Vocabulary, Word Study, & Sight Word Activities High Frequency Sight Words

High frequency words are those words that appear most in printed material. Learning to recognize frequency words by sight is crucial to developing fluency in reading. Reading efficiently is greatly increased when sight words are recognized in seconds. High Frequency words are more difficult for students to read because they are more abstract words that students cant apply basic phonic skills to decode. As tutors we want to improve sight word recognition in order to enhance the students chance of getting to the end of a sentence in time to remember how it began. Below are assorted activities you can use to increase sight word recognition: 1. WORDO: played like BINGO, students are to fill their boards with various sight words. This will help strengthen word recognition. 2. Word books: students can create small sight word books by folding and stapling construction paper. This will help students to both read and write various sight words. 3. Flashcards: Write sight words on index cards. These cards can then be used for a number of activities. a. Jeopardy b. Memory c. Swat! 4. Word detective: Encourage students to be high frequency word detectives. Students can locate sight words around the school. 5. Word Search: create a word search including various sight words. Encourage students to locate as many words as possible.

Word Banks
The purpose of a word bank is to develop a sight word vocabulary. After reading a story two or three times with a student: 1. The tutor and child go back through the story one page at a time hunting for sight words. The child should be allowed to point to and identify any word of interest on a page. 2. The tutor should point randomly to a few words in the text to check the quality of the childs word identification attempts. 3. Any word the child identifies immediately and with confidence, whether chosen by the child or the tutor, should be put on an index card. Limit the number of words selected to 3 to 7 per story. 4. All words on the cards form a bank of words. Reviewing Sight Words Collected For the Word Bank: 1. The word bank consists of two collections of words, an I Can Read and I Need to Learn bank. 2. The tutor shows the sight words collected in the Word Bank to the child one at a time. If the child can read the word in a half second (or as fast as you can read the word), place a check on the back of the word card. 3. The tutor shows these words again to the child on two different occasions. Each time he can read the word within a half 4. second place another check on the back of the word card. 5. When the child has acquired three checks on the back of a word card, the card can be placed in the I Can Read pile. 6. If the child cannot read one of the words in the word bank, tell the child the word, and have him repeat it. Keep the card in the I Need to Learn pile to review until it can be read quickly on three separate occasions.

Self-Collection Strategy (Haggard,1982)

1. Tell students to bring to class two words they believe everyone should learn. These can be general knowledge words or terms related to a specific topic that the group will be reading about. 2. Have students write their words on the board as they enter the room. 3. In turn, students present their words to the group by defining them, explaining why the group should learn them and telling where the words were found. 4. Through discussion, the class should reduce the list to a predetermined number of most important words by eliminating duplicates and words already known by many. 5. The final list becomes the focus of vocabulary activities for the next few days.

Vocabulary Cards
Begin with a list of key vocabulary words found in the text or unit of study. Give students 5x8 cards. 1. Show students how to divide card into four quadrants (either fold or draw lines)in either case have students draw lines to separate the quadrants. 2. Ask students to label the quadrants as follows: a. Upper-left-hand corner (front): VOCABULARY TERM b. Lower-left-hand corner (front): DEFINITION c. Right-hand-side (front): PICTURE d. Upper-left-hand (back): DESCRIPTION OF PICTURE AND RELATIONSHIP
Front of Card Back of Card

Word Definition

Picture
(related to the word and its meaning)

Relationship
(I drew this picture because)

Personal Vocabulary Journal (example)

My new word is It is related to I found it I think it means Definition Example Sphere Geometry My textbook A ball Spherical object or ball basketball

Picture

NOTE: There is a blank version of this form in the Resources section.

How Well Do I Know These Words

Example from Mufaros Beautiful Daughter (1987) by John Steptoe.

Dont Know at All

Have seen or heard Dont know what it means

I think I know what it means

I know the meaning

bountiful

temper

journey messenger announced

Africa pride

NOTE: There is a blank version of this form in the Resources section.

Vocabulary Teaching Dos and Donts

Guidelines for selecting to-be-learned vocabulary
Do Less is more -- depth is more. Teach fewer vocabulary terms, but teach them in a manner that results in deep understandings of each term. Teach terms that are central to the unit or theme of study. These are terms that are so important that if the student does not understand them, s/he likely will have difficulty understanding the remainder of the unit. Teach terms that address key concepts or ideas. While a text chapter may contain 15-20 vocabulary terms, there may be only 4 or 5 that address critical concepts in the chapter -- sometimes only 1 or 2!). Teach terms that will be used repeatedly throughout the semester. These are foundational concepts upon which a great deal of information will be built on over a long-term basis.

Avoid
Teaching or assigning words from textbooks just because they are highlighted in some way (italicized, bold face print, etc.). Teaching or assigning words just because they appear in a list at the end of a text chapter. Teaching or assigning words that will have little utility once the student has passed the test. Assigning words the tutor cannot define. Assigning large quantities of words. Assigning words that students will rarely encounter again.