Every parent in my school community knows about sight words. They may be called star words, snap words, or something else, but we know what they are. Early childhood classrooms feature from 25 to more than 100 words students must know on sight by the end of the school year. That\'s not a problem-the fluent reading of words. The problem can be in how those words are taught.Does your child say the when the word is and? How about and for the word said? In my first grade classroom, at the beginning of the year, this happens quite frequently. I call it the \"Guess and Go\" syndrome. I believe this kind of reading error is a result of children being taught sight words. They are taught to recall how words look. They are not taught to make the sounds they see, from left to right, across the word. If they had been taught to make the sounds they see, children would not say see when they come to the word look.Teachers often post the students\' sight words on the walls of their classrooms. They review each word frequently. The children are asked to practice using the words in various ways. Eventually, the word sticks in the memories of the students. If it doesn\'t stick quickly enough, parents are asked to make flashcards for the words to review them with their children.Here\'s the problem: When taught to rely on their memory of how words look, children are prone to make errors in their reading.
So what do I recommend?I believe that we must return to the Sound by Sound approach (left to right) and reserve the Sight Word approach (memorizing words) for the words that do not follow phonics guidelines. Even the words I call \"true sight words\" have the expected initial sounds.

Reading to your kids is so very important. Even with high stakes tests hanging over my shoulders, as a classroom teacher I invest the time to read aloud to my students every single day because I believe that it is the best way to promote a love for books*. But reading aloud offers so much more!It’s a perfect time to:

• discuss unfamiliar words ~vocabulary
• share/compare what you’re imagining in your minds ~comprehension
• demonstrate reading with a pace that matches what the author’s saying (sometimes we speed up, sometimes we slow down) ~fluency/prosody
• demonstrate interpretations of the voices of characters (anger, southern twang, squeaky, etc.) ~fluency/prosody
• compare the events of this story to other stories you know or to your own lives ~comprehension
• introduce a variety of genres to expand your children’s experiences with books and how they work ~comprehension
• promote the character traits you’d like to see in yourself and others ~comprehension

In the classroom, I continually say things like, “Whoa. You are acting determined just like little Willy in Stone Fox, “ or “You can write in your journal the way Sam Beaver wrote in his in The Trumpet of the Swan.”Remember, your kids are capable of comprehending books far beyond their reading levels. When you’re reading to them, they are able to do the deep work of comprehension without having to slow down to decode unfamiliar words.One more thing . . . Once I read a book to students, they are often excited to read it themselves. That’s WONDERFUL! They know what’s going happen, so they’re better equipped to tackle what might otherwise be challenging words for them. If it’s a quality book, reading it twice will be a great investmentSo, have I convinced you?

Today, in the Science of Reading community, lots of teachers are questioning how to most effectively equip children to become skilled writers. We’ve been learning a lot about the essentials when teaching kids to read, and now teachers are wondering about what scientific research says when it comes to early childhood writing instruction. Many schools had adopted “the writers’ workshop approach” a while back, but since the Lucy Calkins curriculum for reading has been eschewed (UH-SHOOED) and explicit systematic phonics instruction has (finally!) taken its rightful place in beginning readers’ classrooms, teachers are wondering about what to do with writing time. Should there be time set aside for explicit writing instruction? If so, what are “writing blocks” supposed to look like? Some folks, like Natalie Wexler (one of my heroes) say that teaching writing separate from knowledge-based content is not a worthy time spend. Others, like Tim Shanahan (also one of my heroes) feel that about 20% of literacy instruction time (25-45 minutes or so) should be set aside, daily, for explicit writing instruction. What’s a teacher to do when the experts can’t agree?

www.bookbums.com  This podcast introduces the philosophy behind tidy handwriting and how to help your students achieve handwriting skills.  Coming soon, Handwriting video workshop.

