History of sight words

 Many of the first three hundred sight words are among the oldest in the English language. They were already several hundred years old before the year 1066 when the Norman French conquered England.

Twenty of our twenty-five most often used verbs were being spoken in England by the Anglo-Saxon people before 1066.

Understanding that these words are so old helps explain their odd spelling changes as they move through time-tenses, such as go / gone, instead of goed;   and take / took instead of taked. Look at the 25 most frequently used verbs:

be       have     do     say      get     make     go     know     take     see     come     think     

look    want     give     use     find     tell     ask      work     seem     feel     try      leave     call

From this set, we get words like: is, was, were, could, would, should, been, does, done, tries, and found which can be hard for children to learn. Also inherited from those ancient days: right, fight, fought, buy, bought, catch, caught, thought, and through, laugh, enough, and cough.

In 1880, Professor L. A. Sherman noticed that during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the I, daughter of Henry the Eighth, a sentence would typically contain fifty words. By Professor Sherman's lifetime sentences had shorten to twenty-three words. Sentences are even shorter these days.

By the early 1920's, Edward Thorndike suggested that educators needed a better understanding of exactly which words were critical to successful reading. Edward W. Dolch researched a list and called them the service words (1936).  

In 1963, Edward B. Fry contributed his researched list of the most frequently seen words in print. These three men pressed the idea that stumbling over recurring words put children at a big disadvantage. On the other hand, children able to recognize these words "on sight" possessed a huge advantage when reading a page of print.

As a retired teacher, I want parents to understand that there is simply not enough time at school for the practice needed for your child to get sight words under control. Many sight words have vague meanings and seem to look alike to children. And, they cannot be sounded out.

Learning the words in sentences and stories is the most effective teaching method. They provide the constant reuse of the words and meaning clues which help your child anchor the words. (I use stories to teach sight words in all my books.)

I now use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. My books are all new and use color pictures and stories to teach sight words as well as tricky phonics and a special comprehension method. No book has a grade-level marked on it and all include my contact info; email or call for help. 

Write with questions. Have a great day, Mary Maisner