A third-grade teacher is reviewing sight words on note cards; Words read immediately go into pile A; words read incorrectly go into pile B. Before the teacher puts a word into pile B, which practice will promote development of sight-word recognition?

A third-grade teacher is reviewing sight words on note cards; Words read immediately go into pile A; words read incorrectly go into pile B. Before the teacher puts a word into pile B, which practice will promote development of sight-word recognition?

• A. Encouraging the student to sound out the word
• B. Telling the word, which the student then repeats three times
• C. Naming the word and asking the student to repeat it, and asking questions (e.g., "How many letters are in the word? What is its vowel sound?")
• D. Providing a word that rhymes as a clue and asking the student to try again, and then giving verbal directions

Answer: (C)

Strengthening sight-word recognition means helping students store and retrieve a word from memory based on its visual form, with enough built-in cues to make it quickly recognizable again later. Naming the word and having the student repeat it, then probing a few features—how many letters it has and what the vowel sound is—activates both the oral form and the word’s orthographic pattern. This builds a richer, more distinct mental representation of the word, so when it appears on future cards the student can recognize it instantly rather than needing to sound it out. This approach focuses attention on the word’s specific shape and structure, improving retrieval speed. In contrast, sounding out the word emphasizes decoding rather than rapid recognition, while simply telling or repeating the word without exploring its features offers less reinforcement of its unique form. Using a rhyming cue can be helpful in some contexts, but it doesn’t strengthen the exact word’s memory to the same degree.

Strengthening sight-word recognition means helping students store and retrieve a word from memory based on its visual form, with enough built-in cues to make it quickly recognizable again later. Naming the word and having the student repeat it, then probing a few features—how many letters it has and what the vowel sound is—activates both the oral form and the word’s orthographic pattern. This builds a richer, more distinct mental representation of the word, so when it appears on future cards the student can recognize it instantly rather than needing to sound it out.

This approach focuses attention on the word’s specific shape and structure, improving retrieval speed. In contrast, sounding out the word emphasizes decoding rather than rapid recognition, while simply telling or repeating the word without exploring its features offers less reinforcement of its unique form. Using a rhyming cue can be helpful in some contexts, but it doesn’t strengthen the exact word’s memory to the same degree.