Of the thousands and thousands of words in the English language, there are 100 words that are simply repeated over and over again.
Words like ‘the’ ‘in’ ‘are’ ’there’ ‘and’ ‘of’. These 100 words actually make up 50% of all written words.
When children first learn to read, they are often tasked with memorising, by rote, these commonly used words. These words are often called sight words because we are expected to recognise them on sight rather than having to sound them out.
Some schools call them the magic words. Essentially, they are just the 100 most frequent words. Once your child has mastered the Magic 100 words, they will be introduced to the Magic 200 and Magic 300 words (the image below is a list of the Magic 300 words).
It makes good sense to learn to recognise and read these words when you are young because children who master these words will be well on their way to becoming fluent readers.
However, any parent whose child has just started school will know all too well the ongoing battle with sight words. For both parents and children, this can be a stressful time and students who struggle to master their sight words are often left feeling frustrated.
So, what is the most efficient way to learn these words?
Read them in context
Ditch the out-of-context flashcards or the fridge magnets cards with individual words written on them. Our brains learn by making connections, and it is difficult to make connections to isolated words.
It is particularly hard to learn sight words in isolation because they don’t mean anything by themselves. They are ‘function’ words in English – the little words that join ideas together. They take their meaning from the words around them. Notice the words as you read storybooks with your child. Their high frequency means they are everywhere!
Go on word hunts
Let your child choose a ‘sight word’ and have a word hunt in your local environment.
Read shop signs, the headlines in the magazine you are reading, the back of cereal boxes, and in their storybooks. See how many times you find the word. Keep a tally, and choose a new word the next day to see if you can beat the tally.
Write them
Sight words are everywhere when we read, which means they are just as useful in our writing. If your child is just beginning to write, you can be their scribe. Have them draw a picture and tell you what they would like to write to describe their picture.
Write their story in large clear print under their drawing and read it out loud to them, pointing to the words as you read. Draw a big circle around the sight words – there are bound to be a few! Your child can trace over these words, and then copy them under your writing, reading them out loud.
Avoid letter-by-letter memorisation
When we attempt letter-by-letter memorisation, we completely strip a word of its patterns and its meaning. The very aspects of the word that would make it memorable and logical are taken away, and children are left instead with a string of letters which are as hard to learn as those randomly generated passwords we are often given – and quickly change to something meaningful so we can remember it!
Instead, we need to show children the stories within words, the linguistic threads that make the system of English much more visible – even with shorter sight words.
Notice the different meanings the same word can have
Sight words have multiple meanings, depending upon the words around them. Help your child notice this because understanding the different meanings of sight words will make them strong readers as they move through school.
For example, ‘in’ is in the top 10 most frequent words in English, and it seems a very easy word to learn. It is short, and it is easy to sound out. But it is quite tricky to understand what it means because it can mean many things.
It can be a position – ‘in the box’ – but it isn’t that obvious when you are ‘in trouble’.
It works in the company of other words to make different meanings – ‘in spite of’, to be part of the ‘in crowd’, to cut the cake ‘in half’ or to speak ‘in a whisper’.
Learn the stories behind sight words
The word etymology comes from Greek, and it means the ‘study of the reason’. Etymology is the answer to why a word is spelled like it is – and can help students to learn words, including sight words.
For example: where, what, why, when and which are some common sight words. But why do they all start with the ‘wh’ letter pattern? In fact, about a thousand years ago these words all began with ‘hw’ – ‘hwer’, ‘hwat’, ‘hwy’, ‘hwen’ and ‘hwelch’. This spelling was a reflection of their pronunciation, with a guttural ‘h’ sound before the ‘w’.
By the year 1200, the ruling class of England had dropped the ‘h’ sound in their pronunciation of these words, so they embarked on a spelling reform to reflect this change in pronunciation., They dropped the ‘h’ altogether and the words were spelled ‘wenne’, ‘wat’ and ‘wy’. But eventually it was decided that dropping the ‘h’ so suddenly may have been a little confusing, so it was popped back in after the ‘w’ as a visual reminder of the original words. If you listen closely to a Scots person from the highlands you can still hear that original ‘hw’ pronunciation!
As with any form of learning, a student is far more likely to succeed if they’re having fun. So, let’s stop writing words out of context over and over, and start to integrate the interesting stories, histories, and meaning behind our most commonly-used words.
What to read next
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- My Kid Hates to Read! 10 Tips to Help Children Love Books
Misty Adoniou is an Associate Professor in Language and Literacy and is the author of Spelling It Out, a book that encourages children and adults to nurture a curiosity about words, discover their history and, in so doing, understand the logic behind the way they are spelled.
