Sight words and high-frequency words: what they are and how to practice them

What sight words are

Understood describes sight words as common words that schools expect kids to recognize instantly, by sight, without sounding them out. Being able to do that supports faster, more fluent reading. Some schools call them high-frequency words, and the same article lists other names such as star words, core words and popcorn words. In England the national curriculum calls the words with unusual spelling-sound links "common exception words", and some phonics programs call them "tricky words".

One label covers two kinds of word. Plenty of words that kids see all the time follow the rules of phonics, so they can be sounded out. Others don't sound the way they are spelled: Understood gives "of", "to" and "was" as examples. Some classroom lists show the difference with colors, with rule-following words in green and tricky, irregularly spelled words in red.

Should children memorize them?

Partly. The What Works Clearinghouse practice guide for kindergarten through third grade says that because these words occur so often, learning to recognize them quickly speeds up reading and leaves more attention for meaning. Its expert panel recommends teaching both regular and irregular high-frequency words. The larger recommendation this advice belongs to, teaching children to decode words, analyze word parts and write words, was rated as having strong evidence.

The guide separates the two kinds of word. For regular words, children first use their letter-sound skills to work out the word, then practice reading it until it comes quickly. Irregular words have exceptions to the usual sound-spelling patterns, and the guide suggests teaching them as whole words. The University of Florida's UFLI project adds a useful detail: learning to sound out these words makes committing them to memory much more successful, and for what UFLI calls "heart words", where only one or two letters break the usual pattern, children only have to learn those letters by heart.

Whether a word counts as tricky also depends on timing. UFLI calls a word temporarily irregular when a child has not yet learned the letter-sound correspondences in it, and permanently irregular when its sounds are unique to that word or to very few words. The English national curriculum makes a similar point for Year 1: the number, order and choice of exception words taught varies with the phonics program being used. A word that is tricky now can become an ordinary one once the class has learned the sounds in it.

Dolch, Fry and tricky-word lists

UFLI explains that in 1936 E. W. Dolch identified the 220 most common words in the text children read. His list includes many easily decodable words, such as "it" and "get", along with some that have irregular parts, such as "was" and "said". UFLI describes Fry's list as covering the words readers need to be able to read and comprehend instantly. Your child's school may use one of these lists, another list or its own, so the teacher's list is the one to follow.

In England, the national curriculum asks Year 1 pupils to read common exception words while noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where they occur in the word. By Year 2, it says, pupils' reading of such words, with "you", "could", "many" and "people" as examples, should be secure. The sources used for this guide do not give a single national list for the United States.

How to practice at home

Ask the teacher which words the class is working on, then pick very few. The practice guide describes a "Star Words" activity in which a child has three to five words on cards joined by a ring. Through the week, other adults, parents included, ask the child to read the words, and a star goes on a card each time a word is read correctly. When a card has three stars, new words can be added. The same routine works at the kitchen table in a few minutes.

Sound out whatever can be sounded out, and point to the part of a tricky word that behaves differently. The guide's flashcard routine for new words is to show the word and say it, have the child repeat it, spell it, then say the whole word again. UFLI also notes how much repetition varies: for many readers an irregular word sticks after only one to four exposures, while a struggling reader may need 20 or more before recognizing it on sight.

Make it hands-on and visible. Understood suggests picture cards with an illustration on one side and the word on the other, tracing words in sand or shaving cream, and a spot at home to display words the child has mastered. UFLI calls flashcards an effective practice tool. The practice guide also suggests timed card piles: a word read within three seconds goes in the child's pile, and one that isn't gets told to the child and goes in a pile to revisit.

Then put the words in real reading. The guide's advice is to take a few words the child has just met in a text, read one aloud, and ask the child to point to it, spell it and say it again. A story you read together is a good place for this, and so is a ten-minute daily reading habit. The guide also suggests introducing a few non-decodable words, with their spelling and meaning, before a child starts a new book. Decodable texts, built from sounds a child has already learned, make a good companion to this practice.

What to avoid

Skip guessing. The practice guide discourages guessing strategies for unfamiliar words, because they will not work with more advanced texts. When a child is stuck on a word they cannot decode yet, such as "of" or "was", the guide says to simply tell them the word and ask them to repeat it, then to reread the sentence to be sure the word makes sense. There is no need to turn it into a puzzle.

Keep the list short. The panel recommends limiting how many non-decodable words are introduced at a time, because learning them as whole words places considerable demands on memory. Understood adds that struggling with sight words does not mean a child isn't smart, only that some kids need extra support with them.

When the words don't stick

Understood says sight words need explicit teaching and repeated practice, most of all the irregular ones. If it goes on for weeks despite calm, regular practice, the signs of dyslexia are worth reading about, as a way to prepare questions rather than to reach a conclusion yourself.

Talk to your child's teacher before pushing harder, and ask a qualified professional if the teacher shares your concern. For wider reading difficulties, the guide on what to do when your child can't read goes further.