Sight Words

Teaching Sight Words From a Language Experience Story


From: Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check – Found in many K-12 resources. (Phenix, 2001; Snowball, & Bolton, 1999)

  • Ask your student to choose words from his language experience story
  • Print the words separately on index cards
  • Then ask your student to:

1) Look: really look at word.
  • Is it the same as other words you know?
  • Underline or circle parts.
  • What is hard about the word?
2) Say, Spell
  • Say each part.
  • Say the beginning and end sounds.
  • Spell the word.
3) Cover
  • Close eyes.
  • See the word in your head. Like a television screen.
  • Write with finger on TV screen.
4) Write

5) Check
  • Is it correct?
  • If not, start over. Try again.

It is important to refer back to the process frequently. Once the student learns to read the word and spell it, it goes into his word bank, and a new word can be introduced.

From: Helping Adult ESL Students through K-12 Spelling Strategy Instruction
WAESOL Conference Presentation, 2005, Caro Gerber, www.waesol.org/2005-handouts/Gerber.doc