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Teaches adult learners the essential computer skills they need to be successful in an increasingly digital world.

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Computer Basics Replication Toolkit - Aug 2024

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Notice how the tutor incorporates multiple modes of learning: See it, say it, hear it, write it, feel it, do it

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Tutoring Techniques demo Sight Word Multisensory Technique

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This was intentionally for young children but is pertinent with adults as well.

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In this blog post: Learn how to teach and review sight words, or high frequency words and heart words, with the Science of Reading in mind.
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there lived a teacher who was all too fed up with her sight word instruction. *Ahem* That teacher was me.

We had both a whole group and small group sight word routine and, yes, it worked for many students. But for many students.. it didn't.

Have you ever felt fed up with your sight word instruction? Have you felt like no matter what you do, students just aren't memorizing those words? It can be frustrating beyond belief! But it doesn't have to be.

The Science of Reading tells us that there is a better way to teach sight words or high frequency words.

This blog post will show you how to take current research in how the brain learns to read and apply it to your sight word instruction to amp up your impact.

What is a sight word?

Before we dive in, let's quickly discuss the difference between sight words vs. high frequency words vs. heart words.

These terms are often used interchangeably by teachers so it can quickly get confusing, but there are distinct differences.

Sight words are any words that you can instantly recognize by sight. The average adult has 30,000 to 60,000 sight words in their memory bank. Our goal when teaching high frequency words is that they will eventually become sight words.

High frequency words are the most commonly occurring words in text. These are words that our students need to learn because they will show up in the books that they are reading. High frequency words can be both decodable or not decodable to our students.

Heart words are high frequency words that have at least one part that is irregular and, therefore, not decodable to students. Most of the word can usually still be decoded, but there will be one or more parts that students need to know by heart.

So how do we help those high frequency words become sight words?

How does the brain learn to read?

Research shows that when our brain reads a word, there are actually four parts of the brain that are working together. The four-part processing model by Dr. Louisa Moats says that our brain uses phonological, orthographic, meaning, and context processors when recognizing a word.

The strongest sight word instruction will address each of these processors to help students build connections in their brain.

The phonological processor helps us understand that phonemes, or sounds, make up words. This is t where phonemic awareness occurs.

The orthographic processor understands that written letters, or graphemes, make up words. Students with weak orthographic processing skills may rely heavily on sounding out words, struggle with letter recognition and automaticity, or have frequent spelling errors.

The meaning processor helps us determine the meaning of words. When we read, our brain takes the information from the phonological and orthographic processor and helps us make sense of the word we are reading.

Finally, the context processor. This processor words in tandem with the meaning processor. It uses the context that the word is being used in to help us further understand the meaning of the word.

In order for words to become sight words, we must help our students put those processors together, particularly the phonological and orthographic processors. For some students it will take only a few exposures to build those connections, and for others it will take hundreds.

Orthographic mapping

According to David Kilpatrick, orthographic mapping is the process we used to store words in our brain for easy retrieval. These stored words have become sight words.

Some readers will be able to develop orthographic mapping skills naturally, but other students will need repeated direct instruction. In reality, explicit instruction that promotes the process of orthographic mapping can only help to strengthen these skills in every student.

You can promote the orthographic mapping of high frequency words with a few easy changes to your sight word routine.

How to introduce sight words

When introducing sight words either whole group or in small groups, there are a few easy ways that you can help students activate each processor in their brain. Let's use the word "said" as an example.

First, start by simply saying the word and having students repeat. said

Next, use the word in a sentence to give it meaning and context. Mom said that I could watch TV.

You can also let students come up with their own sentences using the word in context.

Then, say the word slowly. Have students count the sounds they hear. /s/ /e/ /d/. 3 sounds. Draw three lines on the board to represent each sound.

Help students connect the phonemes to their spelling. Begin with the decodable parts first:
What sound do you hear first? /s/. How do we spell that sound? S. I will write an s first. What sound do you hear last? /d/. How do we spell that sound? D. I will write a d last.
Then move on to the tricky parts of the word.

