Supporting Fluency through Developing a Bank of Sight Words

Students will develop emerging ability to:

• discriminate visual similarities and differences in words.

Using Onsets and Rimes

Children, who have been given lots of practice with onsets and rimes to generate word families, have a larger bank of sight words to draw upon and a means to decode many unfamiliar words. Approximately 500 words can be generated from the following 37 rimes!

ack ain ake ale all ame an ank ap ask at ate aw ay eat ell est ice ick ide ight ill in ine ing ink ip ir ock oke op or ore uck ug ump unk

Materials

• Books and charts with text that contains repetition of one of the 37 common rimes
• Paper and pencils, experience charts, individual chalkboards, and boxes of letters.

The procedure that follows is an example of whole, to part, to whole instruction and of teaching skills in meaningful contexts.

1. Start with a whole text. Be alert for children's books, poems, and experience charts that make use of words containing these common rimes. Use such books, poems, etc. during Shared Reading to draw attention to that particular word pattern. For example, the Nursery Rhyme Jack and Jill went up the hill can be used to introduce the rime ill or The Cat in the Hat can be used to focus on the at rime.
2. Focus on the parts. Follow up these occasions with opportunities for children to generate word families using the rimes upon which you are focusing.
3. Include guided practice. Involve children in both saying and making the words. They can write them in list format on individual slips of paper or take turns writing them on an experience chart.

   Be sure to draw students' attention to the parts of the words that change and the ones that stay the same.

4. Alternatively, you can use materials such as chalkboards or letter cards so that children can erase initial consonants or substitute letter cards in order to make new words. "Make read. Change it to bead. What letter did you take away? What letter did you add?"
5. Apply the new knowledge to a whole text. Teach children to use their knowledge of onsets and rimes to decode new words. Model this procedure during Shared Language or Shared Reading. Have students compare an unknown word to already known words and then use context to confirm their predictions.

   For example, when encountering nice for the first time in the poem I think mice are rather nice, you might read most of this line for emergent readers but stop before nice, compare it to the appearance of mice and say "If this is mice, what word might this be?" OR "Does this word look like any other word in this sentence? Remember that words that have the same endings usually rhyme." Offer further instructional support as needed including drawing attention to the onset (n), supporting children in blending the onset and rime, etc. After nice has been suggested, reread the sentence and ask,"Does nice make sense in this sentence?" in order to help establish the practice of using context to confirm predictions.

   
   
   
   

   A Word Wall is a chart that is highly visible and contains words that children use frequently in their reading and writing. New words are added to the Word Wall each week and practiced daily through short reading and writing activities. The purpose of creating a Word Wall is to help children develop fluency through adding to their store of sight words and known spelling patterns. Remember, a Word Wall is only effective as an instructional tool if it is used regularly!

