My preschool and kindergarten students just LOVE this activity! With a base vocabulary of 50 words, this activity is easy to set up and so fun to play! Easy Sight Word Fishing is an excellent resource for sight word recognition, vocabulary expansion, phonemic awareness, fine motor skills, reinforcement and review, and most importantly, a positive learning experience.
Click here to download this activity set! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easy-Sight-Word-Fishing-ESL-ELL-Newcomer-Game-3731428
Included in the pdf download are two print-ready Word Charts, great for tacking to a classroom board or directly in student notebooks. The vocabulary in this activity is aligned to Easy Sight Words 1 and Easy Sight Words 2 by Kinney Brothers Publishing.
To play, make “fishing poles” with a stick, string, and a magnet. Fix metal paperclips to each fish and voila! Instant fun! I recommend laminating the fish and you’ll have this activity set for many years. Teachers can put the fish in a sensory bin, behind a short wall, or in an enclosed circle like a pond. The fish can also be used as flashcards, game cards, for sorting and ordering activities, or decorating a classroom board! Remember, what looks like a game is actually a fun review!
“This resource made making a fishing game for my students so easy!” Niki H.
“My students absolutely love this. They’re so engaged. It was easy to prepare and use. Great game!” Julie E.
sight words
The Science of Reading
The Science of Reading is a dynamically-evolving field of study, encompassing a wide range of research with the focus on understanding how humans learn to read and write. Exploring the cognitive, psychological, and linguistic processes involved in reading and writing, researchers are developing more effective approaches to teaching and learning these skills. This body of scientifically-based research, conducted over the last five decades across the world, is derived from studies in multiple languages and within inter-disciplinary fields, such as linguistics, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and educational research. As a science-based approach not limited to native-language speakers, the evidence informs how proficient reading and writing skills develop and can be applied in second-language programs, such as ESL courses.
One of the main findings of this body of research is that learning to read is not a single, unified process, but rather a complex and dynamic set of skills and strategies that include phonological awareness, decoding, comprehension, and fluency. When these skills and applied teaching strategies are understood, researchers are better able to evaluate and improve teaching methods and curricular materials. Instead of a “one size fits all” method, the science can be highly individualized, where different readers and writers may have discrete needs and preferences, lending itself to varied approaches to learning.
Because reading is a complex process with many different components and stages, for young children, the learning process is long and gradual, requiring patience and the right support from parents and teachers. Long before a child’s first primary steps toward learning to read, the influence of reading aloud to very young children cannot be underestimated. Exploring text and images, pointing to words and pictures as they are read, begins the process of understanding language through text. For the young mind, phonemic awareness is the first step that leads toward an understanding of the association with the text, the concept of word, and comprehension.
Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize the individual sounds that make up words. Through picture books, games, and activities such as rhyming, sound matching, and songs, a child develops an awareness of text to sound and conceptual associations working in tandem toward a cohesive comprehension. In the case of teaching young language learners, the physical milieu is no less important. When reading to children, having them physically close allows students to hear and feel the resonance of the teacher’s voice with sounds they would otherwise not be exposed to or have the opportunity to imitate. Encouraging students to imitate these new sounds is necessary to expand their vocal repertoire in the new language. In the earliest stages of language acquisition, if children cannot hear and sense how the sounds are produced, they won’t be able to phonemically individuate, replicate, and associate the sounds to text.
The letter/sound connection is the first step in understanding how text is coded and how the teacher or parent translates text as spoken sounds associated with letters that make up words. Activities using magnetic letters, letter tracing, and primary ABC writing practice are strategies to lead young students toward phonemic awareness. In ESL courses, educators have the dual charge of teaching phonetic associations as well as the vocabulary associated with those sounds, e.g., CAT, DOG, and RUN. It is vitally important that teachers plan early by introducing a phonetically-associated vocabulary base that will eventually become the foundation for future spelling practice.
For the second-language learner, the leap from ABCs and phonetic associations to reading short CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words must be taught with deliberate and varied practice. Instructors may have students whose native-language orthographies define the concept of word very differently, e.g, syllabaries and hieroglyphics. In English, segmenting and blending are important skills that can be taught with worksheets and task cards. Once students are comfortable with sounding out letters to form words and understand their meaning, it’s time to begin putting the words into a context in sentences.
