Q: There is so much confusion surrounding sight words. Do you have any tips?

| Tips for the effective teaching of sight words. Tip #1: There is a need for better terminology and understanding Firstly ‘sight words’ means so many things to different people. The term ‘sight words’ often provides a false impression that these commonly used words are to be learned by sight (or visual memorisation). Research does not support teaching these words as ‘visual whole units’ without attention to the phoneme-grapheme (sound to letter) correspondences. It is far more useful to view sight words are high frequency words that need to be explicitly taught so they are learned by sight. Automatic recognition of the words by 'sight’ is the end product that is achieved through systematic and explicit teaching. Tip # 2: Before introducing sight words, teach pre-literacy skills first Too often sight words are taught too early, while students still have a shaky grasp of the prerequisite skills. The International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction (2015) reminds us: Children should never be asked to memorise lists of ‘sight words’ before they have received instruction in phonological and phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondences and blending and segmenting, and have at least started to apply decoding skills to convert written symbols to spoken sounds. Recommended read: [http://www.iferi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/IFERI-INFORM-No.3-June-2015-How-Children-Learn-to-Read2.pdf](http://www.iferi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/IFERI-INFORM-No.3-

Question 1

There is so much confusion surrounding sight words. Do you have any tips?

Accepted Answer

| Tips for the effective teaching of sight words.

Tip #1: There is a need for better terminology and understanding Firstly ‘sight words’ means so many things to different people. The term ‘sight words’ often provides a false impression that these commonly used words are to be learned by sight (or visual memorisation). Research does not support teaching these words as ‘visual whole units’ without attention to the phoneme-grapheme (sound to letter) correspondences. It is far more useful to view sight words are high frequency words that need to be explicitly taught so they are learned by sight. Automatic recognition of the words by 'sight’ is the end product that is achieved through systematic and explicit teaching.

Tip # 2: Before introducing sight words, teach pre-literacy skills first Too often sight words are taught too early, while students still have a shaky grasp of the prerequisite skills. The International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction (2015) reminds us: Children should never be asked to memorise lists of ‘sight words’ before they have received instruction in phonological and phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondences and blending and segmenting, and have at least started to apply decoding skills to convert written symbols to spoken sounds. Recommended read: [http://www.iferi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/IFERI-INFORM-No.3-June-2015-How-Children-Learn-to-Read2.pdf](http://www.iferi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/IFERI-INFORM-No.3-

Question 2

PLD Screening tools? Which tests do I use?

Accepted Answer

Did you know, that all of the PLD assessments in their most current form are available on the website to download? The assessments can be accessed in the DOWNLOADS section of each age range. For ease, direct links have been provided below:

**Early Years: **

‘The Early Years Pre-Literacy Screening’ can be downloaded here.

Foundation:

****‘The Foundation Pre-Literacy Screening’ can be downloaded here.

The Early Reading Profile for Foundation can be downloaded here.

Spelling Tracking in Foundation can be found here.

If students are slow to progress through stage 1 or who are having difficulties, these in depth investigations are recommended: download here.

Year 1 and 2:

The Early Reading Profile for Years 1 and 2 can be downloaded here.

The Phonic Sight Word Sequence placement test can be downloaded here.

If students are slow to progress through stage 1 or who are having difficulties, these

Question 3

Can I request the 2019 PLD excel tracking sheets, to enhance the school’s implementation of PLD by tracking student performance each term?

Accepted Answer

Time efficient tracking student development is central to the PLD process. The PLD tracking delivered each term, should assist teachers to determine the range in ability evident within the classroom. PLD advocates tracking from the Early Years until Year 6. To assist this process, PLD supplies excel (and Google) sheets which have been prepared.

Tab 1 and 2 provide two options for tracking skill development in the Early Years.
Tab 3, 4 and 5 provide options for tracking skill development within the Foundation school year.
Tab 6 and 7 provide two options for Year 1 classes. Tab 7 is particularly relevant for Year 1 classes which have a significant proportion of students who are unable to read, spell and write.
Following this are a range of Year 2-6 tracking sheets.
Towards the end is a sheet that can be adapted to the remote sector (which typically have the added challenge of students who are unable to read, spell and write in regular classrooms).
The final two spread sheets relate to individual profiling of skills; ideal for Education Support pre-literacy and early literacy profiling.

The tracking sheets are designed to be adapted, so that the layout matches the [‘whole school literacy plan’.](https://pld-literacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/PLDWSLSBookletFINAL-LOWRES.pdf?utmsource=pld&utmmedium=website&utm_camp

Question 4

How do I register for an online course using a coupon code?

Accepted Answer

Go to https://courses.pld-literacy.org and select the course for which you would like to register.
Click "Buy" (ignore the price as you'll be using a promo code to reduce the price).
Enter your details to create an account.
On the next screen, underneath the total price you will see "Have a coupon?". Click this and enter the coupon code provided.
The price will update with the discount as per the provided coupon code and you can complete your registration and login to access the course using the account you just setup.

Detailed instructions with screenshots can be found here

${youtube}Registering for an online course using a coupon code.

Question 5

How well should students be reading at the end of the Foundation school year?

Accepted Answer

Below you will find a general skill acquisition sequence. Do note that the reading assessment (now openly available to download on the PLD website) is what schools should be utilizing to plan the class reading program and the decodable reading books required. Not all students acquire reading skills at the same pace. Those who have had a history of ear infections, speech and/or language delays or family members who have experienced difficulties with literacy, will often require repeated practice and more time to master the levels.

Be aware that junior primary students require repeated opportunities to practice and consolidate their skills. Only progress to higher levels of reading ability when there is a high level of accuracy and automaticity is being observed.

Make sure your scope and sequence for the year is realistic but also that it is being utilised in conjunction with the screening. It is not recommended to push students through a scope and sequence, without providing opportunities for repeated practice and consolidation, only to find that skills are lost over the Christmas holiday period.

READING:

Term 1 pre-reading skills: Alphabet sound knowledge and blending of three phonemes. Once students are demonstrating an adequate level of alphabet knowledge and have acquired the ability to blend three phonemes, they are ready to start decoding. To track readiness for decoding page 1 of the following screening tool is appropriate: [https://pld-literacy.org/produ

Question 6

Do you have any tips for using the PLD excel spreadsheets for tracking student skill acquisition?

Accepted Answer

**General Guidelines **(for recording results) using the ‘The Phonic & sight word sequence Placement Test’

**Step 1: **Locate the correct screen. The beginning of the year screen is located on page 10 and the end of term reviews are located on pages 23 and 24 in the 2018 Phonic & sight word sequence or is available to download here.

**Step 2: **It is essential that the screening commences from stage 1. Although it might seem attractive to shortcut the placement process, by limiting the number of stages presented, this is NOT recommended. Refer to the examples provided on pages 13-15 in the 2018 Phonic & sight word sequence. Please note that the testing templates on pages 11 and 12 all commence from stage 1.

**Step 3a: **When marking the spelling test, remember to convert student scores into percentages. Below is a quick reference table to make this a time efficient process:

**Step 4: **Enter the percentages into excel. Remember when marking to judge what level you are going to base your next term's teaching on. Typically thi

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