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Video
Teaching the Dolch Sight Word List...the Easy Way!
Last updated 2024/05/24
Description
What if you only had to teach 20 sight words from the Dolch list? Guess what? You can–because the other 200 words are completely decodable.
Curriculum Connection
B2. Language Foundations for Reading and Writing
This video supports the teaching and learning of words with irregularities. Many high frequency words are taught as whole units, while most are fully or partially decodable.
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When Dolch words or “heart words” as referred to in some of the phonics programs are given a phonetic structure, then it becomes much more achievable for students because they learn to rely on their orthographic mapping, instead of just ‘memory’. In addition, when this is practiced at home too, parents can help their child make those connections.
Yes! I’ve been trying to emphasize this for years. So few words are irregular and the ones that are can be understood and broken apart through morphology and looking at the etymology of the word. Thank you! 🥳
Yes! I’ve been trying to emphasize this for years. So few words are irregular and the ones that are can be understood and broken apart through morphology and looking at the etymology of the word. Thank you!
Very helpful to visualize the way common words DO fit into phonics rules, and become decodable when we teach explicitly, following a scope & sequence.
This is a great representation of the differences between truly irregular words and ‘temporary’ irregular words. It demonstrates how learning the code unpacks so many words for students to add into their orthographic memory. 🙂
This clearly shows how most heart words are temporary, thank you for such a clear explanation.
One of those if only I had recognized this, or better yet been taught this, at the beginning of my career!
I remember teaching the Dolch list years ago and either saying “actually, you can sound this one out”, or “this one you need to memorize”.
Great resource that you found here to illustrate the Dolch word list and the decodability of the words. I wonder if they are still the same ‘most used’ words shred/read/tested in Ontario schools today?
This video clearly illustrates how few words on the Dolch list are truly irregular.
The visual of the different regular words being removed as students learn the rule is wonderful. Not many words are truly decodable.