An Examination of Teacher Beliefs About the Emphasis of Sight Word Development in Early Literacy Instruction

Abstract

In the following inquiry I discuss the beliefs educators have regarding the emphasis of sight words within their classroom. The findings of this qualitative study offer a perspective about the literacy development of students in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. The data of this study was collected from a 45-minute individual interview. Documents with relevance were submitted by the teachers to bring further understanding to the discussion. The results of this study included 3 findings: a) fluency development was seen as an outcome of the development of more essential skills, b) there is more than one approach to instructing sight words, and c) the importance of students writing sight words correctly varied among the teachers. Based on the findings, I was able to conclude that teachers saw sight word development as important to literacy development as it impacted fluency and comprehension. The beliefs about students mastering sight words varied because of the ages of students and what is developmentally appropriate. The emphasis that is placed on sight words may be better suited for reading sight words in kindergarten, with a larger amount of time spent on writing in first grade. In addition, teachers may decide to create a transition from kindergarten to first grade when writing sight words to set students up for the highest level of success.