What sound do you hear in the middle? /e/. In this word, we have tricky letters making the /e/ sound. ai are making the /e/ sound. This is the part we need to know by heart. Write ai in the middle of the word.

If you are teaching these as heart words, you can add a heart over or under the tricky part of the word. This just helps students remember that this is the part of the word that is making a tricky sound.

Finally, give students multiple opportunities to practice writing, spelling, and reading the word.

💡If you want to see this step-by-step visually, check out this blog post: How to Teach Heart Words

If you are introducing your high frequency words whole group, these Heart Word Worksheets are a great way for students to follow up.

Student sight word practice

When students practice and review sight words in small groups, there is an easy routine that you can use to promote the orthographic mapping process. We call this tap it, map it, graph it.
First, students will say the word. Then, they will tap the sounds.
Tapping the sounds can look like using their pointer finger to tap one dot for each sound. For a paperless approach, it can also look like touching their thumb to first their pointer finger, then middle finger, then ring finger, and so on.
Next, students will map the sounds.

We do this with sound boxes. Students take a counter or cube and put one in each box for the sounds that they hear in the word. If a word has two sounds (my), students would put out two counters. If a word has three sounds (said), students would put out three counters.
Next, graph the word.
Graph comes from a Greek word meaning "to write." This is when students will assign each sound to it's spelling.

You will have students push up a counter as they write the letter or letters that represent the sound in each box. If more than one letter makes a said (like ai in the word said), students will write both letters in one box. Remember, each box represents one sound, not one letter.

We use this process for both decodable high frequency words and heart words. If a word is a heart word, I also have students color a heart under the tricky part of the word.

Finally, students write the word again multiple times. Each time they write the word they also find and mark the heart part.

You can grab these FREE Map It mats here:

Guided Writing With Sight Words

Another way to strengthen students processing of sight words is to ask them to use the word in context while writing. You can make it a point to add the high frequency words that you have been working on into your dictated sentences in small groups.

We always do dictated sentences as a part of our guided writing routine on day two of our Science of Reading aligned small groups.

You can easily give students a chance to use the high frequency word in context by choosing a dictated sentences that uses the word. For example, if our word was said, the dictated sentence might be: Mom said get the bag.

Just a note: If this is a dictated sentence with my beginning writers, I am not worrying about correct mechanics and using quotation marks yet. I want my students focus to be on encoding and writing each word.

Review, review, review!

Once you have introduced your high frequency word and students have had the chance to practice, you will want to give them as many opportunities to review as possible. These should include chances to map the word, read the word, and write the word.

You can find a variety of no prep options in the Heart Words and High Frequency Words Endless Bundle. These worksheets give students a multisensory approach to review and practice each word.

For example, with these worksheets, students will read the word, map it, and graph it. Then they will find and highlight the word. Finally, they will trace and write the word.

These sight word worksheets also include activities that are engaging for students like dabbing the sounds or the word with a dot marker, cutting and building the word, or rainbow writing the word.

The best part? This is an endless bundle, which means that it never stops growing! New heart word and high frequency word activities will continue to be added and you will get to download those for free!
Grab the Heart Words + High Frequency Words Endless Bundle here!
I hope this blog post helped you better understand how the brain learns to read sight words, and some easy ways that you can improve your sight word instruction according to the Science of Reading.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected]

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How to Teach Sight Words with the Science of Reading in Mind

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In this blog post: Learn how to teach and review sight words, or high frequency words and heart words, with the Science of Reading in mind. Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there lived a teacher who was all too fed up with her sight word instruction.

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Not sure how to correctly use words like me, herself, his, or theirs? You're not the only one! These tiny and seemingly easy words can be tricky to get your head around if you're beginning to learn English.

The most common type of English pronouns - the one you learn in your first English lesson - are subject pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, and they. If you've taken a few English classes, you've got these under control by now.

But the fun doesn't end with simple subject pronouns. In fact, the English language employs the use of object pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, relative pronouns... and a few more.

Yes, that's a lot to take in. But don't worry! We'll explain the most common types in this article and provide examples of how to use them in practice.

