Know-Its: The Link To Reading

High Frequency Words are words that children should know without having to use decoding skills. Ideally, every word should be automatic, but beginning readers must use many different strategies to get to that point. (See article on Stretching, etc.) Some words are so common (like the words and, the, and of) that children learn these by repetition or simply by using them in context.

The reader needs these words to make sense of what is being read. The problem comes when a reader doesn’t learn these words by context or repetition. Most beginning readers must work specifically on word recognition of high frequency words until these words become automatic. When reading words is automatic, the reader can focus on the meaning of the text better.

Therefore, word lists of common words becomes a main emphasis of first and second grade instruction. The most common list of words is the Dolch Sight Word Lists. Back in the 1940’s, researchers counted which words were most common in pre-primer books, primer books, 1^st grade books, 2^nd grade books, and 3^rd grade books. They put 220 words into lists for each of these five levels. Teachers still use the Dolch Sight Word Lists along with Fry’s 300 Instant Sight Words (most are the same words). Even though the Dolch list is labeled up to third grade, today’s first graders should learn all 220 to become independent readers. Since high frequency words are so important to the reading process, teachers should spend ample time teaching them in first and second grade.

Many times the terms Sight Words and High Frequency Words are used interchangeably. Technically, words that do not follow phonetic rules are called exceptional words. For our purposes, we will call them sight words because they must be learned by the whole word approach (by sight, not phonics). Words such as they, said, and could do not follow phonetic rules. (Just try it!)

High frequency words are words that are repeated often in text, whether they follow phonetic rules or not. Words such as will, not, and see are common words that also can be phonetically read. However, high frequency words such as of, buy, and through simply must be memorized. Of course, readers should use the first sounds and look through the word, but basically there needs to be much repetition to learn words that do not follow phonetic rules.

So how do we give children repetition? Games are a great way because it takes the monotonous drill out of learning. (See High Frequency Word Games). Breaking the lists down into a small amount of words helps students to not become overwhelmed with so many words to learn. Another way is to use a Sight Word Tally Sheet.

Use flashcards to find twelve words that a student needs to learn. Write them on the Tally Sheet. Everyday, have the child read the words to you. If he/she reads the word correctly, put a tally mark beside that word. If it is incorrect, no tally mark. It takes about two minutes to review the list. The next day, do it again until the child has five tally marks by each word. Then reward the child and start a new list. This system enables you to pinpoint only the words that the child needs to learn. Why keep going over big stacks of words that the child already knows? If you couple this system with playing games with the same flashcards, children learn the words faster. Games with tally sheets keep children engaged in the learning process!