High frequency word can

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Similarities and differences. Definitions, examples, free online games, word lists, captions and activities.

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Contents:

  • What Are High-Frequency Words?
    • High-Frequency Word List
    • Are high-frequency words the same as sight words?
    • Why Teach High-Frequency Words?
    • Are High-Frequency Words Decodable?
  • What are tricky words in Phonics?
    • Are high-frequency words and tricky/irregular words the same?
    • What are some examples of tricky words?
      • Common Tricky/Exception Word List
      • Tricky Words in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)/Reception
      • Tricky Words in Phase 1
      • Tricky Words in Phase 2
      • Tricky Words in Phase 3
      • Tricky Words in Phase 4
      • Tricky Words in Year 1/Phase 5
      • Tricky Words in Year 2/Phase 6
    • What Are Common Exception Words in Phonics?
      • Are Common Exception Words the Same as Tricky Words?
      • Are Common Exception Words the Same as High-Frequency Words?
      • Are Common Exception Words Statutory?
      • Examples of Common Exception Words
        • Common Exception Words in Year 1
        • Common Exception Words in Year 2
        • Common Exception Words in Reception
    • Teaching High-Frequency Words, Tricky Words and Common Exception Words
      • When to Introduce Tricky/Exception Words
      • How to Teach Tricky/Common Exception Words in Phonics
    • Captions and Activities Containing Tricky/Common Exception Words
    • Tricky Words Games
    • Spelling Tricky/Common Exception Words

What Are High-Frequency Words?

High-frequency words are simply words that are used a lot in written language.  Examples of some of the most common English words include ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘to’ and ‘said’.  We’ve reproduced a more comprehensive high-frequency word list below.

High-Frequency Word List

The list below includes 300 high-frequency words from the Children’s Printed Word Database.  It was reproduced in the UK government’s phonics guidance booklet, Letters and Sounds*.  The words are listed in order of frequency.

Click on the following link to download the high-frequency word list as a free pdf.

HIgh-frequency word list 1High-frequency word list 2High-frequency word list 3

*Department for Education and Skills (2007), Letters and sounds: principles and practice of high-quality phonics. Tables from: Masterson, J., Stuart, M., Dixon, M. and Lovejoy, S. (2003) Children’s Printed Word Database: Economic and Social Research Council-funded project, R00023406

Several high-frequency word lists have been compiled by researchers over the years, and we discuss these in our sight words article.  You can use the following link to access a list of the most common words in English compiled from the Oxford dictionary.

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Are High-Frequency Words the Same as Sight Words?

The two terms are often used interchangeably, but definitions of sight words vary.  Some people only class common irregular words as sight words, whereas others say that both regular and irregular words are sight words if they occur frequently in print.  See our article on sight words for more information about this.

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Why Teach High-Frequency Words?

It’s important that children become familiar with high-frequency words because they will encounter some of them in almost every sentence they read. 

Researchers have estimated that around 65% of the words in a piece of text are likely to be in high-frequency word lists like the one we’ve printed above, although the exact percentage can vary depending on the type of text used.

If children can’t decode high-frequency words they will struggle to read and make sense of simple books.  Children will also find writing basic sentences difficult if they can’t spell high-frequency words.

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Are High-Frequency Words Decodable?

Some high-frequency words are easily decodable for beginning readers who have learned the simple alphabetic code.  However, other high-frequency words require knowledge of the complex alphabetic code, so these wouldn’t be decodable for beginning readers. 

For example, the words ‘dad’ and ‘got’ are examples of high-frequency words that could be decoded by youngsters with a basic knowledge of phonics.  However, beginning readers would find the high-frequency words ‘there’ and ‘like’ more difficult to decode.

Nevertheless, most high-frequency words contain some letters with common letter-sound correspondences, so even children with a rudimentary knowledge of phonics can tackle these words with a little bit of help from an adult.

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What are tricky words in Phonics?

Tricky words are words that children can find difficult to read because they contain spelling patterns that aren’t usually taught in the early stages of phonics instruction. 

Children are normally introduced to the basic alphabetic code at the start of phonics instruction and this enables them to decode dozens of individual words. 

However, there are many other words with letter-sound correspondences that aren’t taught in the basic code, so beginning readers find these tricky. 

The short video below provides a simple explanation of tricky words:

The Jolly Phonics programme has used the term ‘tricky words’ for years and the video below shows examples of tricky words being discussed in lessons with beginning readers:

Some phonics programmes don’t use the term tricky words; they use alternative phrases for similar words such as sight words, red words, camera words, irregular words or common exception words.