What is a pronoun?

Nouns are extremely common in English. They're everywhere! In fact, they do so much work in the English language that they need assistants to replace them. Pronouns are words that replace nouns to help us avoid repeating the same noun over and over again in sentences.

Imagine if you were telling your friend a story of how your dad made dinner for your family on Sunday:
My dad loves cooking. My dad always cooks dinner for us on the weekends. My dad is a pretty good cook! My dad made delicious pasta with tomato sauce.
Well, that would make your storytelling sound boring and repetitive! This is why we need pronouns. Here's how your story would sound with pronouns:
My dad loves cooking. He always cooks dinner for us on the weekends. He's a pretty good cook! He made delicious pasta with tomato sauce.
Better, right?!

In English, there are 7 types of pronouns:

Subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they)

Object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them)

Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs)

Demonstrative pronouns(this, these, that, those)

Interrogative pronouns (who, whom, which, what)

Relative pronouns (who, whom, that, which, whoever, whichever, whomever)

Indefinite pronouns (all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody, and someone)

Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)

Intensive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)

We know it can be a lot of information to absorb. That's why we're here to explain it all in simple terms.

English personal pronouns

As the name suggests, personal pronouns refer to the speaker or the person (or animal) the speaker is talking about.

There are three types of personal pronouns in English:

Subject pronouns

Object pronouns

Possessive pronouns

Let's explain each one of them.

English subject pronouns

The pronoun fun in English starts with subject pronouns. They are the most common. As you may realize intuitively, these are simply words that are used to replace a noun or a name function as a subject of the sentence.

I is used when referring to yourself.

You is used when referring to the person you're addressing.

He is used when referring to a third person of masculine gender.

She is used when referring to a third person of feminine gender.

It is used when referring to a thing, place, or animal.

We is used when referring to a group of people that you're a part of.

You is used when referring to the group of people you're addressing.

They is used when referring to a group of people you're not a part of.

Here are some examples of how to use subject pronouns in a sentence.

English object pronouns

All pronouns in the English language have the same job: to replace the noun. As the name suggests, object pronouns in English replace the object of the sentence.

Sounds easy, right? But wait, there's more!

Object pronouns can be divided into direct object pronouns (they replace the direct object) and indirect object pronouns (they replace the indirect object).

A direct object of the sentence is the noun that receives the action (verb) from the subject. An indirect object of the sentence is the noun that receives the direct object.

As this may leave you scratching your head, let's illustrate it in the following sentences:

John gave me a book. (me is the indirect object, a book is the direct object)

She bought him a gift. (him is the indirect object, a gift is the direct object)

I sent them a letter. (them is the indirect object, a letter is the direct object)

Here are some examples of how to use object pronouns in sentences.

Possessive pronouns in English

Possessive nouns are quite straightforward. They're just pronouns that express ownership or possession of something and are most commonly used to avoid repeating nouns or entire phrases.

For example, instead of saying:
"Your cat is bigger than my cat."
You can say:
"Your cat is bigger than mine."
By replacing "my cat" with "mine", we're simply avoiding repeating the word "cat."

Reflexive pronouns

The easiest and most logical explanation of reflexive pronouns that I have managed to come with is that these are pronouns that reflect back to themselves.

In other words, reflexive pronouns are ones that refer back to the subject of the sentence. For example:

Intensive pronouns in English

Intensive pronouns may sound like another terrifying grammar issue, but they're not.

In fact, intensive pronouns are exactly the same as reflexive pronouns, but their job in the sentence is different: they're just meant to emphasize the subject of the sentence.

Here's how:

Other types of pronouns

In English, there are four more types of pronouns. These are way different from the previous ones, but still have the same job: to replace the noun in the sentence.

Those four types are demonstrative, interrogative, reflexive, and indefinite pronouns. Let's explain the role of each of them.

Demonstrative pronouns point at a person, thing, or place.

Interrogative pronouns are question words that ask about people, things, or places.

Reflexive pronouns are slightly more complicated and have lots of rules you need to remember to use them correctly. These pronouns are used to connect clauses within sentences. We'll have another article covering that in detail.

