International Journal of Education ISSN 1948-5476 2013, Vol. 5, No. 4 www.macrothink.org/ije 37 Strategies to Teach Sight Words in an Elementary Classroom Rachel Blackwell 1,* & Sarah Laman 2 1 Educational Specialist in Elementary Education, University of West Georgia, 1601 Maple St. Carrollton, GA 30118, USA 2 Candidate for Masters in Education, University of Science Arts and Technology *Corresponding author: Tel: 1-404-771-9982 E-mail: Rb2mm129@yahoo.com Received: July 17, 2013 Accepted: September 18, 2013 Published: October 22, 2013 doi:10.5296/ije.v5i4.4024 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ije.v5i4.4024 Abstract The theoretical framework within which this article defines and describes the teaching of reading in early childhood education is derived from the work Ehri (1995). Ehri is professor of educational psychology at New York University. Professor Ehri describes four phases to the process of learning how to read. The four phases are pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic, and consolidated alphabetic (Ehri, 1995). Once the reader has gone through these four stages, they are then able to move forward towards fluency in reading by memorizing sight words. At the end of these processes the student will then be able to achieve literacy. Keywords: sight words; dolch list; reading