   Word Wall Materials Bulletin board or part of a classroom wall Set of 26 alphabet cards with both upper and lower case versions of each letter written on them Construction paper, markers, and scissors Books used in Shared or Guided Reading Nonfiction books used in various units Frequently Used Words chart. Procedures Attach alphabet cards to the wall in order, in three or four rows, allowing space for lists of words under each card. Choose 3-5 words per week to add to the Word Wall. Select the words using some of the following criteria. Choose words: from books you are currently reading used frequently in children's writing (for example, birthday, grandma/kokum) that provide examples for each initial consonant. Include ones with both common sounds for c and g and the ck combination. that provide examples of the most common spelling patterns for each vowel such as: at, make, rain, day, car, saw, caught end, eat, see, her, new in, like, night, girl, thing not, rose, coat, go, for, how, snow, out, boy, book, school us, use, hurt my, funny that include the most frequent contractions (can't, didn't, don't, won't, isn't, it's), word endings (s, ed, ing, er), and homophones (too, to, two; no, know; write, right; one, won; etc.) that are high frequency words with irregular spelling such as know that are high frequency words that are often confused for similar words (for example, the/this, then/there, what/want/was) of particular interest to children that contain irregular spelling or many syllables (nightmare, Tyrannosaurus). As the new words are introduced to children, print the words on construction paper, cut out (following the shape of the word), and place on the Word Wall under their beginning letter. Words that fit into the same category such as homophones to, too, two, or that are all drawn from the same book or series that you are reading, could be printed on the same colour of paper to provide an additional way to identify them quickly. A routine to follow when introducing new words each week might include: using the word in a couple of sentences to provide a way for children to associate meaning with the word practising the word in a variety of learning modes such as clapping the syllables while chanting the word, writing the word in the air and on paper, and closing the eyes and trying to visualize the word. See the discussion of using visual imaging to strengthen spelling abilities described in "Visual Imaging", page 139, of English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level, 1992. Develop a routine to follow for practicing the words each day of the week they were introduced. Your routine would vary dependent upon the ages and developmental levels of the children. The routines could range from simpler activities such as pointing to the words once a day and having children read them and clap the syllables or saying the word and having a child locate it, to more complex activities such as having children write the words each day on a sheet numbered from 1-3 (or 1-5). Read the Word Wall frequently as a class. Encourage children to refer to it for the conventional spelling of words and to help other children locate a word they need during writing. Use the Word Wall as part of an independent or buddy reading activity such as Read Around the Room (see page 141 for a description of this activity). Variations Add sight words from each unit studied throughout the year. Use construction paper of the same colour for all words from the same theme or unit as an additional context clue. Have children draw small pictures above difficult nouns or verbs. Introduce a "Mystery Word" game. Tell students you are thinking of a word on the Word Wall and that you will give them 3 (or more) clues to help them figure out what your mystery word is. Have students number a paper from 1-3 and ask them to write down their predictions as you give each clue but to not say them out loud. Give students a semantic clue such as "The word I am thinking of is something that you can use to get places" (e.g., bus). Remind students to look over the Word Wall for possibilities and have them write down their first prediction. Give students a graphophonic clue such as "The word I am thinking of has a short 'u' sound" and have them make a second prediction. Continue with your third clue and student prediction. Ask students to share their predictions and their thought processes. (Ask, "How did you figure that out?") Discuss why certain words had to be eliminated as not fitting the clues. Frequently Used Words Frequently used words are also referred to as high frequency words. These are words that occur the most often in children's books and other texts, and are used most frequently in children's writing. Many of the activities in this resource make use of the words used most frequently by beginning readers and writers. The chart that follows contains a list of these words. It can be consulted in selecting words to be used: in a Word Wall or Making Words activity when making word cards for activities in the ABC or Word Study Center for an informal assessment tool of a child's sight vocabulary. Some words not used as frequently are included as models for the consonant and vowel sounds, the common digraphs, and common word endings such as er, est, and ing. Frequently Used Words 35 Aa a about after all an and are am as asked at away Bb back be because before big boy brother but by Cc came can come could children Dd day dad did do don't down Ee end eat Ff for from funny Gg go going good Hh had has have he her here him his house how Ii I I'm if in into is it isn't it's Jj just Kk keep kind know Ll like little look looked looking long longer longest love Mm make making man mother mom my me Nn no not now Oo of off old on one or our out other over only Pp people play put Qq quiet question Rr run ran rain Ss said saw see she so some something Tt than that the then there these they this three to too two Uu up us Vv very Ww was want we went were what when where who will with would Xx xylophone Yy yes you your Zz zipper zoo zoom Other Strategies for Developing a Bank of Sight Words Other strategies that support development of a sight vocabulary in this resource are: One-letter Books Making Words ABC and Word Study Center Action Words for the Consonants As well, see the "Key Vocabularies" strategy, page 108, in English Language Arts: A Curriculum Guide for the Elementary Level (1992).

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   ³⁵ The "Frequently Used Words" chart has been developed with reference to similar lists in Cunningham (1995), Fountas and Pinnell (1996), and Tarasoff (1993)
   

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