My 6yo DS seems to catch on to sight words much quicker than words he can sound out. I showed him the word "the" once and told him that we don't sound it how and that he just needed to learn it, and that was that, he has know it from the first time. When it comes to reading, he sounds out every single word even if he knows it. So, I know there is a question in here somewhere, I just don't know what it is.:lol: I guess it would be, since he catches on to sight words so easily should I stop with the phonics? And if I don't do phonics, what do I do?
Phonics is important to recognize unknown words, so I wouldn't give up on them altogether. But you might want to emphasize that he DOESN'T need to sound out each word. Try reading a book to him, sounding out each word. How well does he enjoy the story, compared to you reading it fluently? Part of learning to read is doing it fluently, and only sounding out for words we're uncertain of.
Do both! Use phonics to sound out new words. After you've sounded it out a few times, memorize it by sight.
Phonics, phonics, phonics!!!! Sight words work great for red, the, and ball, but what about when he gets to words like Streptococcus or parsimonious or pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. (yes it's a real word LOL) http://donpotter.net/education_pages/ has some great stuff for parents to read about why teaching phonics plus lots of free resources. There are lots or free phonics programs out there so you don't have to spend money to figure out where your son needs to start http://www.homeschoolfreeb.com/2012/08/phonics-for-free.html We're using http://www.phonics4free.org/ and my boys LOVE learning phonics form Mrs McNee! I like the videos so much I bought her book for like $6 (including shipping) on Amazon. Being able to read and being fluent and comprehending what you read are all very different things. Fluency will come as his confidence builds.
My youngest son was given a large "Dick and Jane" book from my mother. He LOVED that book and learned all of the words. That boost in his confidence then allowed us to go back through phonics with a better success rate because he could recognize words. He KNEW he could read, so didn't struggle with the phonics lessons as much. All three of my sons learned how to read differently. If your son catches sight words, let him do that for a bit and do phonics later. Others are phonics-only kids. I will say that all three of my boys can read well, which was our goal. MT3
LEARNING TO READ MUST BE A COMBINATION OF METHODS!!! It's OK to say you use "primarily" sight words or phonics or whatever, but neither of these (or any other) can stand alone. There are too many exceptions to the rules. Context is just as important. If you were to ask what READ said, you would probably give it a "long e" sound. But what about, "I read a good book yesterday." OOPS! In that context, the "long e" is incorrect. Your phonics clues are incorrect, and you'd be incorrect if you learned it as a sight word with "long e". READING IS ACTUALLY COMPREHENSION, not the identification of words. Having taught special ed, I've seen plenty of kids that can "read" flawlessly, but have no idea what they just read.
True, Jackie. When I said some kids are phonics-only I meant that they comprehend the rules better than just the sight words. My nephew is analytical with everything, so phonics made sense to him better than for my niece- who just wanted to learn how to read the word, not why. For her, the phonics rules came later to explain exceptions, etc, not as the reading basis. I learned sight words by memorization- all, ball, call, fall, hall.... Phonics was "new" to us and came in middle elementary grades. MT3
When Phillip was little, we would write "Phillip's ..AT Book". He would glue pictures of a bat, hat, cat, rat, mat..... Then he would write the word next to the picture and "read" it to Dad when he got home. So I'm big on "Word Families". And I'm NOT "against" phonics; I consider it absolutely essential to learning to read. I'm just a big advocate of "whole language" (which is different from "whole word" or sight-words only).
I was really glad to see this post because my 6yr old DD is the same way. She knows lots of words by sight, but when she has to sound something out, even something as simple as 'sit' she seems to have a lot of trouble. I am going to try some of these website, as she loves computer games. My DS read easily without me really even teaching him, before he was in kindergarten, so I'm kind of stumped on how to best teach her, because I haven't done it before. I would appreciate any other advice on how to get this girl reading!