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Are High-Frequency Words and Tricky/Irregular Words the Same?

Sometimes, but not always.  Some high-frequency words are tricky/irregular, but others follow the basic alphabetic code exactly, so can be described as regular words.  Also, some tricky/irregular words don’t appear often enough in print to be described as high frequency.  

For example:

    • The words ‘the’ and ‘said’ have irregular spellings and they are used very frequently so they are high frequency and irregular/tricky words.
    • The words ‘in’ and ‘at’ are high-frequency words but they have very regular spellings, so they are not tricky words.
    • Words such as ‘crescendo’, ‘quay’ and ‘maestro’ have irregular spellings, so they are tricky, but they don’t appear very often in children’s literature, so they wouldn’t be classed as high-frequency words.

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What are some examples of tricky words?

Many tricky words are common/high-frequency words such as ‘the’, ‘to’, ‘what’, ‘said’ and ‘was’. 

We’ve produced a common tricky/exception word list that contains over 200 words which you can download for free.  The words have been collated from a variety of high-frequency word lists and they’re arranged in groups based on common spelling patterns, sounds or meanings (except for the last group of words which don’t share any obvious patterns).

common tricky-exception word list word

Common tricky-exception words arranged in groups with similar spelling patterns, sounds or meaning.

The information below shows the tricky words that are introduced in the different phonics phases that are commonly followed by schools in England.

Tricky Words in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)/Reception

Children in England start reception in the academic year they turn 5 years old.  The phonics instruction is often split into 4 phases in line with the guidance in the government’s phonics programme, Letters and Sounds. 

However, there is no compulsion for schools to follow these guidelines strictly and some schools will teach words in a different order in accordance with the phonics programme they are following.

Nevertheless, the tricky words shown in the Letters and Sounds phases below will be similar to those in many other phonics programmes.

Tricky Words in Phase 1:

Phase 1 is mostly concerned with improving children’s language, communication and listening skills.  No written words are included in phase 1, although there is often some overlap with phase 2.

Tricky Words in Phase 2:

as, is, his, has, the, to, into, of, no, go, I

Tricky Words in Phase 3:

he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are

Tricky Words in Phase 4:

said, so, have, like, some, come, were, there, little, one, do, when, out, what

Tricky Words in Year 1/Phase 5:

oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, called, asked, water, where, who, again, though, work, mouse, many, laughed, because, different, any, eyes, friends, once, please

See also our list of common exception words in year 1.

Tricky Words in Year 2/Phase 6:

No specific examples for phase 6 were provided in the Letters and Sounds programme; the choice of words was left to the teacher’s discretion.  However, the emphasis in this phase of the programme is on improving children’s spelling and so this phase would naturally include words that don’t follow the most common spelling patterns.

See also our list of common exception words in year 2.

As children progress in phonics they are introduced to more aspects of the advanced alphabetic code and, eventually, this allows them to decode almost all the words they encounter in age-appropriate books. 

However, they are still likely to meet a few words with unusual spelling patterns occasionally.

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What Are Common Exception Words in Phonics?

Common exception words are words that appear frequently in print but contain some letter-sound relationships that are not consistent with the basic alphabetic code that’s taught in early phonics instruction. 

Beginning readers can find these words difficult to decode if they haven’t been taught the irregular spelling patterns in them.

The term ‘common exception words’ is used in the National Curriculum in England. The English programme of study spelling appendix 1 gives the following description:  

“The ‘exception words’ contain GPCs which have not yet been taught as widely applicable, but this may be because they are applicable in very few age-appropriate words rather than because they are rare in English words in general.”  (Page 1)

What this means in plain English is that some of the sounds in these words are represented by spelling patterns that the children aren’t familiar with. 

This might be because the words contain rare or unusual letter-sound relationships or simply because the children just haven’t been taught those spelling patterns yet.

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Are Common Exception Words the Same as Tricky Words? 

The two phrases are often used to describe similar words, but ‘common exception words’ is a more precise term than ‘tricky words’ because it defines words that are both high frequency and irregular in their spelling patterns.

Labelling a word as tricky indicates that it’s difficult to read but it says nothing about how often the word is used in texts.  For example, words such as ‘jeopardy’, ‘freight’ and ‘rheumatism’ would be tricky for beginning readers, but they are unlikely to appear in young children’s books.  Consequently, these words wouldn’t be classed as common exception words.

The Department for Education in England used the phrase tricky words in their Letters and Sounds programme which was published in 2007; however, they have used the expression ‘common exception words’ in more recent publications.

