Sight word fluency drills that carry over to text

A sight word drill is short, fast practice on a set of high-frequency words until the student reads each one instantly, without sounding it out. The goal is speed with accuracy, because a student who pauses 3 seconds on said and were loses the thread of every sentence.

Drills fit students who can read a word correctly but slowly, or who know a word on a flashcard and stall on it in a book. They do not replace phonics. Most high-frequency words are partly decodable, and students learn them best when you point out the regular and irregular parts. For goals on which words to teach, see sight word IEP goals using the Dolch list. For where drills sit among fluency routines, see the cluster guide to reading fluency interventions.

Why drill high-frequency words

The What Works Clearinghouse guide for kindergarten through grade 3 recommends teaching students to recognize words, including high-frequency words, and then having them read those words in connected text every day.^[1] The second half of that advice is where many drill programs fall short. Fast words on a list help only if they are fast in a sentence too.

What you need before you start

• A word pool, such as your program's high-frequency list. See high-frequency words in the glossary.
• A quick screen of the pool: show each word for about 2 seconds and sort it into known (read correctly and instantly), slow (correct after a pause) or unknown.
• Index cards, a 1-minute timer and a simple graph.

Step 1: Build the drill set

Make a set of 10 cards: about 7 to 8 known or slow words and 2 to 3 unknown words. Mostly known words keep success high and give many quick repetitions of the new ones. A set of all new words is slow and discouraging.

Step 2: Teach the new words first

Before drilling, teach each new word. Say it, use it in a sentence, and point out the parts that follow phonics rules and the part that does not. In said, the s and d are regular, and the middle is the tricky part. Have the student read the word three times.

Step 3: Run fast rounds

Show the cards one at a time. The student has about 2 seconds per card.

1. Correct and quick: move on.
2. Correct but slow: say "Yes, where. Quicker next time," and put the card back 2 or 3 cards later.
3. Wrong or no answer after 3 seconds: say the word, have the student repeat it, and put it back 2 or 3 cards later.

Run 2 or 3 rounds, about 3 minutes in all. Shuffle between rounds so position does not cue the answer.

Step 4: Time one minute on a mixed list

Once a day or a few times a week, have the student read a printed list of 40 to 60 words for 1 minute. The list mixes drilled words with mastered words in random order. Count words correct per minute and graph it. This is the drill's own measure.

Step 5: Add phrase drills

Put the words into short phrases: in the box, what did you, over there. Time a 1-minute phrase list. Phrases are closer to real reading than single words and build the habit of reading words in groups.

Step 6: Retire and replace words

A word is mastered when the student reads it instantly on 3 different days, in the drill and in text. Retire it to the review pile and add one new word. Review retired words once a week.

Worked example from start to finish

Jonah is a fictional 1st grader. On a screen of 50 high-frequency words in January he reads 22 instantly, 11 slowly and misses 17. His teacher runs a 5-minute drill 4 days a week. All numbers are illustrations.

The last column is the transfer check. Each week his teacher marks 20 drilled words in a short decodable passage and counts how many Jonah reads with no pause. It rose with the list score, which tells her the drill is carrying over. If the list score had climbed while the text column stayed flat, she would add more phrase work and more reading of the words in sentences.

Measuring progress

Track two measures. The drill measure is words correct per minute on the mixed list. The real target is reading connected text. Once a week, give an unpracticed passage and score it as oral reading fluency on the reading fluency data sheet. Use the notes column for the transfer count. A rate per minute measure fits the list itself. Short weekly probes on the same kind of material make the trend easy to read.^[2]

Common mistakes

• Weak: A drill set of 20 brand-new words. Better: About 10 cards with only 2 or 3 new words.
• Weak: Teaching said as a shape to memorize. Better: Point out the regular letters and the one tricky part.
• Weak: Letting the student stare at a card for 10 seconds. Better: After 3 seconds, say the word, have them repeat it, and return it soon.
• Weak: Calling a word mastered after one good day on cards. Better: Instant on 3 different days, in the drill and in text.
• Weak: Only measuring the word list. Better: Check drilled words in a passage every week.

Goals and templates

For a timed list, use read high-frequency words on a timed list. For phrases, use high-frequency phrases on a 1-minute probe or read high-frequency word phrases as units. For transfer, use read taught high-frequency words in text. More templates are on the sight words goals page and the fluency goals page. Before you write the goal, check the draft with the goal checker. For a student who has the words but reads text slowly, move on to repeated reading.

Frequently asked questions

Use it in IEP Atlas

• Sight words goals (reading)
• Fluency goals (reading)
• High frequency words in the IEP glossary
• Oral reading fluency measurement guide
• Reading fluency data sheet
• IEP goal checker

Related guides

• Reading fluency interventions that work
• Repeated reading intervention: procedure and tracking
• Student fluency graph template with a completed example
• Fluency instruction for students with dyslexia
• Readers theater for fluency: a five-day plan

Sources

1. Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
2. Progress Monitoring: Data & Goal Setting, National Center on Intensive Intervention

Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.