Indefinite pronouns simply refer to nouns that are unknown or undefined in a sentence.

Take a look at this table to better understand this explanation.

They, them as a singular

Here's a fun fact that will seem counterintuitive to every grammatical rule you have learned in English so far.

While the pronouns "they, them" are plural, they can also be used in the singular form. This is widely used in conversation and written text to refer to someone in a gender-neutral way. You can use "they" in singular if you don't know the gender of the person you're referring to.

It's important to remember that even if you're using "they" to refer to one person, it will still be followed by a plural verb.

For example, you can say:

When someone arrives at the airport, they should go directly to the baggage claim area.

If a student needs extra help, they should speak with their teacher after class.

A person can become anything they want.

What's more, you can use "they, them" to refer to a person who identifies as non-binary.

You vs. Them

Mastering the use of pronouns is crucial to communicate effectively in English. That's because using them allows you to add more flow to your sentences and avoid sounding like a poorly designed robot.

In fact, dominating the use of pronouns is just as important to expanding your English vocabulary. It will help you stand out from other English learners and make your conversations in English more fun, and growing your language confidence through fun is what we're all about.

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English pronouns: An easy grammar guide to all 7 types

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Woah! The English language uses 7 types of pronouns! We'll explain them all, with grammar examples in this nifty guide to English pronouns.

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Instructional Videos: Sample Lessons on Reading Comprehension

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Instructional Videos: Sample Lessons on Reading Comprehension

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This 25 video playlist has example comprehension lessons

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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This longer video models questioning strategies that support comprehension. While the learner shown is an ESL learner, the techniques translate well to adult literacy tutoring.

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A 21 video playlist on introducing and teaching new vocabulary words.

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Reading comprehension passages with audio recordings and notecards with vocab words.

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Co-created by adult educators using stories from Reading Skills for Today’s Adults (RSTA), CrowdED Learning is proud to offer 345 leveled readings and engaging activities to learners and instructors in a variety of formats.

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Whether it be grammar tips, obscure punctuation marks, or the origin of popular phrases, Word Smarts delves deep into what makes our language so fascinating. That’s what Word Smarts is all about: learning as much about the English language as possible while making it as fun as possible.

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Word Smarts shares daily lessons designed to help you master the English language. Subscribe now to learn the quirks and rules that make English so fascinating.

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Learn touch typing online using TypingClub's free typing courses. It includes 650 typing games, typing tests and videos.

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Typing Lessons - Learn To Type And Improve Typing Speed Free - Typing.com

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Learn to touch type and improve your typing speed with free interactive typing lessons for all ages. Start your typing practice now!

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If you are new to computers, haven't used them for a while, are a little unsure and uncomfortable, or just need a bit of a refresher, we have the tools to help you tackle technology at your own pace and gain the confidence you need to succeed.

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If you are new to computers, haven't used them for a while, are a little unsure and uncomfortable, or just need a bit of a refresher, we have the tools to help you tackle technology at your own pace and gain the confidence you need to succeed.

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Interact with live tutors, submit questions, and more. All you need is a library card.

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On demand, anytime, anywhere eLearning. View how easy, intuitive and engaging Brainfuse HelpNow eLearning is for all ages and levels.

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Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, no matter their family’s income. Print out application and drop it off at the SLO Library TLC office to register or send it in to the affiliate address provided:

United Way of San Luis Obispo County

1288 MORRO ST STE 10

SAN LUIS OBISPO CA 93401

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Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.

Inspired by her father's inability to read and write Dolly started her Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county. Today, her program spans five countries and gifts over 2 million free books each month to children around the world.

"When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true. I know there are children in your community with their own dreams. They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister. Who knows, maybe there is a little girl whose dream is to be a writer and singer.

The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world."

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Dolly Parton's Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AU

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Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth until they begin school in participating areas.