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Are Common Exception Words the Same as High-Frequency Words?

Not exactly, all common exception words are high frequency, but not all high-frequency words are common exception words. 

For example, the words ‘to’ and ‘he’ are common exception words because they occur frequently in print, and they have spellings that are inconsistent with the basic alphabetic code. 

However, the words ‘and’ and ‘can’ are high-frequency words but they have very regular spellings, so they wouldn’t be classed as common exception words.

The diagram below illustrates the relationships between common exception words, tricky words and high-frequency words…

high frequency words tricky words and common exception words

Common exception words could be described as high-frequency tricky words.

Note that there is no uniform definition of sight words.  Some people use the phrase to mean the same thing as high-frequency words and others use it to mean the same thing as irregular/tricky/common exception words.

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Are Common Exception Words Statutory?

Teaching common exception words is a statutory requirement in England but this might not be the case in other regions.

In England, the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (effective from September 2021) mentions common exception words in the Early Learning Goals:

“Word Reading – Children at the expected level of development will:

– Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.” (Page 13)

And the programme of study for primary schools in the English National Curriculum also makes it clear that common exception words need to be taught:

The section on word reading states (amongst other things):

“Pupils should be taught to:

    • read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word.”

Statutory Guidance National Curriculum in England: English Programmes of study.

The section on spelling also says that pupils should be taught to spell common exception words.  However, there is no statutory requirement in the National Curriculum to teach a particular group of common exception words in years 1 and 2… 

“The number, order and choice of exception words taught will vary according to the phonics programme being used.”

National curriculum in England: Key stage 1 – year 1 English programme of study.  Reading notes and guidance.

It is also made clear in the English spelling appendix* that there is no statutory list of common exception words in years one and two.  Example words are provided in the spelling appendix, but it states after the examples:

“- and/or others, according to the programme used.”

*English appendix 1: Spelling.

The spelling word lists for years 3 and 4 and years 5 and 6 are statutory in England.

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Examples of Common Exception Words

In year 1, the words ‘by’ and ‘my’ are given as examples of common exception words.  This is because the letter y in ‘by’ and ‘my’ represents the /igh/ (aɪ) sound that’s found in words like ‘fright’ or ‘fried’. 

Up to this point, children will only have been taught that the letter y represents the sound found in words such as ‘yet’ or ‘yellow’.

In another year 1 exception word, said, the highlighted letters represent the same sound as the letter e in the words bed and jet.  Children who have learned about digraphs will have been taught that the ‘ai’ letter combination normally represents the vowel sound /ai/ (eɪ) found in words such as train or snail.

The exception words included in the English National Curriculum in the UK are words that are used frequently in pupils’ writing (high-frequency words) which is why they are called common exception words.  Children might be given a list of these words to learn in each year of primary school.

The examples below are the common exception words listed in the English programme of study spelling appendix published by the Department for Education in England.

Common Exception Words in Year 1

There are 45 examples of common exception words in year 1…

the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are, were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they, be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by, my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once, ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, house, our

– and/or others, according to the programme used.

Notes:

Regional accents can affect whether words are perceived as exceptions or not.  For example, the words put, push, pull and full are listed as exceptions because the letter u in these words represents the /oo/ (ʊ) vowel sound that’s normally found in words like foot, look and book.  It’s more common for the letter u to represent the /u/ (ʌ) sound that’s spoken in words such as cup, duck and butter.

However, in some parts of the north of England, the /u/ (ʌ) sound isn’t pronounced in any words, so put and but are spoken with the same /oo/ (ʊ) vowel sound and both words rhyme with foot.

Similarly, in the year 2 word list below, the words fast, last, past, class, grass, pass, plant, path and bath are exceptions in some southern English accents where the /ar/ (ɑ:) vowel sound is used, but they are not exceptions in other accents where the a in these words is pronounced (æ), as in cat.

Common Exception Words in Year 2

There are 64 examples of common exception words in year 2…

door, floor, poor, because, find, kind, mind, behind, child, children*, wild, climb, most, only, both, old, cold, gold, hold, told, every, everybody, even, great, break, steak, pretty, beautiful, after, fast, last, past, father, class, grass, pass, plant, path, bath, hour, move, prove, improve, sure, sugar, eye, could, should, would, who, whole, any, many, clothes, busy, people, water, again, half, money, Mr, Mrs, parents, Christmas

– and/or others according to the programme used. 

Note: ‘children’ is not an exception to what has been taught so far but is included because of its relationship with child.

