on the internet along with activities that I myself have created.

After teaching for almost 20 years, I have had both fluent readers and struggling readers.  The common thread among fluent readers was a strong knowledge of sight words.  On the other hand, most of my struggling readers were weak in sight word knowledge.  My hope is that this blog proves to be helpful to a parent needing information about strategies to improve their child's reading ability.