OP here. She said the kids have to learn a list of sight words throughout the year but there is no way they could learn all of them in school alone. I know my neighbor's child had to learn something like 100 sight words by the end of kindergarten. Her mom could help her because she spoke English and could go over them with her at home and use them in a sentence. If parents don't speak English, this will be very difficult. So she was wondering if there was a website that could help students learn them in context. Doing worksheets won't help because nobody is reading the word aloud while they work on them. I found some apps but she said she only has access to computers.

So she's looking for something that has a text-to-speech function which will read the words aloud, so that the kids can hear the word and then associate it with the spelling?

A couple of thoughts:

1. She should make sure that if she's using a speech app, it has an Australian accent

2. Not sure why she's going for a listening-reading connection here. I might shoot for a meaning-reading connection -- pics of the objects along with the sight words. Which is something she could do on paper (without a computer); which might make the whole task easier. Depending on what kind of words, something like a word wall in her classroom might be a better tactic.

Anonymous wrote:
It sounds like your friend is teaching reading more than she is teaching English??

English language development involves listening, speaking, reading and writing.

It sounds like your friend is teaching reading more than she is teaching English??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would discourage your friend from teaching sight words to second language learners in this way. Language needs to happen in context. I teach first grade to a lot of ELL's and we try to do as much as possible in context.

I agree with this. In K and 1st grade, when kids are just starting to learn to read in their first language, learning to speak and understand the second language is much better than teaching them to read words they may not understand.

Tell that to admins who put tremendous pressure on teachers to get kids reading on grade level. Our kids have to read on a level B by January of their kindergarten year and level D by the end of the year. Most of the words at those levels are sight words and they don't care that the students are ESOL. They tell the ESOL teachers that they are making excuses if their kids aren't on grade level.

Sure, but that's a different situation than in the OP. You're teaching non English speakers who are living in an English speaking country and who, presumably, will have much of their education in English. OP is talking about teaching English to people living in a country that speaks the children's dominant language and (hopefully) learning to read in that language.

OP here. My friend is teaching ELLs in Australia and her students speak a host of different languages including Chinese and Russian.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would discourage your friend from teaching sight words to second language learners in this way. Language needs to happen in context. I teach first grade to a lot of ELL's and we try to do as much as possible in context.

I agree with this. In K and 1st grade, when kids are just starting to learn to read in their first language, learning to speak and understand the second language is much better than teaching them to read words they may not understand.

Tell that to admins who put tremendous pressure on teachers to get kids reading on grade level. Our kids have to read on a level B by January of their kindergarten year and level D by the end of the year. Most of the words at those levels are sight words and they don't care that the students are ESOL. They tell the ESOL teachers that they are making excuses if their kids aren't on grade level.

Sure, but that's a different situation than in the OP. You're teaching non English speakers who are living in an English speaking country and who, presumably, will have much of their education in English. OP is talking about teaching English to people living in a country that speaks the children's dominant language and (hopefully) learning to read in that language.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would discourage your friend from teaching sight words to second language learners in this way. Language needs to happen in context. I teach first grade to a lot of ELL's and we try to do as much as possible in context.

I agree with this. In K and 1st grade, when kids are just starting to learn to read in their first language, learning to speak and understand the second language is much better than teaching them to read words they may not understand.

Tell that to admins who put tremendous pressure on teachers to get kids reading on grade level. Our kids have to read on a level B by January of their kindergarten year and level D by the end of the year. Most of the words at those levels are sight words and they don't care that the students are ESOL. They tell the ESOL teachers that they are making excuses if their kids aren't on grade level.

Anonymous wrote:I would discourage your friend from teaching sight words to second language learners in this way. Language needs to happen in context. I teach first grade to a lot of ELL's and we try to do as much as possible in context.

I agree with this. In K and 1st grade, when kids are just starting to learn to read in their first language, learning to speak and understand the second language is much better than teaching them to read words they may not understand.

I would discourage your friend from teaching sight words to second language learners in this way. Language needs to happen in context. I teach first grade to a lot of ELL's and we try to do as much as possible in context.

Try ABCYA

starfall maybe

My friend is a new ESOL teacher overseas. She asked me if I knew any websites (not apps) that will read students sight words and help them learn them. I know some apps for this but she said her school only has desktop computers. She is looking for websites that she can input the sight words the students still do not know (they go over them in class) and read them to them. I thought of Quizlet but it seems pretty dull for kindergarten and 1st grade. Any ideas?