BONUS: Why Flashcards Don't Work for Sight Words (& What To Do Instead)

In this S5E4 BONUS @schoolutionspodcast conversation, discover the breakthrough science behind why traditional sight word drilling fails and learn the 4-step process that actually builds reading fluency. If you're frustrated watching students struggle with the same words repeatedly, this episode reveals the missing piece that makes all the difference.

🧠 What You'll Learn:
💫Why 30,000-70,000 words are stored in your brain (without memorization!)
💫The shocking truth about 99% of "sight words"
💫How orthographic mapping creates reading highways in the brain
💫Dr. Molly Ness's proven 4-step process for word recognition
💫Why middle schoolers can't access science content (it's not comprehension!)

Perfect for teachers, education coaches, caregivers, homeschoolers, instructional leaders, and anyone supporting striving readers. This research-backed approach transforms how we think about reading instruction and student success.

🎯 Try the 4-step process tonight and email your results to: schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com
Subscribe for weekly evidence-based teaching strategies that work!

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction: The Reading Mystery
1:00 - Why Traditional Methods Fail
2:00 - The Orthographic Mapping Breakthrough
3:00 - Real Classroom Example: The Word "Said"
4:00 - Dr. Molly's 4-Step Process Revealed
5:00 - The 99% Rule That Changes Everything
6:00 - Why Middle Schoolers Struggle
7:00 - Tonight's Challenge for Parents & Teachers
8:00 - Building Reading Highways
9:00 - Take Action & Share Your Results

💫Check out linked episode mentions here: 
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1890886/episodes/17908212

🚀📚 Watch the full S5E4  @schoolutionspodcast interview with here (https://youtu.be/QwDKde9sHJY)

Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child. When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

📧 Connect: schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com 
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

Don't forget to 🔔SUBSCRIBE for more teaching tips, and 💬SHARE with fellow educators! https://www.youtube.com/@schoolutionspodcast/

#ReadingInstruction #OrthographicMapping #SightWords #TeachingStrategies #ReadingScience #StruglingReaders #Phonics #LiteracyEducation #StudentSuccess #EffectiveTeaching #ClassroomStrategies #ParentSupport #EducationResearch #ReadingFluency #TeacherTips #HomeschoolReading #StudentEngagement #EducationTransformation #InstructionalCoaching #ReadingInterventions #Schoolutions #schoolutionsteachingstrategies #MakingWordsStick

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Did you know that the average adult reader has 30,000 to 70,000 words stored for instant recognition and not a single one - not one, got there through memorization. Think about that right now as you're listening to me, you're processing hundreds of words effortlessly. When did you last memorize the word effortlessly? Never. 

But your brain recognizes it instantly. So if memorization didn't get those 50,000 words into your mental library, what did? Today I want to challenge all of us to think about the four-step process that Molly offered and how it can change everything for our children as they are learning to read. And what if instead of more drilling, we could help them build those neural pathways the way their brains are actually designed to work?

[00:01:00] That's what I'm going to dive into because Dr. Ness shared something that really resonated. She's seeing middle schoolers who cannot access their science content, not because they need comprehension strategies, but because they never built strong enough foundations of word recognition. The reading highway has been waiting for our children and they've been trying to find the on-ramp all along. Let's dive in.

This is Schoolutions Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that isn't just theory, but practical try-it-tomorrow approaches for educators and caregivers to ensure every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. 

Welcome back to Schoolutions Teaching Strategies. I'm Olivia Wahl, and if you just listened to my conversation with [00:02:00] Dr. Molly Ness about orthographic mapping, your mind might be spinning right now. I know mine was. If you haven't listened to the conversation yet, pause this bonus episode. Go back. It's season five, episode four. Why Kids Can't Remember Words: Brain Science Explained. Check that episode out and then come back to this bonus. 

So here's what I want to do. In this bonus episode, I want to take you on a journey. We're going to solve a mystery that's been hiding in plain sight. Picture this, it's Tuesday in your classroom and you have a student that is reading and they come to the word said it's right in front of them on the page.

