What is a sight vocabulary?
A sight vocabulary is a list of words put together by someone who sees them as relevant at the time.  For instance the Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary was created by Edward Dolch around 1960.  The Dolch 220 has been used and misused by teachers for the last 40 years.  About 50 to 75 percent of all words appearing in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines are in the Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary of 220 words. 

Another list is the Salisbury Core Writing Vocabulary which was created from research into children's writing vocabularies done at Salisbury Teacher's College in the 1970's.  This list is sectioned into the first 50 words which account for 49% of all words written by Adelaide students in years 3 to 7; the second 50 accounts for 10% of all words written; and the next 200 words make up 4% of all words written.  Although it is a writing vocabulary, it does reflect the high frequency words in books and is commonly used as a reading sight vocabulary.

These lists have been variously used by educators to both test and teach children to read and write.  Lists can be used to check how many words a child knows or as a measure of their progress or level of achievement. 

Remember that teaching sight words is only a supplementary activity used to bolster children's' reservoir of available words. They are not spelling lists.  The extensive use of sight word lists is somewhat obsolete for today's modern teaching practices where beginning readers use a meaning based, whole language approach to learning to read and write. 

Make your own list
If I need a sight word list, I like to create a personal list for each child, using the above lists as a guide for high frequency words.  First I make a list of the words the student knows or is using already by observing both reading and writing.  This tells me where to start.  I add to this a small selection of the high frequency words which will soon be needed to make sentences for reading and writing.  I then explore the child's interests, pets, family, friends, sports team, etc. and include those words too because they are high-interest, familiar, and easy for the child to recall, and it encourages the student to use them in his/her writing.  See Vocabulary Chart for more ideas on personalised lists.

Teaching a sight vocabulary
Teaching a sight vocabulary is commonly used in schools as a group or individual activity where students can work or play together to extend their learning.  At home set a small number of words, between 5 to 10, to be learned at any one time, over a period of a week.  The words selected at first should should include about half that are known and which frequently appear in the books being read by the children. 

The best approach is to introduce these words by first reading them, spreading them out and having a game of concentration with one or two children.  During this activity you are continually naming and handling the words and the children can be very successful very quickly.  At all times you must encourage them to recognise and say these words quickly.  They must not be allowed to examine them closely because most of these words are non-phonic and cannot easily be decoded.   Just 'look and say the word' is an appropriate strategy here.

Sight Vocabulary Activities

Concentration game
This is the best game for teaching a supplementary sight vocabulary.  Children love playing this with an adult because they usually win(!).  The winning strategy is to remember where the cards are placed, and for young children this becomes the main issue, distracting from the challenge of remembering the words.

• The game of concentration is played between two (or more) players using between 5 to 10 pairs of words. 
• Shuffle the words and place them face down with space between them. 
  The first player turns over one card, reads it, and then seeks to find the other one of the pair.
• Each card must be turned over and left in its own space so that both players have the opportunity to remember where it is placed.
• If successfully matched the pair of cards are picked up. 
• But before the player can pick up the matching pair the word must be said correctly. 
• If the player is not able to read the word they are told what it is, and the cards are placed face down once more and the next player has his turn. 
• Continue until all the cards are picked up and then count the cards to see who has the most pairs.  This is the winner.

Stepping Stones

Place up to 10 words (some known) on cards face up on the floor spaced well apart so that the player has to step on them to reach an objective.  Players take turns to step on the cards saying each one until they reach the objective.  The objective could be a special toy or some other food reward.

Board Games

Board games can be made up using dice and stacks of sight words as 'challenges' which have to be said before proceeding to the next shot.  On rolling the dice the player moves on that number of steps and then turns over a card and says the word.  If he is successful he proceeds towards the winning post the extra number of steps recorded on the card.  If not, he progresses only the number of steps shown on the dice.

Bingo

Bingo games can be made up using sight words.  Make games at each level to ensure that the vocabulary remains attainable and consistent for each group.

Flash cards

This technique is an old one but a goodie because it encourages a speedy response rather than a close examination of the words.  Make cards large enough to be seen from a distance.  Begin by going through and familiarising the children with all the words.  Then hold the stack ready and flash one card so that they only get a quick glimpse of it.  Go through the stack as quickly as they can say them.  Separate the cards known from the unknown ones and set them aside to be learned.

Have some fun with this and learn something about your children's perception.  Try flashing the cards upside down and see what happens.