High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (2024)

High frequency words are the most common words in texts, the ones that appear most often. You might sometimes hear them called sight words. To break down the difference a bit, take a look at this:

High frequency words

  • The most frequently used words in texts (especially in beginning children’s books)
  • Can be regularly spelled (no surprises – like the words “can” or “like”), or…
  • Can also have irregular spellings / surprising or tricky sounds (like the words “four” or “does”)

Sight words

  • Words that a reader knows instantly, by sight

In a nutshell, you’re trying to teach your students words that appear frequently in texts, so that these words eventually become instant words for the students to know by sight!

In this blog, I’ll walk you through some of the best ways to teach high frequency words. I’ll also go through which high frequency word lists you should be using!All of the resources you’ll see today come from my high frequency word resources!

High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (1)

When it comes to high frequency words, there is quite a range of words that fall into this category! Sometimes, these words are decodable in the primary grades based on the phonics skills students have already learned.

For instance, many high frequency words are simple CVC words. The word “can,” a CVC word, is considered a high frequency word. If students have this knowledge of phonics, they would be able to successfully decode this word. The “c” makes the /k/ sound, the “a” makes the short vowel/ă/ sound, and the “n” makes the /n/ sound. “/k//ă//n/.” (Depending upon your dialect of English, the a may sound a little extra “whiny” or “nasal-y” due to the n that comes after it, but this is still considered to be a regular sound.)

Other high frequency words follow a variety of phonics patterns, such as the silent e in “like” or the consonant-l-e pattern in “little.” These are both examples of regularly-spelled words.

But… if you know anything about the English language, then you know it can be difficult and occasionally inconsistent! Sometimes these high frequency words – the most frequently used words! – can actually be really tricky words /irregular words.

​What I mean by this is that many of these words don’t follow traditional phonics rules. Let’s look at a couple of high frequency words for young learners:

  • “come” – if this followed traditional phonics rules of a CVCe word, the “e” at the end of this word would make the “o” into a long vowel sound (and therefore the word would be pronounced as the word “comb” is); however, you don’t pronounce this word /k//ō/ /m/; instead it’s pronounced /k/ /ŭ/ /m/
  • “of” – if this followed traditional phonics rules of a VC word, the word would be pronounced /ŏ/ /f/; instead, it’s pronounced/ŭ/ /v/

​Some of these words come from the oldest layers of English, meaning that they were some of the first written down. They have retained ages-old spelling patterns from English, which don’t always coincide with our current spelling patterns and pronunciations.

So, if Kindergarten students, first grade students, or second grade students are coming across these new words in a text, these irregularly spelled words will not be decodable words for them (they can’t sound them out as easily as they can for regularly spelled words). This is one reason why students need lots of practice with these irregularly-spelled high frequency words!

When I was first trained in how to teach reading (in my undergraduate teacher prep program), I was taught to have kids learn these words by paying attention to how they look visually. Even during some professional development, I was taught to have students “memorize” high frequency words just by looking at them on flash cards.

Especially with the irregularly spelled words (which are sometimes called “heart words”), the idea was that “since they don’t follow a pattern, students just need to remember them.” However, that’s not entirely true!

While students DO need to learn and remember the “tricky parts” of words like “come,” they actually need to apply phonics (letter-sound) knowledge to reading all words, even the irregularly spelled ones.

Our brains learn words through a process called orthographic mapping. Orthographic mapping is the “in the brain” process of forming connections between letters and sounds. The result of this process is that written words are stored in the brain, so that readers recognize them automatically (without sounding them out). For more information on this, read my post entitled “How (And Why!) To Map Irregularly-Spelled High Frequency Words.”

High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (2)

When we teach a high frequency word – even an irregularly spelled one – we want to do it an effective way, where we talk to our students about the meaning of the word, the sounds in the word, and the spelling of the word (this is based on research).

In the photo above, students trace the word, find and circle the word, push the individual sounds (/th/ /ă/ /t/) into boxes as they say them, write the individual sounds, read the word, and write the word. This activity is an independent practice that comes after direct instruction on the word (where you introduce it, help students understand how the word “that” is used in language, and teach them the connections between the letters and sounds in the word).

Again, we need to follow this process even when a word is irregularly spelled! With the word “come,” for example, you might:

  1. Use the word in an example sentence and have students make up their own example sentences.
  2. Have students segment the word orally.
  3. Map the word into sound boxes and show them the sounds that are familiar to them (/k/ for c and /m/ for m), as well as the surprising vowel sound (the short u sound for o, rather than a long o due to the silent e).

Then, if a student is reading and gets to an irregularly-spelled word that has been taught, but they don’t recognize it, you can still encourage them to sound it out! If they don’t recognize the “tricky part” at first, they may end up self-correcting once they blend. And if not, you can prompt, “Which sound is tricky?”

Because high frequency words appear often in texts, we want students to be able to read them quickly and easily. This helps build their overall reading fluency!

You’ll want to work on both irregularly spelled and regularly spelled high frequency words. I teach students to read AND spell these words (learning to spell them actually helps them with reading, too!). Irregularly spelled words usually take students longer to master, but we also want to cover regularly spelled words because students will see them often in text. For example, you’ll want to spend more time on the word “can” than “lag.” “Can” is regularly spelled, but it’s much more common for students to see than the word “lag,” so it deserves more time and practice.

Some students will need only 1-4 exposures to a word in order to learn it as a sight word. Some students, however, will require dozens of exposures. To give students the repetition and practice they need, it’s important to have lots of high frequency word practice activities on hand.

For example, here’s a fun way to have students review their high frequency words – have them play games to review!

