Dolch Sight Words are a list of words that when learned form the base of reading ability, the method was originally discovered by Dr Edward Dolch, in the nineteen forties, and was featured in his book, called Problems in Reading. Dr Dolch created various lists of words, then by studying the frequency with which they were used in common children's books of the time. He then assigned priority to the most used, in this style he identified a collection of 220 essential words which children need to be familiar with to achieve reading fluency. Dolch then went on to identify a further list of ninety five essential nouns.
Sight words are a key tool for modern teachers. The word lists which have since been developed by other people, can be employed when teaching children to read, and also for teaching English as a Second Language to those born with a foreign tongue. A common and effective method of teaching sight words would involve the use of learning aids such as flash cards, or perhaps classroom bingo. These learning aids have a further function over simply providing a visual reference for the children to refer to, these days they are currently made to be used in some sort of game, the added involvement has been proven to assist in the learning process by making the children receptive to what you are trying to teach them.
Sight word bingo is exactly like standard games of bingo, each student is given a bingo card and the teacher plays the part of the bingo caller. There is however one significant differentiation, the bingo cards are composed of sight words rather than numbers, When the teacher calls out the words the children must mark the words off on their cards, by identifying the words, the students improve their familiarity and of course have fun at the same time.
As well as being a lot of fun the learning potential is immense, with many children learning at an above normal rate. Because the game is so much fun, the children seem to absorb the lessons really well, after all, it is always more beneficial to teach in a manner that really gets the children involved rather than by just trying to drill information into them. Of course in order to play the game the class will need bingo cards, these can be home made, but they are available for a very low cost from supplyschool.com in a wide selection of themes. Its not only sight words that can be taught using Bingo, Bingo is a very diverse game and can be used to teach virtually any subject, especially useful for younger children it can even be used to teach shapes and colors.