Common Exception Words in Reception

There are no examples of common exception words listed in the current statutory framework for the early years foundation stage, but many schools follow the guidelines set in the Letters and Sounds programme for tricky words.  See ‘Tricky Words in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)/Reception’ in this article.

We’ve also produced a common tricky/exception word list that contains over 200 words that you can download for free.  The words have been collated from a variety of high-frequency word lists and they’re arranged in groups based on common spelling patterns, sounds or meanings (except for the last group of words which don’t share any obvious patterns).

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Teaching High-Frequency Words, Tricky Words and Common Exception Words

Deciding when and how to teach high-frequency words can depend on just how common the individual words are and the complexity of their spelling patterns. 

Simple high-frequency words that follow the basic alphabetic code can be introduced as soon as children have learned the relevant letter-sound correspondences.

This can include some of the most common high-frequency words such as in, it, on, at, and, but, can, up, had, went, not, Mum/Mom, Dad, big, will, back, from, him, get, just, got, if, off and an

There is no reason for children to learn words like these by rote because they all have very regular spelling patterns and children can be taught how to decode and blend them quite early in a phonics programme. 

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When to Introduce Tricky/Exception Words

Some phonics programmes introduce a few tricky words after children have been learning phonics for a few weeks.  This is done to make it easier for them to read captions and whole sentences in children’s books. 

For example, Jolly Phonics* recommend that teachers introduce around 2 tricky words/week after half the letter sounds have been taught. 

*Lloyd, S. (2008) The Phonics Handbook, Jolly Learning Ltd.

John Walker, the founder of the Sounds-Write phonics programme, recommends a similar approach to teaching irregular high-frequency words.

The Letters and Sounds programme, published by the department for education in England, introduces a few tricky words in each phase of the programme.  See our section on examples of tricky words for more information on this.

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How to Teach Tricky/Common Exception Words in Phonics.

Some educators say that tricky/exception words should be learned as whole words by memorising their shapes. The argument is that they can’t be decoded using ‘normal’ phonics rules because they have irregular spelling patterns.

However, we think that trying to rote learn words by focussing on their outlines is unnecessary and unadvisable. 

Alison Clarke has highlighted some of the problems of teaching ‘sight words’ this way in her ‘Spelfabet’ website and studies have demonstrated that children can read irregular words more successfully when they use phonics-based strategies.

This is because almost all ‘irregular’ words contain some letter-sound relationships that are taught in early phonics instruction.  Also, brain and eye-tracking studies have shown conclusively that all words are recognised by the letters in them rather than their shapes.

The best strategy for teaching tricky words is to explain any unfamiliar spelling patterns while highlighting the sections in the words that are consistent with a child’s current phonics knowledge. 

This strategy is in line with the advice from leading phonics programmes and the English programme of study for the National Curriculum in England:

“Phonic knowledge should continue to underpin spelling after key stage 1; teachers should still draw pupils’ attention to GPCs that do and do not fit in with what has been taught so far.”

*English appendix 1: Spelling

Research published by the International Literacy Association (ILA) drew similar conclusions.  It said that teachers should encourage children to use graphophonemic analysis to read both regular and irregular high-frequency words, which basically means that children should pay attention to the letter-sound relationships in words. 

This is the key principle that underpins phonics instruction and it was also one of the key ideas in the researchers 5 principles for teaching high-frequency words.

We elaborate on this strategy and some of the other key principles below…

For example, suppose a child gets stuck when they encounter the word ‘want’ in a passage they are trying to read to you. 

Explain that this is a tricky word but encourage them to sound out the word first using their current phonics knowledge.  It’s likely that they will sound out the letter a as if it represents the same sound as it does in words such as ‘cat’ or ‘Dad’. 

They should realise straight away that it doesn’t sound like a real word if they use this vowel sound.  Tell them what the word really sounds like and explain that the letter a doesn’t stand for its normal sound in this word – so, the letter a is the tricky part of the word.

want

Explain to your children that if a word doesn’t sound right when they read it they should try alternative pronunciations for some of the letters.  But remind them that sometimes they might actually be saying a word correctly, and it may only sound odd because it’s unfamiliar to them. 

Teaching words in groups that have similar spelling patterns is another principle outlined by the researchers in the ILA article we mentioned above.

For the tricky word example we used earlier (want) you could look at other words where the letter a represents the same sound.  For instance, wasp and watch are similar to want in this respect.

The ILA article gives the example of teaching the words some, come, above and love together, but the idea can also be effective for extremely irregular words such as ‘one’, ‘eye’ and ‘two’.

