I can’t believe you posted this. I was JUST about to pull up youtube’s on teaching reading. I am teaching a 25 year old guy right now and the sight word problem is EXACTLY the problem. He comes to a word that starts with, say, P and just guesses at words he memorized that start with P and usually aren’t even close to the word at hand.
I’m starting to get the notion that I’m not going to be successful but I refuse to quit. I will review the resources in this article.
The key really is that each letter has a sound. I have taught children and adults to read using phonics and sounding out words.
The only issue I had teaching adults to read is there are few books that are not for small children. I taught adults to sound out words in a grocery list and wrote things myself for them to read until they could read well enough for adult material.
Good luck and don’t give up!! I have felt defeated trying to teach someone to read and all the sudden the light bulb goes on. When that light bulb goes on with letter sounds they will learn to read super fast.
Get a copy of Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Englemann. It’s scripted for the teacher. Each lesson is about 16 minutes. He’ll be reading in no time.
I tutored a 13 year old who was in 5th grade. Used those workbooks for kindergarteners that start from scratch. I think they are still available near coloring books in stores and do not cost much.
Phonics is the only way.
Spectrum Phonics workbooks are very good. They are purple/ on Amazon. I use Grades 1 and 2, and I have used them for adults. Look for the old ones; the new ones are prettier but the older versions have about 10x as many pages. Once they learn to decipher sounds, they will have the key. Your student can do it.
spacejunkie2001: Thanks for this comment. It exactly shows the destructive results of an idiotic method.
The older the student, the more difficult it is. But here’s the absolute rule. NEVER GUESS AGAIN. Guessing is not reading.
Just keep saying this: “Take your time, sound out the letters, left to right, no exceptions.”
See “54: Preemptive Reading.” http://www.improve-education.org/id81.html