They've seen it a hundred times. They're still sounding it out say-ed. No, that's not right. Saaaaiiid. And you're thinking, we have been drilling these words for [00:03:00] months. Why isn't this working? Well, after talking with Molly, I realize we've all been witnessing something profound without knowing it. That struggle, that's not a child being stubborn. That's their brain, literally trying to build a highway. 

Here's what blew my mind from our conversation. Again, the average adult reader has 30,000 to 70,000 words stored for instant recognition. Not a single one got there through memorization, not one. Remember when Molly told us about reading a beach book and encountering the word slough, S-L-O-U-G-H?

She's a reading expert with a PhD, and this word stopped her cold. She had to look it up, hear the pronunciation, connect it to the meaning slough, a marshy area, but here's the magic. Now that word is permanently mapped in her brain, [00:04:00] she'll never struggle with it again. One experience, one moment of connecting that visual, the sound and the meaning.

That's orthographic mapping and it's happening or trying to happen every time a child encounters a new word. So let's go back to the site word cards that we see on the shelves in every Dollar Store. They're actually giving our children only one piece of a three piece puzzle. They see the word, but they're missing the sound structure and the deep meaning connections. That's like trying to build a three-legged stool with only one leg. No wonder it keeps falling over. 

Now here's what I want you to try. If you're a caregiver, if you're an educator, and this comes straight from Molly's four step process, step one, see and say it. Don't just point to the word said, write it down and have children say it out loud.

[00:05:00] Their brain needs to hear it and to map it. Step two, segment and spell it. I noticed this word has four letters, but only three sounds /s/ /e/ /d/. Isn't that interesting? The “ai” pattern makes the short sound in this word. Step three, study and suss it out. When do we use the word said? Can you think of a time today when someone said something to you? What's another way to say said? Said whispered, shouted. 

Step four, search and stick it. Find the word in a real book, a real sentence. Let them see it in context, not in isolation. And here's the statistic, thanks to Dr. Katie Pace Miles, that should change everything. 99% of those impossible sight words that we think kids just [00:06:00] have to memorize, they actually follow phonetic rules. Let me just say that again. 99% of the Dolch Sight word list is actually decodable when you know the rules. We've been telling kids these words are weird exceptions when they're actually following patterns. 

Imagine if somebody taught you to drive by saying, don't bother learning the rules of the road. Just memorize every single street. That's essentially what we've been doing with sight words, and here's something Molly said that stopped me cold. She's seeing middle schoolers who cannot access the science content, not because they need comprehension strategies, but because they never built a strong enough foundation of automaticity. When it comes to recognized words. These kids are spending so much mental energy trying to decode individual words, that they have nothing left for understanding what those words mean together. 

If you're a caregiver tonight, I want you to become a [00:07:00] detective. Pick one word your child is struggling with, just one. If you're a teacher, think of doing this with a student tomorrow. Apply Molly's four step process and see how different it feels from flashcard drilling, but more importantly, watch that child's face. You'll see something shift when they connect the visual pattern to the sound and the meaning. You're literally watching neural pathways form.

That's not just learning, that's brain architecture being built in real-time. And Molly said something at the end of our conversation that I will never forget, she said, “I think of orthographic mapping almost as the on-ramp to fluency. We want our kids operating on the reading highway towards comprehension, but without orthographic mapping really being in place they're going to be traveling a road under construction for too long.”

Email me at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com and tell me what you [00:08:00] discovered after you've tried Molly's four-step process. This is about all of our children and changing how we think about reading instruction everywhere. The Reading Highway is waiting. Each of our children has been trying to find the on-ramp all along. Now we know where it is. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next Monday. Take Care.

Schoolutions Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me. Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son, Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. Thank you again for tuning into this bonus episode, and I'm going to ask that tonight, become a detective. Pick one word that your students or your child is struggling with and try [00:09:00] Dr. Molly Ness's four-step orthographic mapping process with them. Watch their face. When the pieces click, you'll literally see the neural pathways forming in real time. Make sure to send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. 

Let me know how it goes, and your next steps after listening to this episode. Tune in every Monday for the best research, back coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. And stay tuned for my bonus episode every Friday where I'll reflect and share connections to what I learned from the guests that week. See you then.