Dolch words spelling
difficulties can be overcome
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Dolch words
cause problems for all children, but for dyslexic students these so-called sight words are more like
blind spots. Three particular problems come to mind:
Dolch words often contain irregular spellings.
The irregular spelling of many sight words means that the rules of phonics are no good as memory prompts.
The high frequency of many of the Dolch words means spelling mistakes are multiplied.
Confidence and self-esteem are lowered as children keep mis-spelling common sight words that keep coming up and that everyone else seems to get right.
Dolch words are spelt correctly in the spelling test and forgotten in use.
This is particularly true for dyslexic children with multi-tasking difficulties. Like a computer that can only run one program at a time: the sight words program crashes as soon as the sentence-writing program starts to run.
Three points present themselves immediately:
Dolch words must be taught in a multisensory way if children are going to succeed in reading and spelling them.
They must be taught in a way that builds confidence and
self-esteem, and finally
Dolch words must be taught in sentences, not just as individual spellings.
Sight word Spelling, from Crossbow Education, succeeds on all three counts. As well as each word being illustrated, the word shapes are given on the reverse of the cards, to provide a visual "map" for each sight word. The cards are laminated, and the children write on them using a dry-wipe marker
pen, providing a full multisensory learning experience. One side of the cards has the sight word and the illustration; the other side has the same illustration and the letter shapes. Children read the word aloud, turn it over and try writing in the boxes, using the boxes to help with encoding and rubbing out any mistakes until the correct final version is left. This is the
confidence booster: the final version is always correct! Finally, the cards are used in a sentence building game, immediately putting the sight words into a
sentence context.
A teacher I met at a conference had a pupil who wasn't able to spell a single word on the Dolch sight word list. After one year using Sight word spelling the same child was spelling 74 Dolch words.
Click on the link to order your copy of sight word spelling.