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Instructional Video: Teaching Sight Words

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Instructional Video: Teaching Sight Words

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Teaching Sight Words With Adult Learners

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What is Phonics? Phonics is the relationship between letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. When a younger child learns that the letter 'T' has the sound of /t/ or when an older child leans that 'tion' sounds like /shun/, those are examples of them learning phonics. Knowing the sounds of letters and letter combinations will help your child decode unfamiliar words during their reading and phonics will help the child with spelling by them knowing which letter to use. Phonics is a key element to helping children learn to read and write. When learning phonics they are developing the ability to match a unit of sound (a phoneme) to a the letter or letters that make the sound (a grapheme). This is the foundation of reading by separating the written word into individual sounds and then blending it all together to make out a word.

Blends: two consonants come together quickly; still able to hear both sounds (L Blends, S Blends, R Blends) Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound that makes a difference in communication. In the English language we use about 44 different phonemes. : two letters come together to make one sound; they can not be separated
Consonant Digraphs: two or more consonants in which you can hear both sounds blended (can not be separated) Example: th, sh, ch, ph, wh [can be found anywhere in a word] Grapheme: is the consonants or consonant combination that represents a phoneme Vowel Digraphs: two vowel letters that make one sound; "when two vowels go walking, the first vowel does the talking"
R-Controlled Vowels: vowels in which the vowel sound is affected by the r; Also known as the "Bossy R" or "R-Influenced Vowels; Example: car, her, girl, horse, or urgent Consonant + le: ble, ple, gle, dle, kle, cle, fle, stle, tle, or zle Alphabetic Principle: rapid recognizing upper and lower case letters and matching sound to letter
The alphabet has 26 letters, 21 are consonants and 5 vowels (sometimes 'y' and 'w')
Open Syllable: syllable that ends in a vowel sound, such as the first syllable (CV and CVCe words are open syllable)
Closed Syllable: syllable that ends in a consonant sound. (CVC words are closed syllable)
Rule of Silent 'e': the silent 'e' makes the first vowel say his alphabet name

examples: table, apple, eagle, cradle, crackle, uncle, waffle, castle, bottle, and puzzle.

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What is Phonics? Phonics is the relationship between letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. When a younger child learns that the letter 'T' has the sound of /t/ or when an...

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Part of an 11 part series, the same as in the TLC training

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A Decoding Strategy Part 1: Practicing the Strategy

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Intentional Spelling: Seven Steps to Eliminate Guessing

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These seven steps provide an approach to spelling instruction that encourages word study based on the words students experience in their daily writing activities. The goal of intentional spelling is to shift spelling instruction from a focus on the number of words spelled correctly to developing an understanding of how words work.

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Reading Comprehension - What is it and Strategies

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Reading Comprehension - What is it and Strategies

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Adults with Reading Comprehension Problems: Causes and Solutions

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Adults with Reading Comprehension Problems: Causes and Solutions

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Adults With Reading Comprehension Problems Face Challenges Interpreting Text. Learn The Causes And Explore Strategies To Improve Reading Skills.

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Learn job-ready skills from anywhere with our video-based lessons, free of charge

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Teach & Learn Practical Digital Skills - Applied Digital Skills

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Thousands of teachers and students are using Applied Digital Skills to improve digital literacy, and we’re adding new lessons regularly. Join us and start learning or teaching digital skills today.

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Parent tips for easy reading and writing activities to do with your child

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Parent tips for easy reading and writing activities to do with your child. Part of our Growing Readers series.

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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Weekly newspaper written for adult learners. Read and Listen, vocabulary, crosswords, and more!  The log in is 055851

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Easy-to-read news stories that can help you learn to read, write, speak, and understand the English language.

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Demonstrates phonics instruction using flashcards. In Project Read, we also encourage using “nonsense” syllables (e.g., sut, lat) so learners build true decoding skills—not memorization. Volunteers receive a set of flashcards to use with their learner.

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Partners in Reading - San Jose Public Library

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Decoding - Part 1: Tutoring Using Synthetic Phonics

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Kanopy is a free, on-demand streaming service for movies, documentaries, and TV shows, available at participating public libraries and universities. It is completely free and ad-free; you just need a valid library card or university login to sign up. [1, 2, 3]

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Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries