Using So Simple Sight Words in 3 Different Ways

So you’re starting to use So Simple Sight Words? I can’t wait for you to experience exactly how this program creates an ‘I Can’ attitude towards reading.

As you get started with the program, keep in mind that there are multiple ways you can incorporate my program into your daily routine. Check out these three ways you can use So Simple Sight Words in your classroom. 

Way 1 to Use So Simple:

Use the accompanying teaching manuals for each volume. 

The management of the manuals is very straight-forward. As a teacher, the LAST thing I want is a wordy manual! Here’s what’s being introduced, here’s the day’s story, here’s a few academic questions to ask about the story (add more if you wish based on skills you’re teaching), cheer the words! 15-20

 minutes per day is all you need, along with reinforcement during the day when the focused words are being encountered in other academic activities

The manuals allow you to introduce, on average, 3 sight words per week. There are 40 days of instruction in Volume 1, 35 days of instruction in Volume 2, 40 in Volume 3, and 35 in Volume 4. (That’s 150 days of instruction total!)

As I worked with complicated manuals over the years, I wanted to allow those using this program to be able to open the daily plan and USE it! It’s clear enough to be able to hand off to a student helper, a guest teacher, or a paraprofessional without having to write additional detailed instructional notes.  

You have options to display the daily exercise.  You can print and use the printable word cards, laminate and put magnets on the backs and incorporate them in the daily story/exercise written on the magnetic white board every morning like I did in the early 2000’s. An easier way is to display the daily story/exercise directly from the manual on the document projector or digital whiteboard. 

The daily routine should take about 15-20 minutes total, depending on the number of sight word cheers that day as well as the length of the story/exercise and interaction with it. 

Volumes 3 and 4 of the program are designed to help with retention and review of the sight words from previous volumes as well. Every 5 days in both Volumes 3 and 4 the learners will have ALL the previous sight words learned in prior volumes incorporated into the stories/exercises. This allows newcomers to learn the cheers they missed, students that need multiple repetitions to learn and/or retain learning will get that advantage, and students in general will get a simple review of what they already have learned. It’s highly recommended that you cheer ALL the words listed from each volume in the daily lessons for this purpose. Each cheer used in the daily lesson is listed by volume at the start of the lesson for efficiency in pulling up the videos you need to use that day. Using So Simple with the daily lesson plan is quick and efficient in planning and use. 

Way 2 to use So Simple:

Use with your Reading Program

If you choose not to use the teaching manuals, pull the words that coincide with your reading program each week. Show those cheers daily, and reinforce them when they see the sight words in their reading books and worksheets to help cement the learning.  Use the practice sentences as you see fit, whether it be copying a set and laminating for students to read alone or with a friend during independent/choice time, or using ideas from the Month of Ideas book. 

As the cheers you most likely need will be in different volumes, open a file tab for each separate volume to make it easy to toggle between volumes for the words you’re working on. 

*Remember to go back and cheer previously learned sight words as well to cement and retain them!

Way 3 to use So Simple:

Teaching the Sight Words Individually

If you choose to use each volume without the teaching manuals, pick up to 3 words a week as your focus. When you use more than 3 cheers at time, they become difficult to retain because it’s hard to get enough repetitions for each sight word cheer to allow the brain to store the information and allow retrieval of it later. 

Choose up to 3 words, then look at the “Month of Ideas” booklet to choose some activities to help reinforce the learning of the selected sight words. Also use the practice sentences included with the program.

Practice the cheers using the video (or learn them as the adult and participate with the child or children) daily during the week at least 3 times per day. On top of this, be sure to hunt the selected words in stories read with the child/children, and have the child/children find the sight words in worksheets, newspapers, signs in stores, etc. The more embedded learning and practice, the better! It’s economy of teaching!

If you haven’t checked out my program yet, please do! So Simple Sight Words gives learners a chance to OWN these words to use in reading and writing by storing them all over their brains rather than in one small area in their left brain. 

So Simple–it’s word ownership, it helps with fluency, and it’s FUN!