Very few spelling patterns are completely unique.  For example, ‘once’ is similar to ‘one’, and ‘bye’ and ‘dye’ have a similar pattern to ‘eye’. 

And there can sometimes be relationships in meaning even when the words don’t share similar sounds.  For example, ‘twin’, ‘twice’ and twenty have a similar meaning and spelling pattern to the irregular word ‘two’.

If you point these patterns out to a child, they are more likely to remember how to read and spell the words correctly.

See our free common tricky/exception words list for more examples of groups of words with similar spelling patterns.

Another principle is to practice reading tricky/exception words in sentences and books

Although it’s useful to analyse tricky/exception words individually, and in groups with similar spelling patterns (as we’ve discussed above), children also benefit from encountering them within the context of sentences and books.  This helps them to see the relevance of the words they are learning.

However, even relatively simple children’s books can contain a lot of irregular words, so beginning readers often need some adult support to help them read and fully understand these books.  Support could be provided by a teacher reading a book with a whole class or by another adult carer reading a book one-to-one with a child.

‘Decodable’ phonics books can help because these are specifically written to have a limited number of irregular words in them.  Unfortunately, this can also lead to limited storylines in some cases so it’s best to expose kids to a mix of different books to maintain their enthusiasm for reading.  We discuss the best books for beginning readers more fully in a separate article.

Whatever type of book you are reading with a child, point out the tricky bits in words as you come across them, but only do this intermittently.  If you overdo it, you could spoil the flow of the story. 

Ultimately, we want to motivate children to read books independently for pleasure, so it’s as important for children to enjoy reading sessions with an adult as it is for them to pick up new skills.

So, when you encounter a tricky word, it’s OK to just tell the child what the word says and then move on.  You might want to go over some of the words in more detail, and it’s fine to do this occasionally, but it might be better to wait until the end of a chapter or the end of a short book before you do this.

Over time, as children read more widely, they can actually start to figure out some of the irregular words themselves.  This ‘self-learning’ is sometimes done subconsciously as their vocabulary grows and their brains respond to statistical patterns from words they’ve encountered previously.  However, most children still need input from an adult occasionally, even when they’ve been reading for several years.

The special case of ‘the’…

The word ‘the’ is the most frequently used word in the English language, so beginning readers are likely to encounter this quite often in almost every piece of text they are exposed to. 

Contrary to what some people believe, this word is quite regular for anyone who has learned about digraphs and the schwa sound.  However, these ideas aren’t taught in the early stages of phonics instruction, and none of the letters in the word follow the letter-sound correspondences taught in the basic alphabetic code.  So ‘the’ appears to be very irregular for beginning readers. 

Consequently, in this case, it’s best to just tell children what the word says in the early stages, without elaborating on the details.  Later, when you start teaching digraphs, you can point out the similarities it shares with outer words such as ‘this’, ‘that’ and ‘them’.

And you can also explain the pronunciation of the letter e in ‘the’ when you are teaching about the schwa sound.

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Captions and Activities Containing Tricky/Common Exception Words…

As well as looking at tricky words in books, another option is to look at simple sentences and captions that have been prepared beforehand to highlight some specific words.  Captions can provide a bridge between reading individual words and reading books.

We’ve collated some example captions like the ones below and you can download them all as a separate document by clicking on the following link for our free tricky/common exception word captions. 

These captions were originally published in the UK government’s Letters and Sounds programme, but we’ve highlighted some of the tricky/exception spellings in them for your convenience.  The document also contains unhighlighted versions of the captions.

In addition to the captions, the document contains a sentence substitution activity and some yes/no questions.

sentence substitution activity

Ask the children to read the sentence, rub out a word and substitute it with a different word. Continue substituting words to make new sentences.

yes-no questions

You might also want to check out our free tricky/common exception words worksheet which is also available as a PowerPoint slide show.

Children look at each picture and then choose the most suitable tricky/common exception words to complete each caption or sentence.  The answers can be written in or it could be done as a cut and stick exercise.  You could also click and drag the text boxes in the PowerPoint version.

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Tricky Words Games

Some teachers use games to provide variety when they are teaching tricky/common exception words.  Phonics teacher Miss Barrie shares some simple games to help children learn tricky words in the video below…

See also our compilation of Free High-Frequency Words/Sight Words and Tricky/Common Exception Words Online Games.  These games include a mixture of regular high-frequency words and irregular/tricky/common exception words.

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High Frequency Words - Can to Her

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related tags:

Worksheet ID:

00-00-06-047

Description:

High frequency words are words which occur most frequently in written material, for example, «and», «the», «as» and «it». Learning to identify these words will help children read quickly and comfortably.


