
Write the word on the board (or show it on a card) and spell it aloud pointing to each letter.

Teach new high frequency words before students encounter them in text they are reading.Follow a consistent procedure for teaching students to read and spell a high frequency word that is multisensory and includes multiple exposures.Teachers can also select words to teach from word lists such as the Fry 100 List (the 100 most common words used in English, ranked in order of frequency, Fry, 1980). Reading programs typically incorporate some instruction of high frequency words into daily lessons. There is no definitive list of which high frequency words should be taught at which grade level or at which time of year in a grade level. Over time, many words that young students read by applying decoding skills eventually become sight words – that is, students learn to read them automatically by sight through the orthographic mapping process. When a teacher introduces a new high frequency word, it is helpful to point out to children if it is irregular or if it is decodable using the phonics concepts the children have learned.Īt first, high frequency words are the words young students learn to read by sight (e.g., the, what) along with words that are meaningful to each child (e.g., family names, name of their town). Some high frequency words are irregular – they are not phonetic and must be read as a unique word (e.g., the, was, from, have, of, there, want, you, said, does). Some high frequency words are decodable – they can be “sounded out” using regular phonics concepts (e.g., in, and, had, that, him, did, then, with, down, at, on, can, like). Teachers introduce these words as soon as kindergarten if their students are ready.
#SIGHT WORDS LIST HOW TO#
Because high frequency words are essential to learning how to read, teachers should begin to teach some high frequency words as sight words to children in primary grades at the same time children are being taught how to use phonics to decode words.

High frequency words are the words most commonly used in the English language. Sight wordsare words that are instantly recognized and identified without conscious effort. Each child will learn at their own pace and establishing a solid foundation in sight words will set them up for success as they progress in learning to read.Educators sometimes confuse the following related terms: sight words, high frequency words, decodable words, irregular words. The Dolch word list does, however, include 220 words, sometimes known as high frequency words sight words, that are broken up into five different lists:Įach Dolch sight word list corresponds to a particular grade level, but by no means should a child be rushed through the lists to make sure they match up. In my opinion, the Fry words are much more comprehensive as they cover a larger number of high-frequency words and common words and they are more up-to-date than the Dolch sight words. The Fry lists are also fairly common and my own personal preference when it comes to teaching sight words. Teaching sight words like those in the Dolch word lists ensures that your students will not only read more fluently but that they’ll retain and comprehend more of what they read as well.ĭolch words are basic sight words typically the ones that most people know of, although there are other lists out there. Well, if a student has to stop reading every time they come across the words it or is because they need to sound them out, their fluency and comprehension would suffer greatly. On the path of learning to read, words like these act like big stop signs since they can’t be decoded, meaning kids can’t sound them out. They’ll learn the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that those letters make and as they progress, they’ll learn to sound out vowel teams and consonant blends.īut, what happens when they come across a word that doesn’t follow the typical phonetic rules like the, was, or of? When we’re teaching students to read, we’re working on a number of different concepts that will help them sound out the words that are in front of them. Before we get to the lists themselves, it may help to understand why sight words are so important.
