![]() ![]() This is where a sight word can be immediately retrieved from the brain- automatic word recognition. Orthographic mapping allows students to take an unfamiliar word and turn it into a ‘sight word’. ![]() This is where the brain maps (connects) the sounds (phonemes) to the letters (graphemes) in a word. Research has in fact demonstrated that children learn to read through a process called orthographic mapping. The same concept applies to reading – there is simply not enough room in our brains to store all of the words that we need to be successful readers!Ī new model for teaching high frequency words Think about when we need to clear storage from our phones – the first things that we clear are photos and videos, as these take up the most room. In order to remember enough words to be successful readers, we would need to store between 30-70 000 words (pictures) in our brains. Many students struggle to remember these tricky high frequency words, even after repeated exposure to the words. Without a strong focus on phonics skills, many students will struggle to develop strong reading skills and become fluent readers and accurate spellers, even if they engage in regular sight word practice and high-frequency word games. The problem with this model of sight word instruction: whilst rote memorisation has worked for some young readers when teaching sight words, it doesn’t work for all. You may have heard of Dolch words or the Fry sight word list as common lists for kindergarten sight words, as for many decades, these were commonly considered as the best way to teach sight words to kindergarten students and other little learners. The goal was for students to read these ‘sight words’ automatically, and they were traditionally taught to do this through rote memorisation. The belief was, if students saw a new word enough times, they would learn it. High-frequency words have often been referred to as ‘sight’ words, and previously these words were taught by encouraging children to simply learn them by sight. How Heart Words are challenging traditional ideas about how to teach Kindergarten sight words. ![]()
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