Week Seven

Sight Words- printed words stored in memory by the reader that can be read immediately, "at first sight," without having to use decoding strategies. (Words Their Way, 6th Ed.)

Having sight words stored in the memory allows students to focus on meaning and read more fluently.








Schwa- A vowel sound in English that often occurs in an unstressed syllable, such as the /uh/ sound in the first syllable of the word above. (Words Their Way, 6th Ed.)


Learning and understanding the schwa sound helps when sounding out words when reading.







Digraph- Two letters that represent one sound. There are consonant and vowel digraphs, but the term most commonly refers to consonant digraphs. (Words Their Way, 6th Ed.)

Common Digraphs- sh, ch, th, wh
Consonant digraphs at the beginning of a word are onsets

Knowing and understanding digraphs make a new sound helps when learning to sound out words.







Blend- orthographic unit of two or three letters at the beginning or end of the words that are blended together. (Words Their Way, 6th Ed.)
Every sound represented in a blend is pronounced, if only briefly.

l-blends-bl, cl, fl
r-blends-gr, tr, pr









Phonograms- Often called word families, phonograms end in high-frequency rimes that vary only in the beginning consonant sound to make a word. (Words Their Way, 6th Ed.)
Example: back, sack, black, track

Phonograms are helpful in reading and spelling because students are able to quickly recognize patterns.




Onset- The initial consonant(s) sound of a single syllable word. (Words Their Way, 6th Ed.)
Onsets are the beginnings sound or sounds in a word.

Knowing onsets helps students decode words.


Rimes- A unit composed of the vowel and any following consonants within a syllable.
(Words Their Way, 6th Ed.)
Example: Rime in the word tag is ag.