When you begin putting words in context and ask students to derive meaning, it is inevitable that you will encounter sight words. Sometimes called ‘popcorn’ words, they are commonly used words that children are encouraged to memorize as a whole by sight, such as the, is, and of. For example, teaching “A cat on a mat.” necessitates introducing children to sight words that give context and meaning. Because of the frequency of sight words in the English language, once introduced, they become an integral part of the next steps in reading fluency.
As you move from the ABCs through emergent reader activities, you’ll want to have reading goals in place. As a teacher, it is important to be able to recognize when a student has a command of the sounds of the alphabet, achieves the concept of word, is displaying rudimentary reading ability, and finally, capable of decoding and deriving meaning from connected text. These concepts must be developed in this order and practiced to achieve reading fluency. The habits that you build into the children’s learning activities will help them to acquire new words more quickly, build on their knowledge base to infer meaning, and progress more confidently in their studies.
The last step is to help the child develop fluency. This is the ability to read words quickly and accurately while maintaining a collective and concurring comprehension. Children can practice fluency through their own reading time, reading aloud, choral reading, and reading to a partner. Nurturing fluency must be just as deliberate as early CVC word practice. Silent e, digraphs, diphthongs, and categories of words that change with grammar, like pronouns and verbs, must be explicitly taught. The cumulative effect is a fluency that pushes students toward increasingly complex texts and greater academic achievement.
If you are interested in a more detailed discussion on teaching children to read, check out Teaching Sight Words in the ESL Classroom and Teaching CVC Words – How, When, and What. Looking for classroom materials aligned to the science of reading? See the full lineup of phonics-based learning materials from Kinney Brothers Publishing.
In the video below, Prof. Stanislas Dehaene, a French cognitive neuroscientist, discusses how the brain learns to read at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). The main body of his presentation occurs in the first 18 minutes of the video with a discussion towards the end. I recommend jumping 2:55 where he begins discussing how the brain processes reading as a function.
In summary, and to quote The Reading League website, “this research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. The science of reading has culminated in a preponderance of evidence to inform how proficient reading and writing develop; why some have difficulty; and how we can most effectively assess and teach and, therefore, improve student outcomes through prevention of and intervention for reading difficulties.” I highly recommend downloading their free ebook to learn more about the science of reading.
Beginning Adult English – A Closer Look
The Beginning Adult English series, by Kinney Brothers Publishing, is designed to extend students’ skills and interest in communicating in English. The two-book series provides students with exercises in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Each textbook is detailed below with links for downloadable previews and purchase.
- Preview Download
- Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon/black & white)
- Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
- Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (pdf downloads/keys included) Free Sample
- Preview Download
- Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon/black & white)
- Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
- Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (pdf downloads/keys included) Free Sample
- Preview Download Book 1, Book 2
- Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon) Book 1, Book 2
- Donald’s English Classroom (pdf download) Book 1, Book 2
Kinney Brothers Publishing offers a wide range of ESL textbooks including Stories For Young Readers for junior high through high school learners, a Phonics Series that begins with your youngest students, and an Easy Sight Words Series. Be sure to check out Trends, a topical set of intermediate and advanced worksheets for secondary and adult English language learners. If you’re looking for more support materials, you might be interested in Q&A, Cursive Writing!, and a treasure trove of games, charts, and flashcards in Donald’s English Classroom!
Easy Sight Words – A Closer Look
Whether you call them sight words, popcorn words, or high-frequency words, they are, by definition, “commonly used words that young children are encouraged to memorize as a whole or by ‘sight,’ so that they can automatically recognize these words in print without having to use any strategies to decode.”
In addition, high frequency words can be abstract, difficult if not impossible to represent using pictures, and especially difficult to understand where meaning may have an inferred understanding through context (something a second language learner doesn’t have the advantage of in early language development.) It can be very elusive to create a clear mental model of words like have and get, both of which can cross several different word choices in a language learner’s native language.
This is why students of English need to be exposed to the patterns of speech and inferred meaning of sight words early on in oral and writing exercises. Inevitably, as you move children from decoding individual words to decoding language in connected text, sight words should be a regular part of your ESL program.
- Preview Download
- Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
- Donald’s English Classroom (pdf download)
- Donald’s English Classroom support materials
- Preview Download
- Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
- Donald’s English Classroom (pdf download)
- Donald’s English Classroom support materials
- Preview Download
- Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
- Donald’s English Classroom (pdf download)
- Donald’s English Classroom support materials
As your emergent readers display rudimentary reading ability and become capable of decoding and deriving meaning from connected text, including sight-word practice is imperative. The habits that you build into the children’s learning activities will help them to acquire new words more quickly, build on their knowledge base to infer meaning, and progress more confidently in their studies.
Supplemental Resources – Planning Ahead
In the last two posts, I talked about Stories For Young Readers and the Phonics & Spelling series from Kinney Brothers Publishing. In this post, I’ll focus on supplementary materials and provide links for a closer look at each resource.
A solid textbook series is worth its weight in gold. On the other hand, no textbook can give you everything you need in the classroom. Classes are as different as the students who come to study. Differentiation, age levels, extra and special activities, homework, and assessments are some of the myriad ways supplementary materials serve a teacher in the classroom. Personal and school libraries should have resources that are congruent in content and readily available to meet the dynamic needs of your curriculum.
You’ll find an abundance of supplementary materials that work in tandem with our textbook series. They are available as digital download files in our online store, Donald’s English Classroom, or as printed textbooks from Kinney Brothers Publishing.
Phonics Challenge, Book 1, drills young ESL students in identifying and spelling three-letter (CVC) words through basic exercises, puzzles, and games. Phonics Challenge, Book 2, offers worksheets for identifying and spelling silent ‘e’ (CVCe) words. Each textbook works with a base vocabulary of 80 words. With review pages, game boards, reading, and writing exercises, The two-book Phonics Challenge series will give your students hours of engaging and enjoyable English practice. Check out the previews for Book 1 and Book 2!
Easy Sight Words 1, 2, & 3 drill students in a vocabulary of twenty-five sight words in each textbook. The textbooks offer differentiated exercises for easy writing, word identification, and reading practice. Review pages include primary word building activities, word-order exercises, graphing, word search, game boards, and more! With a focus on contextual language building, the Easy Sight Words series is complementary to any phonics and reading curriculum. Download previews for Book 1, Book 2, and Book 3!
Q&A can be used as a teacher’s resource or as a textbook to provide students with over 200 pages of primary question and answer practice. Students are drilled in basic question forms using do, can, are, is, what, when, how, where, which, and who. The worksheets cover simple present, present continuous, and simple past tenses with language appropriate for beginning ESL students. This is an invaluable resource for every language teacher and school library! Be sure to check out the preview for Q&A!
Clock Work exercises ESL students in the primary skill of reading and understanding analog clocks. Simple, step-by-step worksheets guide students from easy practice to more complex concepts of telling time and language. These basic worksheets are useful for children who are just learning to read clocks thru adults brushing up their language skills. Download the preview for Clock Work here!
Cursive Writing! exercises young ESL students in the primary skill of cursive handwriting. Step-by-step lessons lead students from easy ABC practice to writing longer passages. While building students’ dexterity and recognition skills, Cursive Writing! also introduces students to the pleasure of expressive handwriting. Be sure to check out the preview for Cursive Writing!
If you’d like to learn more about all Kinney Brothers Publishing has to offer, please download our catalogues! Peruse the complete lineup of our Global Edition ESL Textbooks or check out our ESL Store right from your desktop! Sign up for our newsletter and download a free CVC I Have/Who Has Activity Set!
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at info@kinneybrothers.com.
As always, best of luck in your classes!
Donald Kinney
Kinney Brothers Publishing
kinneybrothers.com
Interactive Notebooks – CVC Templates
As a followup to my last post, I developed a series of CVC Templates to help teachers get up and running with their interactive notebooks.
Why Interactive Notebooks?
As an independent teacher offering my services in a variety of kids’ classes, one thing is a constant: no two places are the same. Interactive notebooks, though not a replacement for textbooks, offer me the flexibility to design a curriculum with the classroom resources and time restrictions I have to work with. They’re also an excellent way to shape students’ notebook habits; an intervention that became imperative considering the shabby state of some of my students’ notebooks. In turn, this extends their learning and creates a personalized resource where students can take ownership and track their progress.
The Program
Based on my textbook, Phonics & Spelling, Book 2, the CVC Templates are built on a 45-word vocabulary base with nine words for each a-e-i-o-u vowel set. Each vowel set is restricted to three-word families. With the goal of moving emergent readers toward reading fluency, the differentiated exercises take students step by step with reading, writing, and spelling exercises — as well as an introduction to primary sight words.
The Deal
These CVC Templates can be purchased as individual units or as a bundle. Click on the image below to visit my online store where you can download previews for each unit.
Again, if you have questions about setting up an interactive notebook, check out my previous blog post. With the help of these Templates, you’re going to create some awesome interactive notebooks!
As always, best of luck in your classes!
Donald Kinney
Kinney Brothers Publishing