#5/Friday, Phonemic Awareness Podcast: Stretching Out Words to Hear Each Sound   Now, we are going to say words without stretching them out at all. We will simply clearly say a word. The children will then be challenged to slowly stretch the words out, enunciating each individual sound or phoneme.    Note: This practice will help kids to determine which sounds they hear in words. This is an important skill when learning to spell. https://bookbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/On-Your-Way-Friday-PA-podcast-bits.pdf  For more information visit www.bookbums.com/podcast

#4/Thursday, Phonemic Awareness Podcast: Sound Switching   BUILDING BLOCK #5- Elision of Sounds in Words   When children can manipulate sounds in words, they are better equipped to read and spell well. In the next couple of lessons, we’ll take off the first sound and determine what word remains, and then we’ll take off the final sound and determine what word remains. Again, children will practice holding sounds in their working memories. These exercises help to prepare your children to become strong readers. https://bookbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/On-Your-Way-Thursday-PA-podcast-bits.pdf For more information and podcasts www.bookbums.com/podcast

3/Wednesday, Phonemic Awareness Podcast - Listen Well & Catch My Mistake   Following, you’ll find some common songs, refrains, or items in categories. Your students will try to figure out what doesn’t belong. In my classes, when I tried to fit all these phonemic awareness lessons into one hour (Oh my . . .), I saved this one for the end when the kids were getting a bit worn out. It always got their waning attention right back on track. Today, you’ll be beginning with the fun! See if your children can listen closely and identify what doesn’t belong with the others. Also - and this is important - have them explain what’s wrong with the imposter word.  Why doesn’t “shoe” fit in with A-B-C-D-E-F-shoe-H-I-J-K . . .? We really want kids to be able to justify their responses. It’s a fun and effective way to stretch kids and to encourage deeper thinking. It will also prepare them to demonstrate their understanding (comprehension) of texts they read.   Do not feel you have to do all of these in one sitting. Sprinkle them throughout the day or over a couple of days. If you’re teaching at home, do this activity when your kids are in the bathtub or on the swing set, while they’re climbing a tree or riding in the car. Practice anywhere your children can focus for a short stretch of time.   Say or sing the following phrases with a somewhat slower pace than normal speech. Don’t be boring but be deliberate and clear. Enunciate your speech just a bit more than usual. https://bookbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/On-Your-Way-Wednesday-PA-podcast-bits.pdf  For more information and more podcasts www.bookbums.com/podcast

The English language is a code-based language. For us, that simply means that we have symbols, or letters, that represent sounds, or phonemes. For now, we’re just going to focus on and play with beginning and ending sounds in words (not, necessarily, including the vowel). As you work to heighten your children’s awareness of beginning and ending sounds through playful, foundation-building interactions, your soon-to-be-readers will become better equipped to connect those sounds with letters. That’s phonics. Today, we’re focusing on sounds without addressing letter names. In other words, we’re continuing our work on building phonemic awareness. For more information and podcast notes : www.bookbums.com/podcast

#1/Monday, Phonemic Awareness Podcast: Rhyming Words   One fun way to build your students’ phonemic awareness is to read books with strong rhyming patterns. Words that rhyme are words that have the same sounds from the final vowel (a, e, i, o, or u) on. Actually, those are considered perfect rhymes. If you listen to music in most any genre, you recognize that many lyricists also use imperfect rhymes, where the words are “close” to rhyming, but the sounds aren’t exactly the same.   In this lesson, we’re going to think about perfect rhymes.   There are lots of games for you to play throughout the upcoming days to promote your students’ sense of rhyme. I suggest that you read at least one rhyming book a day.   Also, Dr. Seuss and other authors use crazy, made-up words to make rhymes, and you can, too! We don’t want all the words to be nonsense words, but certainly some of them can be. It’s fun!   Make it your diligent aim to engage in one of these Building Block Activities, each day:  https://bookbums.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/On-Your-Way-Monday-PA-podcast-bits.pdf  For more information and podcasts www.bookbums.com/podcast