by Sue Klapec
As a reading specialist and first grade teacher, I'd like to provide a few insights into the approach to teaching sight words and high-frequency words in primary classrooms. High-frequency words, frequently encountered in print, are exemplified by lists such as Fry's and the Dolch Words list, which include common words like "the," "of," "and," "to," and "in."
In many Kindergarten classrooms, it's customary for reading programs to introduce 2-3 sight words weekly. The reading program in my school district requires me to send home a list of 5-6 words weekly with my first graders. Undoubtedly, learning sight words and high-frequency words plays a crucial role in a student's reading journey. However, it's essential to tread carefully when emphasizing the rote memorization of sight words, particularly during the development of decoding skills.
While it might seem intuitive that words are stored in our visual memory given how effortlessly adults recognize most words, the assumption that repeated exposure and drills with flashcards alone will suffice for children to learn them is flawed. Scientific evidence debunks this notion, as reading experts and cognitive scientists continue to refine strategies and practices, moving away from approaches that rely on rote memorization.
The memorization of words hinges on recalling whole words from memory and often depends on visual cues. Previous strategies have involved creating mental pictures of words based on their shape and letter size. Admittedly, I've used these mnemonic devices in the past when introducing sight words to my students. Here are some examples of visual cues:
One significant drawback of memorizing whole words is its failure to facilitate the connection between letters and sounds. Without this crucial link, learners struggle to integrate letters or letter sequences with pre-existing knowledge, making sight word acquisition exceedingly challenging. It's like attempting to memorize a string of digits, such as phone numbers. Have you ever found yourself sitting with your child, tirelessly practicing their sight words in preparation for a weekly test, only to discover they've forgotten the words a week later? It's a frustrating experience for both parents and teachers alike. Teachers are equally dismayed when students consistently fail to recall sight words, or worse, can recite them in isolation during tests but fail to recognize them within connected text.
But what if I told you there's a more effective approach to learning high-frequency words and retaining them? Enter orthographic mapping—a highly efficient strategy for teaching high-frequency words.
Wait... orthographic mapping? What exactly does that entail? The term "ortho" meaning "true" or "correct," combined with "graphic," the representation of words with proper letters, reflects the essence of orthographic mapping. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, orthographic mapping involves identifying the letters or letter combinations (graphemes) that correspond to each sound (phoneme) within a word. During this process, students say the word, touch or tap the individual sounds, and then write the corresponding letters. Here are a couple of examples:
Linnea Ehri, one of the most influential and widely cited reading scientists of the past four decades, explains that orthographic mapping essentially constitutes the process of making connections that enable sight word reading. Initially, these connections entail linking individual graphemes—the visual representations of letters in the word—to the individual phonemes, or sounds, heard in the word. If learners can consciously and explicitly establish these letter-sound connections after just a few exposures, the word will automatically become a sight word for the reader.
Having a foundation of grapheme-phoneme relationships is crucial in facilitating these connections. In my opinion, introducing high-frequency words and sight words into reading instruction before students have mastered these letter-sound relationships can lead to confusion and frustration. Therefore, I advocate starting with high-frequency words that are easier to decode for beginning readers, using letter-sound relationships that have already been introduced, and reserving the more challenging words for later instruction.
In my classroom, students engage in the weekly practice of mapping their sight words. Through this process, we encounter numerous high-frequency words with irregular spelling patterns for some of the sounds within the word. We refer to these words as "heart words," as they require memorizing certain components of the word by heart. Either they deviate from the regular phonics patterns we have already covered, or they include a letter combination that has yet to be introduced. Here are some examples illustrating how we approach mapping "heart words" in my classroom:
When introducing a "heart" word, I first pinpoint the components of the word that align with the spelling rules we've learned, emphasizing the regularities. Next, I highlight the irregular parts of the word. To visually distinguish these irregularities, we draw a heart above the tricky parts of the word. This approach significantly aids my students in retaining their sight words each week. If you haven't experimented with mapping high-frequency words using this method with your child or students, I highly recommend giving it a try! To get started, I've included a free heart word mapping resource that you can utilize at home or in your classroom. You can laminate it, place it in a sheet protector, or slide it into a dry-erase sleeve and use it with a dry-erase marker. Give orthographic mapping a try! I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences with this strategy!
Sources used for this blog post include:
The Essential Linnea Ehri, by Stephen Parker
Online Etymology Dictionary