COPYRIGHT INFORMATION 2012 PLD Organisation Pty. Ltd. (Publisher) - www.pld-literacy.org
Written and edited by Diana Rigg. Illustrated by Deborah Walter.
First Edition 2012 - First Sight Words. Frequency, complexity and strategy.
ISBN 978-1-921560-92-7
This resource is copyright under the Copyright Act, 1968 (Cth). All rights reserved.Copyright Guidelines: The purchasing Educational Institution is granted permission to copy or commu-nicate only a reasonable proportion – being no more than 10% or one chapter, at any given time, for educational purposes only.Artistic Works include illustrations, photographs, drawings, pictures and design components within teach-ing manuals and on flash cards, charts and posters. They should not be adapted or removed and are recognised by the Copyright Act 1968. Digital reproduction of this publication/resource or any proportion of it is strictly prohibited without written consent from PLD Organisation Pty. Ltd.This blackline master is published and sold with a limited copyright. It may only be reproduced by the original purchaser for use with their class(es). The publisher (PLD Organisation Pty. Ltd.) prohibits the loan-ing or onselling of this master for the purposes of reproduction.Please visit www.pld-literacy.org for our extended Copyright Guidelines.
First Sight WordsFrequency, complexity
and strategy.
Designed by a Speech Pathologist.
First Sight Words outlines a developmental sequence; the first 100 words to be instructed within the first year of reading instruction, the second 100 within second year of reading instruction and the third 100 words within the third year.
The ordering of the sequence is based upon frequency of occurrence and also word complexity.
Methods to instruct each sight word are outlined.
Flash cards and assessment sheets are also included.
A Learning Resource for Key Area: Spelling and Decoding
Contents First Sight Words PLD Organisation Pty. Ltd. 2
Overview Of ContentsFirst Sight Words - Frequency, complexity and strategy. 3 - 5Key Reading And Spelling Pre-requisite Skills 6Strategy Cards 7The Use of Flash Cards 8
Target 1: 1a) Words 1 - 25 and 1b) Words 26 - 100 9
The first 25 words on Fry’s list comprise approximately a third of all published works: Target 1a: Words 1 - 25 ...tobelearnedwithinthefirstyearofliteracyinstruction. 10 - 16 Target 1a: Sight Word Checklist 17 The first 100 words on Fry’s list comprise approximately a half of all published works: Target 1b: Words 26 - 100 ...tobelearnedwithinthefirstyearofliteracyinstruction. 18 - 27 Target 1b: Sight Word Checklist 28
Target 2: Words 101 - 200 29
The first 300 words on Fry’s list comprise approximately 65% of all published works: Target 2: Words 101 - 200 ...tobelearnedwithinthesecondyearofliteracyinstruction. 30 - 36 Target 2: Sight Word Checklist 37
Target 3: Words 201 - 300 38
The first 300 words on Fry’s list comprise approximately 65% of all published works: Target 3: Words 201 - 300 ...tobelearnedwithinthethirdyearofliteracyinstruction. Sight words to supplement phonic based spelling lists. 39 - 41 Target 3: Sight Word Checklist 42
Remaining Words 301 - 1,000 From Fry’s ‘1,000 Instant Words’ 43
First Sight Words - Frequency, complexity and strategy. First Sight Words PLD Organisation Pty. Ltd. 3
FIRST SIGHT WORDS - Frequency, complexity and strategy.
What are sight words?
”Sight words” are a special category of words that students are instructed to recognise automatically (i.e. without picture cues or sounding-out.) The instant recognition is important due to the frequency at which sight words occur.
“Over half of every newspaper article, textbook, children’s story and novel is comprised of just 300 words” (Fry, 2000:4).
Whataretheoriginsofthesightwordlists?
In 1948 Dolch developed the theory that children who memorise (or recognise) a key group of core words learn to read more easily and with improved comprehension. As an extension of this research, in the 1990’s Fry compiled a list of 1000 commonly used words and arranged the words according to their frequency of occurrence. Fry’s (1999) extensive research uncovered that:
• The first 25 words on his list word list make up approximately a third of all published works.
• The first 100 words on his list word list comprise approximately a half of all published works.
• The first 300 words on his list word list make approximately 65% of all published works.
Beginner readers and the sight words.
It is well established in the literature that students require simultaneous instruction of phonics and sight words. Both sets of skills have been shown to assist beginning readers. A complication with sight word instruction is that a proportion of the sight words do not follow regular phonic rules. Another compli-cation is that those words that do conform to phonic principles demand phonic knowledge that the beginning reader may not have yet acquired.
This resource First Sight Words continues the work of Dolch and Fry by considering:
1. Complexityofthewords
2. Methods to instruct each sight word.
Beginning readers require the presentation of more simplistic high frequency words before the presen-tation of more complex and irregular high frequency words. While the sight words are still presented in Fry’s groupings (i.e. the first 25, followed by words 26-100 and finally words 101 to 300), it is within these groupings that the order has been updated to consider word complexity. This order presents words ranging from the regular (and easiest to master) to less regular (and more difficult to master). For the beginning reader this will facilitate greater success and reduced frustration.
