This document discusses the importance of teaching sight words to kindergarten students and suggests that using multisensory methods like music and movement is an effective approach. It notes that spelling and recognizing sight words allows students to read fluently. Several studies cited found that incorporating singing, dancing, and other tactile activities helped children better learn and recall new words. The document concludes by recommending teachers implement engaging lessons that actively involve students through their different senses.
This document discusses the importance of teaching sight words to kindergarten students and suggests that using multisensory methods like music and movement is an effective approach. It notes that spelling and recognizing sight words allows students to read fluently. Several studies cited found that incorporating singing, dancing, and other tactile activities helped children better learn and recall new words. The document concludes by recommending teachers implement engaging lessons that actively involve students through their different senses.
This document discusses the importance of teaching sight words to kindergarten students and suggests that using multisensory methods like music and movement is an effective approach. It notes that spelling and recognizing sight words allows students to read fluently. Several studies cited found that incorporating singing, dancing, and other tactile activities helped children better learn and recall new words. The document concludes by recommending teachers implement engaging lessons that actively involve students through their different senses.
This document discusses the importance of teaching sight words to kindergarten students and suggests that using multisensory methods like music and movement is an effective approach. It notes that spelling and recognizing sight words allows students to read fluently. Several studies cited found that incorporating singing, dancing, and other tactile activities helped children better learn and recall new words. The document concludes by recommending teachers implement engaging lessons that actively involve students through their different senses.
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In Kindergarten, children begin the process of reading.
One of the important
benchmarks of any Kindergarten curriculum is ability to recognize and spell sight words.
Spelling these sight words seems to be a bigger challenge for most students. However,
William E. Phillips and Jay Fengs research document states, Spelling and reading
build and rely on the same mental representation of a word. Knowing the spelling of a
word makes the representation of it sturdy and accessible for fluent reading (2012, p.
1). As part of my schools Kindergarten curriculum, my students are required to spell
and recognize Dolchs Pre-Primer and Primer sets of sight words. Being able to spell
and recognize these words result in a child being able to read a leveled passage
fluently. According to Dolch (1948), as stated in Kathy J. Hoyts research paper, sight
words make up 50% to 75% of all texts (2014, p. 4). With this large of a percentile of
sight words present in texts and the importance of these words, it is my belief, along
with the authors above and below, that teachers should provide their students with
lessons that are engaging and require students to actively participate throughout the
lesson.
According to Heidi Butkus, author and creator of the Heidi Songs program,
research shows us that in order to get the best learning outcomes possible, children
need to simultaneously use as many of their senses as they can when they practice
(2015, p. 1). Using multisensory aids in the classroom will provide ones students with
the best learning outcomes, no matter the learning-style works best for a particular
student. Gardners Multiple Intelligence Theory suggests that all students learn best
through a specific outlet (auditory, spatial, kinesthetic, visual, logical, etc.). Regardless
of what learning outlet works best for a group of students, Butkus states, when teaching a new word, children should ideally see it, say it, hear it, and do it- all at the same time
(2015, p.1).
One significant multisensory approach to teach sight word recognition and
spelling is through music and movement. John A. Smith, the author of The Reading
Teacher article, Singing and Songwriting Support Early Literacy Instruction, proclaims
that music activities can enhance students academic performance, social skills, and
content learning (2000, p. 646). When students sing songs, the lyrics remain in the
childs memory forever, therefore, allowing the students to recall the lyrics at a later
time. Kathy J. Hoyts research on the use of music and movement in the classroom to
teach sight word recognition is a significant article in the development of the present
paper. Hoyt (2014) states, When early educators infuse music into their literacy
instruction, they promote active learning which helps students develop their memory,
recall, phonemic awareness, and most importantly their engagement in their learning
(p. 8). The use of memorable tunes and movements helps teachers provide their
students with a way to learn new words in a familiar jingle form.
Richard D. Waltons research on using music and movement to teach pre-
reading skills and word reading in Kindergarten provided the present paper with
considerate material on the importance of using memorable tunes and movements to
teach new word recognition. Walton states, having children sing songs while viewing
printed words may strengthen the phonological and text connections in long-term
memory, and so act as a memory aid when children were asked later to read the words
(2014, p. 55). When students hear, say, see, and do a new word all at the same time,
the retention rate of that word can be anywhere between 70% to a 100% (Butkus, 2015, p. 1). According to Butkus, the use of music and movement methods to teach sights
word spelling and recognition can help enhance learning comprehension and
memorization for all levels of students (Butkus, 2015, p.2). Similarly, William E. Phillips
and Jay Fengs research document states that the actual application of multisensory
methods that involve auditory, visual, and kinesthetic interactions all have shown
improvements in reading skills, word recognition, and have shown increases in student
achievement (p. 13).
References
Butkus, H. (2015). Research & Classroom Statistics. Retrieved October 2, 2016 from
http://www.heidisongs.com/pages/research
Hoyt, K. J. (2014). Music and Movement: Effect on Kindergarten Sight Word
Recognition for Struggling Readers. Retrieved October 3, 2016, from