Asked by: Mr. Mekhi Gutkowski

Score: 4.8/5
(47 votes)

Students can “sound out” these words, so there is no need to memorize them. Don’t follow the regular patterns of English. They don’t sound the way that they look; therefore, they must be memorized. Also known as trick words, outlaw words, or rule breakers.

Can sight words be sounded out?

Sight words are words that are not decodable (cannot be sounded out) for one of two reasons: They do not follow regular phonics rules. The phonics rule has not been taught yet.

Can high frequency words be decoded?

Learning to read involves both decoding and recognizing sight words at a glance. High-frequency words can be decodable or non-decodable.

How do you introduce high frequency words?

How to teach high-frequency words

  1. Teach the spelling ‘th’. …
  2. Ask the children to build the word saying the sounds as they place them in order. …
  3. This can be done with a number of high-frequency words that have the same spelling. …
  4. Another way to build words is to use magnetic letters.
  5. Read the words.

Can you give some examples of high frequency words?

High frequency words are quite simply those words which occur most frequently in written material, for example, «and», «the», «as» and «it». They are often words that have little meaning on their own, but they do contribute a great deal to the meaning of a sentence.

21 related questions found

What is an example of a high frequency?

High frequency words are those that appear most commonly in everyday usage. Some of them are simple nouns or verbs, such as mother and women or write and speak. Many of them are also pronouns (such as I, that, and your) or forms of the verb ‘to be’ (such as are or were) that are quite often used in everyday speech.

How many high frequency words should a reception child know?

In Reception, your child will be given around 45 high frequency words to learn over the year – the aim is for them to be able to recognise these words and to be able to read them. Children learn these words as part of their phonics lessons and may also bring high frequency words home to read.

Is did a high frequency word?

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).

When should you introduce high frequency words?

We recommend teaching 10–15 pre‐reading high frequency words only after students know all the letter names, but before they start phonics instruction. (Students who have not learned their letter names inevitable struggle to learn words that have letters they cannot identify.)

What is tricky word?

A ‘tricky’ word is one that cannot be sounded out. They are words that are non-phonetic. If you sound them out and then try to blend the sounds, you will get a word that does not sound right. They are words that must be recognized by sight.

What is the difference between high frequency words and tricky words?

High-frequency words — A sight word or high-frequency word is a commonly used word that children should be able to memorise by sight. … Tricky words — Tricky or phonically irregular words differ from sight words as children need longer to decode. They are words that cannot simply be sounded out in their head.

Why are high frequency words important?

Why is Learning High Frequency Words so Important? High frequency word acquisition is an important building block in the construction of a child’s ability to read. Mastering a large number of high frequency words enables students to read fluently and focus their attention on making sense of what they are reading.

Are high frequency and irregular words the same?

High-frequency words include sight words and decodable words. Irregular sight words are words that cannot be decoded and don’t follow traditional English spelling rules. There are reasons the words are spelled that way, but it’s usually an obscure rule or adaptation over many years.

Which sight words should be taught first?

Order to teach sight words

Start with the first book and write down words in the order they appear in books.

Should sight words be memorized?

As kids develop their reading skills, being able to memorize sight words (common words that sometimes can’t be sounded out) helps them read fluently. … But for most, it happens over time as they learn to read. So, kids should memorize sight words, especially words with irregular spellings like enough or light.

What is it called when you sound out words?

Phonetic reading and writing is a behavior the child exhibits that involves «sounding out» words the way they are written or writing words the way they sound (again, relating to the way letters represent speech sounds).

How many high frequency sight words are there?

The Dolch list contains 315 high-frequency words. Dolch sight words are based on high-frequency words that students in Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade encounter in children’s books. Dolch words are listed by age group (e.g. Kindergarten, Grade 1, etc.).

What is a high frequency word assessment?

The High-Frequency Words Assessments help measure a student’s ability to recognize and read high-frequency words, or sight words. Assessments that target top high-frequency words are available in printable and projectable formats and as eAssessments.

What are Decodable high frequency words?

A high frequency word is a decodable word that students need to know in order to be fluent readers. These words may follow rules that a student will not learn until after they “need” to know them.

How many high frequency words should a 3rd grader know?

At the end of third grade, students are expected to read and write the first 200 high frequency words.

How many high frequency words should a second grader know?

Children will read commonly used words by sight. They begin to spell the sight words. A good goal is to learn 220 or more sight words by the end of 2nd grade.

What is the meaning of high frequency?