Presentationorderofwords(Targets1to3).(The first 25 words on Fry’s list comprise approximately a third of all published works.)Target1a:Words1-25tobelearnedwithinthefirstyearofliteracyinstruction. (Words on pages 10 to 16.)
(The first 100 words on Fry’s list comprise approximately a half of all published works.)Target1b:Words26-100tobelearnedwithinthefirstyearofliteracyinstruction. (Words on pages 18 to 27.)
(Targets 2 and 3: The first 300 words on Fry’s list comprise approximately 65% of all published works.)Target2:Words101-200tobelearnedwithinthesecondyearofliteracyintruction. (Words on pages 30 to 36.)
Target3:Words201-300tobelearnedwithinthethirdyearofliteracyintruction. (Words on pages 39 to 41.)
First Sight Words - Frequency, complexity and strategy. First Sight Words PLD Organisation Pty. Ltd. 4
FIRST SIGHT WORDS - Frequency, complexity and strategy. continued
Flash Cards
Forwords1-200,eachofthesewordsarerepresentedonaflashcardwith: • Order of presentation (eg: Present this word as Card Number 1). This does not represent the
frequency ranking of a word within the 300 most commonly appearing words but rather the PLD recommended order of instruction. Please refer to the table at the bottom of page 3.
• The learning target which includes a guide for when words should be learned. For example: - Target 1a: Words 1 - 25 to be learned within the first year of literacy instruction. - Target 1b: Words 26 - 100 to be learned within the first year of literacy instruction. - Target 2: Words 101 - 200 to be learned within the second year of literacy instruction. - Target 3: Words 201 - 300 to be learned within the third year of literacy instruction.
• An explicit teaching strategy (or strategies) on the bottom left hand corner.
Outlineofstrategies:
Strategy 1: Sound-Out the WordWhen the high frequency sight word is regular, it is recommended that students are initially instructed to ‘sound-out’ (or decode) the word. After repeated practice, students will no longer rely on ‘strategy 1’ as the sight words will be recognised automatically by sight.
Strategy 2: Sound-Out and ThinkThis is a two-stage strategy. First the ‘sounding out’ strategy is applied and it produces a non-word; but when the beginning reader stops for a moment to think about the sounds that were produced they are often able to arrive at the associated “real” word. For example: • Was: It then needs to be explained to the student that when sounded ‘wahss’ is produced,
but when the word is read (and spoken) it is verbalised as ‘woz’. Over time students will not require the adult’s explanation. (For example: Child: “W-ah-ss. Oh I know! That is that tricky word woz”). With a little more exposure and rehearsal students will not require ‘strategy 2’ and will instantly read the word as “woz”.
Strategy 3: Phonics Learning RequiredPhonic knowledge assists the mastery of a significant proportion of the list words. The difficulty for beginning readers is that their knowledge of how alphabetic symbols are combined to represent sounds contained within words (i.e. phonics) is extremely limited. • The alternating black and grey colour coding of the sight words assists the beginning read-
er by highlighting the sound and phonic structure in the sight words. • However, when students would benefit from the explanation of a particular phonic
concept, this is indicated by the phonic symbol being highlighted within the book icon in the left hand corner of the flash card. For example: ‘ea’ representing an “eeee” sound greatly assists a beginning reader decode the word ‘each’.
• Where possible, it is recommended that ‘strategy 3 sight words’ are linked with class-based phonic spelling lists.
Strategy 4: Look and LearnIf a sounding out strategy will not assist, a visual strategy is required. The icon of an eye, prompts the application of this ‘learn the word by how it looks’ strategy. • While repeated visual exposure may assist word recognition (reading), the appli-
cation of an acronym will likely fast track the ability to spell the word. (For example: you – your own unicorn; said – silly ants in dustbins; because – big elephants can always understand small elephants.)
The Use of Flash Cards First Sight Words PLD Organisation Pty. Ltd. 8
The Use of Flash Cards
Application at a Whole Class Level
To Establish Home Programs or Programs For Individual Students
The reproducable flash cards can also be copied onto coloured paper, then be laminat-ed, hole punched and attached to metal rings. By copying each page onto a different coloured paper sheet, this will also highlight the steps a beginning reader/speller is taking.
The cards contained within this resource can be used for:
* Frequency ranking of a word. (Eg: The word ‘at’ is the 4th most common word within the 25 words that comprise approxi-mately a third of all published works.)
AWORDOFCAUTION!Onlyprogressontothenextsightwordlist(Target1b)if:• Students demonstrate rapid, automatic and accurate reading/recognition
(i.e. without any evidence of ‘sounding’)• Students demonstrate rapid, automatic and accurate spelling • Sight words are evident with correct spelling in the child’s written work.
ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE:Ratestudent’soverallperformance.
