Fast Facts - Really Great Reading's Blog 1.1.19

Fast Facts - Really Great Reading's Blog

Did you know that adults have a very large library of words that they read automatically? Amongst literate adults this library can contain between 30,000 and 70,000 words.

Teachers call these sight words. These are words that are decoded quickly and without conscious effort. Researchers say our brains still decode them, but it’s done so lightning fast that it seems like we don’t! Consider words like majestic, communications, oatmeal, encyclopedia. If you are a literate adult, it probably took you less than 2 seconds to read those four words and you did it with conscious effort. Researchers have a fancy name for these words – Orthographic Lexicon. These are words that we read fast (typically in less than .20/second or 200 milliseconds) and without any conscious effort. The primary goal of decoding is to build words into our Orthographic Lexicon (our sight word memory)

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Really Great Reading believes that every student has the right to appropriate, high-quality, foundational-skills reading instruction. We are focused on preventing and remediating decoding weaknesses in students in all grades (and even adults). We provide educators with the tools and knowledge to teach all students (not just those who learn easily) to read. We make assessment and grouping practical, efficient, and accurate. Our approach to reading instruction is research-based, interactive, explicit, structured, and multisensory. In our lessons, students not only learn to read, but enjoy the intelligent and age appropriate learning process.