High frequency is any radio frequency in the range of 3 to 30 MHz. … Humans find mid and high frequency noise to be the most annoying, because human ears are better equipped to hear these than low frequencies. High frequency is any radio frequency in the range of 3 to 30 MHz.

What are the Phase 3 tricky words?

What are the Phase 3 Tricky Words? Phase 3 Tricky Words include we, be, me, he, she, my, they, was, her & all.

How many high frequency words should a Year 2 child know?

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS FOR READING & SPELLING

Most children will be able to read many other words as well. Reception year, 45 words to be achieved by the end of the first year at school and approximately 155 words to be learned between Years 1 (age 5 — 6) and 2 (age 6 — 7).

What are common exceptions Year 1?

The statutory requirements of the Year 1 Spelling Curriculum include the common exception words: the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are, were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they, be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by, my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once, ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, …

Teaching high frequency words and sight words is a key practice in most early learning classrooms. You might be wondering what’s the difference between the two sets of words, and how to help students learn these words. Keep reading to find out! (If you are looking for ways to practice these words in quick games, read part 2 of the series.)

What’s the difference between high frequency words and sight words?

High frequency words and sight words are often thought to mean the same thing. However, there are some subtle differences between the two terms.

High frequency words are the words that appear most frequently in written text. Some examples of high frequency words include: the, to, have, went. These words are included in popular word lists, such as the Fry and Dolch lists, as well as lists from various textbook companies.

Photo of a list of 44 common high frequency words.

This is part of an extensive word list from This Reading Mama.

Sight words are words that a student can read quickly and automatically, or by sight. As adults, most words we read are sight words. We don’t spend much mental energy solving sight words – we just know them. Sight words don’t fall under any particular list – they can vary from student to student. Early sight words often include the student’s name and names of family members (mom, dad), names of friends and other words that are important to the student. They can also include some high frequency words.

When teaching high frequency words, our goal is to increase the number of words that a student knows by sight. We hope that the most common words (high frequency words) become sight words for our students.

Do kids just have to memorize high frequency words?

A common misperception about high frequency words is that the only way kids can learn to read them is by memorizing them. This is not exactly true. In fact, reading researcher Nell Duke recommends that we teach high frequency words in much the same way we teach decodable words. (Her article is really helpful.)

Some high frequency words are phonetically regular (such as “can,” “in” and “and.”) These words can be solved by “sounding them out” – saying each sound and blending those sounds together. Frequent practice reading these kinds of words (in isolation and within continuous text) helps them become sight words.

Other high frequency words are phonetically irregular. You can’t avoid using words like “the” and “was” until kids are in late 1st or even 2nd grade. They show up often enough that kids need to know them.

When teaching irregular words like these, it is still important to help students look carefully at the letters from left to right as they learn these words. This careful attention helps kids notice the letters and distinguish similar words, such as “is” and “in.”

As students are learning these irregular words, it’s still important to help them pay attention to the letter sounds. For instance, in “you,” the y says /y/ – it’s regular sound. Connecting to something known makes learning new things easier.

Finally, it can be helpful to teach these words in groups, such as “to, do” or “we, he, me, she.” Focusing on the similarities between these words helps students use what they know about one word to read a similar word.

Why teach high frequency words?

For very early readers, high frequency words help students to monitor their reading. At times, beginning readers point to a word, but say something completely different. Teaching high frequency words (even just a few) allows them to “anchor” their reading to the text – when they point to the word “like” they say “like.”

For slightly more advanced readers, increasing sight words improves fluency, particularly reading rate and phrasing. When students know words automatically, they are more likely to read the words quickly and in meaning-based phrases. Reading words automatically can also allow more mental energy to be devoted to expression, the role of punctuation, comprehension, and solving unknown words.

Another reason for teaching high frequency words, is that well-known words can help readers solve new words. If a student knows the word “look” automatically, it can help them read the word “book” by using the “-ook” part of “look.” Developing the ability to use a known word to solve an unfamiliar word helps students to solve words quickly, on-the-run.

What words should I start with?

Initially, you will want to start with words that your students are seeing over and over, in multiple settings. Even though they are not high frequency words, you might start with the names of the students in your class. Names are powerful words for young readers. Your students will be very engaged as you work with their names.

To select actual high frequency words, think about words that appear often in your classroom instruction. If your shared reading books/poems include “I” and “like,” teach those words to your students. Or if your first guided reading books say “We can…” teach those words.

This poem is part of the dramatic play school center – but any shared reading poem will work. In this poem students can practice words such as: up, I, you.

