Multisensory Learning with Sight Words

I have been trying to use more multi sensory activities with sight words. Today, the students and I again practiced writing this week's words, which are "that", "is", "it", "you", and "in". We orally practiced spelling and reading the words at the beginning of the lesson. To do this I gave each student a copy of their words. They would them hold the card with the word on it in front of them in the hand that they do not write with. Using the other hand they tap their arm as the spell the word. For example, if the word was you the student would have the card in their hand (arm extended so they can see the word), they would use their other hand and touch their shoulder first and say "y". Then they would tap the bend of their elbow and say "o", then their wrist and say "u". We all did this together for each of the five words. As I was teaching the students this method, Jon and Ben had great difficulty at first. I had to physically help them move their hand to tap their arm as they read the word. Jon said, "I don't get this". After helping him he was able to do the rest of the words independently. Ben kept switching arms because he writes with both hands much of the time. I told him to choose the one he used most for this activity. But, after helping him move his arm the correct way as he spelled the word he was able to spell and tap the rest independently.

After tapping and spelling our words, we used "bumpy" writing to practice writing our sight words. I saw another group member use this technique and thought I would try it with my friends. The students were given a piece of paper and a small piece of sewing screen to put under their paper. They used a red crayon to write the words because my school recently was trained on Orton Gillingham, as well. They call sight words "red words" and recommend having the students use a red crayon. The students like using crayons to write with, so they were very excited about this activity. Ellen said, "I love writing words and using crayons!" Nicole sat up straight and grabbed her red crayon quickly. Noah was absent again (this is becoming a problem because he has missed so many lessons), Jon and Ben also seemed enthusiastic and sat up straight so they could get their screens to put under their paper. Ted was having a difficult day and was again slumping in his seat. I asked him twice to sit up and reluctantly he did. We began the activity with the students writing the word "that". They had the paper over the screen, so when they wrote their writing was bumpy. After writing each word we moved the screen from under the paper to on top of the paper and traced each word that we had written with our fingers. This gives them another opportunity to say the word, spell the word, and trace the word. We did this with each of the other 4 words. Ted began to enjoy the activity and started to sit up straight and smile. I gave him several compliments about how hard he was working and making good choices.

After our group the students then went into their independent station time. In their station I had pulled out magnetic sight words. The students were to read each word with a buddy and put them on the magnetic white board at the side of our classroom. The words included were all 15 words that the students have been introduced to and have practiced daily with me. Today, I did not get to observe their interactions and behavior in this group. Tomorrow I am going to have this as a station again, and video tape their interactions because I am running other small groups at this time and cannot personally observe them.

Below is a sample of Ben's "bumpy" writing: