Sight Word Help that Makes Sense

It is no secret that teaching sight words is one of my favorite things. It is also no secret that my own students are required to know a LOT of sight words in Kindergarten. One question many teacher keep asking me is about RTI with Sight Words. Oh Boy! I have some Sight Word RTI Help for you!

Sight Word RTI Set Up

Here is a look at the desk I have outside of my classroom. I use this for parent volunteers as well as an extra work place for me to work with students whenever possible. It is not a place for punishment but rather a quiet place for one on one help.

I am very blessed to have several parent volunteers this year. If you are not so lucky, just use this set up in an alternative location in your classroom where students are still in your sight line.

What is Available at Hand?

-binder (I will show this in detail soon)
-Clipboard with students names
-dry erase markers and erasers
-magnetic letters
-foam dice

What is in the Binder?

Each week, there is a mandatory curriculum map to teach a set number of sight words to our students. I use an invention of my own called Sight Word Stations each and every week to dig deep into learning sight words in a FUN way. (I will provide links to that information as well.)

When I am done with that week, I had been placing those files in my filing cabinet. What a waste! All those great HANDS ON materials sitting in a filing cabinet until next year? Sometimes I want to knock some sense into myself.

Instead, I took an old binder from a shelf in my room. I had numbered tabs in it as well. (I used it for student data in years prior.)

Next, I added page protectors. For each week, I place the SAME sight word activities we do in class under that numbered section. Week one is empty because we do not teach any sight words on week one. If you flip to week two, it has week two sight word activities. Week three has week three sight word activities. And so on.

Finally, let me make this clear. I am doing NO extra work to put these files in the binder verses in a filing cabinet. All I am doing is providing a hands on way for my students to still use these files even after I moved on towards new sight words. In fact using the binder is a huge storage solution for me.

Each Section Contains:

-memory

-sight word puzzles

-roll and graph

-make with magnetic letters

-write with dry erase markers

-sentence scrambles

-any additional sight word activities

How to use this binder for RTI and more!

First, let me say that all students learn sight words at their own speed. When I use the term RTI or Responses to Interventions, I am in no way saying that you can’t use this for all your students. In fact, I use this for EVERY student in my class, even for those who are ahead of the class with sight words.

Here is how I use this. I divided my roster up into 4 days, as I have parents who come 4 days a week. (I know I am blessed.) On Monday, that parent volunteer has a set list of 6 students to work with. I have brief directions for them to follow.

Parent Help if You Have it

First, a parent comes in grabs one student at a time. Then, they on the clipboard for that student’s name. Next, they can see where to start working with that child. I ask them to open the binder to that section to ask that child those specific words quickly. If the students KNOWS all those words, check them off and move to the next section. If they do not, work on that section. Please note, they are not assessing the student as I do not use this for assessment purposes. They are checking to see what set of sight words that child needs to work on.

Now that the volunteer knows what words to work with for that child, the student selects the game they want to play. Remember they have TONS of choices! I ask the parent volunteer to play one or two games with them on that section, trying to work with that student for about 5 minutes. They can move onto the next section if they want to as well. The goal is to work with those sight words for a short amount of time.

Lastly, parent volunteers try to get down their list before they leave. If they don’t get to each student, I try to pull that student to give them the same chance at some point in the day. If a parent can not come on a certain day, I again try to make a point to do the same. My goal is for each student to get to work on the words THEY need at least once a week.

Grab Your Freebie Files for Sight Word Games

CLICK HERE to grab my binder cover, graph for students names, and even parent directions. These files are ALL in Powerpoint. You can download them and edit them to fit your own needs.

Check out this video below to see my binder.

How about Acceleration?

First, I have many students who are on track or ahead of the required sight words. How do I help them? I have my sight word stations in the binder AHEAD of my teaching so that student can actually start working on the words they need instead of waiting on the curriculum map!

This means I will have sections for all 36 weeks of sight words. THEN I have extra sections in the back to cover Fry sight words. Once my kinders master the 220 Dolch Sight Words, they get moved onto Fry Sight Word Lists.

Tell me about those Sight Word activities?

The biggest question I get is “How can I get those sight word activities?” Time is always the enemy of teachers! So I have a huge time saving tip. You can create your own activities using this EDITABLE set of sight word stations in MINUTES.

Check out this video to show you how: