Some of the most commonly misspelled sight words are words that we use everyday. Sometimes students do not even realize that they are contributing to the commonly misspelled sight words phenomena. Nonetheless, teachers are instrumental in illustrating how not to be one of those people who have commonly misspelled sight words.
Students coast-to-coast may not actually realize that they are making the mistake of misspelling sight words. Because of the frequency of occurrence a list of sight words that are frequently misspelled has been compiled and the data has been reviewed. The results showed that many students across the nation, continuously misspell the same words. So in short there is a list of sight words that are commonly misspelled.
There are an array of words that can be considered confusing even if they are popular sight words. For example, homophones are indeed considered confusing because they sound alike but are spelled differently. There are a few homophones on the sight words list for various grade levels. For example the words ”to” and “two” are sight words and they are also homophones. The problem with misspelling comes in whenever either word needs to be used in a sentence. It is a contextual thing whereby the context of either of the “two” or “to” is used wrong as well as the third “too.”
The words “there” and “their” are also popular sight words that are misspelled. Once again it has much to do with the context in which either word is used in a sentence. Two more possibilities from the sight word list includes the words “ate” and “eight.”
As confusing as some of these words may seem, spelling the words correctly could be as easy as a simples teaching lesson aimed at using each of the commonly misspelled or misused sight words in a sentence with the proper context. For instance, you would not use the word “two” in the sentence, “I am going to the store.” Students can learn this by sight and with the appropriate in-class illustration.
This might prove quite beneficial to the student. It is no secret that most students learn by repetition. So, why not make up a few flash cards to help the class learn but instead of using standard index cards you can opt to use a PowerPoint presentation. Using PowerPoint when making contemporary flash card can be as fun as it is intriguing. The fun animations alone should help the students remember the sight word that is commonly misspelled. Additionally, all you will need to do is start the presentation and let the class view it a few times. With this idea, the sky is the limit when learning and you should notice a significant decrease in spelling errors.
Another idea that should be able to help your students with preventing sight word spelling errors would be to make a few worksheets where there are word boxes or crossword puzzles for the students to complete. If you are playing a game like Hangman or Jeopardy then you can separate the class into small teams so they can better help each other.
A rock solid way that you can keep the student’s motivated is to have a spelling bee. The incentive for spelling the sight words correctly would undoubtedly be a treat of some kind. This would be a good way to see where everyone is regarding their abilities to spell sight words correctly.
If for any reason the aforementioned ideas do not appeal to you when you are trying to teach students about the most commonly misspelled sight words, you can feel free to go online and review both the Dolch list and the Fry list of sight words. Be sure to look for homophones, because those words are most likely to be misspelled.