There are many excellent resources on the Internet for helping children learn to read. Among these are a number of high quality sites devoted to interactive sight word practice and instruction. While many offer parents and teachers downloadable materials to print and use with their children, there are also a number of outstanding interactive tools for aiding young people’s sight word development. These websites are superb tools for reinforcing the skills being developed through sight word instruction.
Here’s an overview of the types of interactive sight word websites available as well as recommendations for high quality online learning tools to use with your children:
Print Recognition
One of the keys to helping children learn Dolch’s sight words is repeated exposure to the words in their print forms. While printed flashcards are the most frequently used tool for instructing children in new sight words, the Internet offers some interactive activities to help boost their recognition of sight words in print.
- http://www.msrossbec.com/sightwords.shtml: This website has interactive lists of Dolch’s sight words organized by grade level. As each word appears on the screen, adults and children can practice saying the word together. The lists can be repeated as many times as needed to help children make the connection between the print and spoken word.
- http://www.quia.com/cc/91216.html: This site offers a fun , interactive game of concentration using Dolch’s first grade list of sight words.
Auditory Resources
Because most of Dolch’s sight words are already in children’s verbal vocabularies , learning to read them is simply a matter of connecting the print word to the oral version in their prior knowledge banks. To help with this there are a number of excellent interactive sight word learning websites with audio components. These sites give the user the option of hearing a word read aloud through the click of the mouse. Some even include fun age-appropriate games to reinforce the connection between auditory and print words.
- http://www.quiz-tree.com/Sight-Words_main.html#intro: This site is an excellent learning tool for children who just beginning of the process of learning sight words. Organized by grade level, each Dolch list on this site allows the user to hear the word read aloud by clicking on it.
- http://www.netrover.com/~crose/dolch/dolch.htm. This page has two great games to reinforce sight word recognition. The first game, “Listen Match” allows children to hear each sight word read aloud and then connect it to its corresponding print word. The second ,“Jigsaw”, gives children the chance to solve a jigsaw puzzle by clicking and dragging each print word piece to its partner auditory version.
- http://www.sightwordswithsamson.com/sw/sight_words.asp: Another kid-friendly interactive site is “Sight Words with Samson”. An animated dog takes children through a series of activities aimed at helping them learn sight words. Each is full of great visual and auditory support for learning.
Pages: 1 2
About Joelle Brummitt-Yale
