Topics in Early Reading Coherence: Reading by Sight

Author: Sebastian Wren

Price: Online only
• Published: 1999

Available online: text, PDF

What is a "sight word"? Some say it is a word that a child has memorized as a whole (without learning to decode the word), some say it is any word that can not be "sounded out." Others argue that a sight word is a word that a child no longer struggles to sound out. Taking the first definition as the most widely accepted definition, the question then arises, should we focus on "sight words" when teaching children to read? Is it beneficial for children to memorize words as wholes when the goal of reading is to learn to break words down into parts?

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