Learning Fundamentals Fall 2008 Catalog -- Page 27

Practice the Words Most Often Encountered

The word form region of the brain is located in the low posterior section of the parietal lobe. This area allows the reader to look at a word and know automatically how to pronounce it, how to spell it, and to understand its meaning. Good readers show strong activation of this region in functional MRI studies (Shaywitz 2003).

	Studies have shown that good readers look at some words and automatically decode them. The Sight Words DVD lets beginning readers get a head start on learning these words. It also helps older students, who are struggling with reading, master the sight words. There are 210 words organized by level of difficulty and whether the word can be sounded-out or must be memorized. Each sight word is presented five times across the screen from left to right and top to bottom just like a student reads. The words are grouped into 21 ten-minute sessions.

Benchmark (K-2): Understands level-appropriate sight words and vocabulary (e.g., words for persons, places, things, actions; high frequency words such as: said, was, and where).
Evidence Base: There are four ways to learn to read wordscontextual predicting, lettersound decoding, analogy, and visual memory (Montgomery, 2005, Cunningham, 2000, Gaskins, 2004).

WD11-1 Sight Words DVD $29

See it.
Say it.
Know it!