Flashcards….Yes or No? We have used flashcards in our classroom for many years and have seen the benefits from their use. The goal of this study was to gain knowledge from the research done on the effectiveness of flashcards. We hoped to find great conclusions from our studies so we would be able to back up our stand on how important flashcards are in helping students to be able to recognize sight words with automaticity as well as greatly increase their sight word bank. Are flashcards a useful technique? What is the proper way of using them? Will flashcards help struggling readers increase their sight word bank?

Good readers need to be able to identify high- frequency and irregularly spelled words in order to successfully read stories. A child’s rate and comprehension are likely to be lost if they are spending too much cognitive energy struggling with each word.

Ways to use flashcards with technology?  “Technologies represent a tool when they are not designed explicitly for school use but can be put to educational purposes” ((Murray & Olcese, 2011)  Incorporating technology into our classrooms is a way to help us link our students to the 21 st century learning goal.  By combining the use of technology and flashcards, you are able to create a virtual tutor for your students.  Four areas that we use technology to enhance the use of flashcards in our classroom are iPad, Kindle Fire, PowerPoints and the Smart Board.

Flashcard Apps Kindle Fires iPad

Flashcards with software Power Point Smart Board

Use of flashcards in the classroom:  Make the PowerPoints available on your class website. It is another way that the parents can interact in their child’s life along with reinforcing the words that the child is working on. (Parette, Blum, Boeckman & Watts, 2009)  There are three different approaches to flashing flashcards to students: traditional, interspersing, and incremental rehearsal. Interspersing: Known and unknown words are presented to the students together. A known word followed by three unknown words. Another known word followed by three more unknown words IncrementalIncremental: A unknown word is presented to the student 9 times incrementally among 9 known words.

Effective ways to use flashcards in the classroom m Pick 5-10 words from the book. Write each word on the front of a flashcard. On the back of the flashcard write a sentence or phrase containing the target word. Make sure the sentence does not relate to the context of the story. Flash the single word and phrases. Once words are mastered, the student will be ready to complete a picture walk and predict what the story will be about. school I like to go to school.

Effective ways to use flashcards in the classroom After a small group of students have practiced all the words from the book, they can play BINGO with their newly learned words. Pass out the teacher made BINGO cards. Take turns being the lead teacher. The lead student can shuffle the cards and read them quickly one at a time for the players to cover with a chip if it is present on their card. here

Effective ways to use flashcards in the classroom Each child has their own colored stack of flashcards that they have been working on. At the same time they can flip a card. The student that reads their card the fastest as well as accurately gets to keep both cards. The winner is the student that has the most cards. said have

In Conclusion Flashcards should be used to supplement the teaching of phonemic awareness skills and letter-sound relationships. Flashcards can be a useful and fun technique when used properly. Flashcards can make a poor reader a better reader. Excessive drilling in long sessions will turn students off to reading altogether. Allowing students to understand each word and then having them see these words in text will greatly contribute to permanent improvements in children’s reading skills. Flashcards can promote fluency and in turn help gain comprehension.