Sight words are a great place to start for literacy goals on your students’ IEPs. There any many options for sight word IEP goals depending on what level your students are. I’ll show you how to make IEP goals for sight words for your students.
Picture Identification
The place I like to start with sight word goals is actually with pictures. I use Edmark, so before I start having students identify words, I will have them identify the pictures of the corresponding words. Need data sheets? Shop mine here!
Example picture identification IEP goal: Given pictures and a verbal directive, student will identify the verbalized picture from a field of 3 with 90% accuracy averaged weekly for 4 of 5 weeks as measured by teacher checklist.
Picture/Word Identification
After a student masters picture identification, then we move on to picture/word identification. I paid the picture with the word in this method. This is a great way to introduce reading sight words.
Example picture/word identification IEP goal: Given picture/word cards and a verbal directive, student will identify the verbalized word from a field of 3 with 90% accuracy averaged weekly for 4 of 5 weeks as measured by teacher checklist.
Functional Sight Word Identification
Next, I work on functional sight word identification. Like I mentioned, I use the Edmark Reading Program with many of my students. This is a functional word curriculum. So, after a student masters picture/word identification, I fade the picture out and have them read just the words. The Edmark program is great for sight word readers.
Example functional sight word identification IEP goal: Given functional sight words and a verbal directive, student will read the word with 90% accuracy averaged weekly for 4 of 5 weeks as measured by teacher checklist.
Match Picture to Word
Another great sight word IEP goal is matching pictures to words. I have done this both ways- giving a field of words and one picture or a field of pictures and one word. Both are a great way to teach comprehension of the words the student is reading.
Example matching picture to word IEP goal: Given a word and field of 3 pictures, student will match the word to the corresponding picture with 90% accuracy averaged weekly for 4 of 5 weeks as measured by teacher checklist.
Grade Level Sight Word Identification
If you have a student working more on grade level content, grade level sight word identification is a good way to go. I typically use this goal if I student spends a significant amount of time in the general education setting and they are a phonetic reader.
Example grade level sight word identification IEP goal: Given grade level sight words and a verbal directive, student will identify the verbalized word from a field of 3 with 90% accuracy averaged weekly for 4 of 5 weeks as measured by teacher checklist.
Read Sight Words in a Story
Another great sight word IEP goal is to read sight words in a given story. While reading the story with a student, point to the word they need to read, and direct them to read the word. This is a great goal for beginning readers.
Example reading sight words in a story IEP goal: Given a story and verbal directive, student will read the given word in the story with 80% accuracy averaged weekly for 4 of 5 weeks as measured by teacher checklist.
Sight word IEP goals are a great way to work on early reading skills. There are sight word IEP goals for students of all levels. Which sight word goal will you try with your students? Let me know in the comments! Need more IEP goal ideas? Check out this blog post for math IEP goal ideas!
Find the Editable Data sheets for IEP goals here.
FREE DOWNLOAD
Use this FREE preference assessment to learn about student interests to include in the IEP! This helps for a more well rounded IEP should the student ever leave you or your district. This is a free download!
Learn more about Simple Self-Contained Setup 101®: the bingeable online course made specifically for self-contained special educators! Reduce overwhelm and anxiety during back-to-school season with the proven methods I teach you in this course! Click here to learn more and join the waitlist now!
Just wanted to say thank you for this post, and I hope all is well! I work on IEPs for the entire range from K-12 but, with my classroom experience being in 9-12, writing goals for younger students is much more challenging. Thanks for sharing these ideas so I can work off of them when assigning sight word goals!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m so glad some of these ideas were helpful to you! Good luck!