One final consideration… When selecting additional words to focus on, frequently choose words your students “partially know.” This means words that they sometimes know quickly and sometimes have to think about – or they may know it in one book, but not consistently in another. Your students will learn partially known words faster than unknown words (they already know something about that word). That will help them learn these words more rapidly and feel successful. This is especially true for your students who need the most support with reading. 

How many words should I focus on at a time?

There is not a magic number of high frequency words to work on at a time. Instead, it’s important to choose a number that doesn’t overwhelm the student. For very beginning readers, you might choose to focus on 2-3 words at a time. As students learn how to learn words, you can increase the number a bit. As with most learning, success breeds success. Choosing a small enough number of words so the child feels successful will lead to accelerated learning down the road.

What are some meaningful ways to practice high frequency words?

Provide meaningful practice when teaching high frequency words. This is best accomplished by practicing the words in continuous text, rather than in isolation. Continuous text can include shared reading, texts created through interactive or shared writing, or books or readers’ theater scripts used for independent or guided reading.

Image of two pages from a Readers' Theater script of the Little Red Hen. The pig, cat, and dog all say "Not I," which helps with teaching high frequency words.

Select readers’ theater scripts that contain a number of basic high frequency words.

It is particularly powerful if students can encounter the same word in multiple texts throughout a day:

  • If a group of students is learning the word “can,” you might include the word in your morning message.
  • Select a morning Question of the Day that includes the word “can.”
  • Later, select a few poems for shared reading that include the word “can.”
  • Your guided reading book for that group could also include the word “can” on several pages.
Photo of a question in a pocket chart with a heading that says "Question of the Day." The question is "Do you like red?" with room for students to respond under cards that say "yes" and "no." The questions include several high frequency words.

The Question of the Day routine can be a meaningful and engaging way to practice high frequency words in continuous text.

Allowing for repeated, intentional practice helps the word become known in multiple settings – moving from partially known to well known.

How can students practice words in continuous text?

When students practice words in continuous text, it provides meaningful and authentic reading opportunities (how often do YOU read words from a flashcard?) As students are reading, you can support their learning of high frequency words in the following ways:

  • Invite the class to locate the word in the morning message (with their eyes). Then have one student point to the word in the message. Have the class read the sentence with that word chorally.
  • As you read a shared reading poem, express amazement that the word has appeared again in this text. Point it out or invite a student (who partially knows the word) to find the word.
  • Before beginning the guided reading book (or after finishing it), have students turn to a page that contains the word and frame it with their fingers (see photo.)
 Photo of a book. Student is "framing" the high frequency word "was" by placing one finger in front of the word, and one finger after the word.

Children can “frame” a high frequency word with their fingers before or after reading the book.

Don’t overdue this work. Simply reading the word within the text helps the child learn the word. Focusing on 2-4 words in a text is enough to allow practice without taking away from the meaning of the text.

Finally, as students are learning new words, remember to help them connect reading and writing as they learn the word.:

  • As you use the word in interactive writing, invite a student to write that word on the chart for you.
  • Following guided reading, engage the group in a brief interactive writing experience that includes the word. Alternately, you could dictate a sentence from the book (containing the focus word) for them to write.
  • During writers’ workshop, nudge students to spell the word correctly, consulting a familiar text to see that they spelled it correctly.
Example of an interactive writing text that says "I can see a lion at the zoo." students wrote the following high frequency words: I, can, see, at, the.

Students can write high frequency words they are learning during an interactive writing session.

These intentional teacher moves will help your students to know the word across multiple contexts.

Are there other ways to practice high frequency words?

High frequency words can also be practiced in isolation – this means by working on the word alone, not within the context of the sentence. You want to use this approach sparingly, because reading is not made up of words in isolation. You run the risk of students knowing a word on a flashcard, but not recognizing it when they see it within a text.

However, it is appropriate to practice words in isolation for a few minutes a day. This can help students focus on the “fine details” of a word – the specific order of the letters in the word, the difference between two similar words, etc. Practicing words in isolation also allows for more intense practice of individual words – you can make sure the child sees the word frequently when words are practiced in isolation. Just remember to pull that word back into continuous text for additional practice.

Photo of a trail game with high frequency words printed in the spaces. The game includes a fall scene in the background.

Part 2 of this blog offers several suggestions for quick and easy ways to practice high frequency words in isolation.

Pin this blog post to refer to these tips later!

Red words on white text say "High Frequency Words: tips for teaching words in meaningful ways." Includes a  photo of interactive writing where students wrote the high frequency words from the sentence.

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