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. 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.
Educators sometimes confuse the following related terms: sight words, high frequency words, decodable words, irregular words.