High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (3)
High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (4)
High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (5)
High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (6)

Another great way to have students learn their high frequency words is to see them in the context of a passage. This is the whole point of teaching students high frequency words – they need to be able to recognize them as they read. In my high frequency word resources, students have an opportunity to do just that!

High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (7)

Students can complete these high frequency word activities as part of their phonics lessons, in small groups, or in an individual setting.

When it comes to deciding which high frequency word list to use, I recommend either the Fry list (my preference) or the Dolch list.

  1. Fry Sight Words:
    • Created by Dr. Edward Fry, this list is organized by frequency and includes 1,000 words. The first 300 words in the list make up a majority of all words in any general text.
  2. Dolch Sight Words:
    • Developed by Dr. Edward William Dolch, this list covers frequently used words in children’s literature. They are categorized by grade level into pre-primer, primer, first grade, second grade, and third-grade levels.’

I have bundles of high frequency word worksheets, games, and passages that follow the Fry list or the Dolch list!

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High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (9)

For my High Frequency Word Products, I have Focus Sheets, Activities, and Games available for these subsets of the Fry and Dolch lists:

I also have an editable version in case you want to use a different word list than Fry or Dolch!

Conclusion

High frequency words serve as stepping stones for a student’s literacy proficiency, enabling early readers to navigate written texts with confidence. By understanding what high frequency words are, implementing effective teaching strategies, and choosing an appropriate word list, you can empower students and help build their fluency!

Happy teaching!

Related Posts:

High Frequency Words: What They Are, How to Teach Them, and Which List to Use - Learning at the Primary Pond (2024)

FAQs

What order to teach high frequency words? ›

A: There is no one set prescribed order to teach sight words. Some teachers and parents teach the sight words from the Dolch or Fry lists in alphabetical order. Others use the lists and create their own order. Consider using the Frequency Fry List that has words ranked by the frequency of use for reading and writing.

What is the strategy for teaching high frequency words? ›

Look, cover, write, check: It is a popular way to teach high frequency words to the students. Children say the word in a loud voice as well as spell and write these words correctly. This method is effective for word recognition, of the words as well as memorization of the sounds.

What are high frequency word lists? ›

These words are fundamental for effective reading and writing skills among preschool-age students and older. High-frequency word lists for preschool will include common words like "the," "and," "is," "it," and "was." The idea or goal of sight words is that students come to recognize them by sight to help fluency.

What is the lesson objective for high frequency words? ›

Lesson Objectives: The student will be able to recognize the short a sound in high frequency words. Students will be able to demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

What order should sounds be taught? ›

In general, the 'basic code' of the primary letters and short vowel sounds and common digraphs such as th, ch and sh should be introduced and taught before the 'advanced code' of vowel combinations, r-controlled vowel combinations and (example teach m, t, s & short vowels before adding in the vowel combinations, r- ...

How do you teach the first 100 high frequency words? ›

When reading to your children, try and encourage them to speak up every time they hear you mention a particular high frequency word. This works great as a teaching method, as it pairs an enjoyment of storytelling with a development of vocabulary.

How do you teach high frequency words to preschoolers? ›

5 Ways to Make Learning Sight Words Easier for Your Kids
  1. Tip 1: Expose your child to sight words early on.
  2. Tip 2: Make read-alouds more interactive.
  3. Tip 3: Engage all of their senses.
  4. Tip 4: Sort sight words into categories.
  5. Tip 5: Read and play with sight words daily.
May 17, 2021

What are the strategies used by teachers in teaching speaking at high school? ›

The researcher found that there are four strategies used by the teachers: role play, interview, describing picture, and storytelling. Of these four strategies, role play is the most frequently used by the teacher because in this strategy involves many students so many students are active in learning.

How do you help high frequency words? ›

  1. Games! Playing games is a fun way for children to rehearse and practise high-frequency words. ...
  2. Keeping the words in sight. ...
  3. Reminders in reading. ...
  4. Be high-frequency word detectives. ...
  5. Make the most of online resources too!

Why is it important to teach high frequency words? ›

Integrating high-frequency words into phonics lessons allows students to make sense of spelling patterns for these words. To do this, high-frequency words need to be categorized according to whether they are spelled entirely regularly or not.

How do you assess high frequency words? ›

For assessment purposes, the words are read out of context and in isolation, because they should be instantly recognizable as encapsulated units by students. If a student has to stop and “tap out” or “say the sounds of each letter in the word” before saying it correctly, this should be noted.

How do teachers teach high frequency words? ›

Write short phrases or sentences that contain high-frequency words for students to read aloud. If the student hesitates on a word, say the word and have him/her repeat it while looking at the card. Then have the student repeat the entire phrase or sentence aloud. ❏ Challenge a student to use a word in a sentence.

What is the goal of high frequency words for IEP? ›

Incorporating High Frequency Words in IEP Goals

Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, an IEP goal could be “Student will correctly read and recognize 50 high frequency words with 80% accuracy by the end of the school year.”

How do you teach high frequency irregular words? ›

How to teach:
  1. Choose one word (example: was). Write it on the board, a handout, or flashcard (or all three). ...
  2. Introduce the word. ...
  3. Repeat. ...
  4. Explain what's different about this word. ...
  5. Tell students how the word is spelled. ...
  6. Prompt students to repeat what you just said. ...
  7. Check for understanding. ...
  8. Reinforce.

Which word families to teach first? ›

1. One word family: start with short vowel /a/ The first step is to write words in the family of /a/. As a Montessori teacher, I always started with the /at/ family (cat, sat, rat, mat, hat, bat).

How many high frequency words should you introduce at a time? ›

We recommend teaching 10–15 pre‐reading high frequency words only after students know all the letter names, but before they start phonics instruction.

References

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