We can use our phonics skills to decode parts of the word, but we need to commit part of that word to memory (aka “heart”). Words like said, was, and want are totally rogue, phonetically speaking. Some parts of words, even words that show up frequently in our reading and writing, do not completely fit a phonics pattern. There is a category for those words, too. I hear you yelling at me: not every word falls into this category! English is SO tricky! You are right. When we slow down to think about it, so many words in the English language fall into this category of words that fit the phonics patterns… as long as you know the phonics patterns. The more phonics patterns that our students know, the more words they will be able to solve. When our phonics instruction is systematic and explicit, our students will learn these letter sounds, commit them to memory, and be able to retrieve them for reading. Words like him, it, and can fit into this category. What are Heart Words and Flash Words?įlash words are words we can read “in a flash” and are essentially decodable high-frequency words. As students commit these to memory and practice them consistently, they increase their orthographic lexicon or “sight word memory.” When this magic happens, that’s when our students can efficiently and accurately read the words on the page. However, by connecting twenty to thirty letter sounds, a reader can put together thousands of words. It might appear that the word is memorized, but really the reader is very efficiently putting sounds together – almost automatically! It would be nearly impossible to memorize the tens of thousands of words that readers need to retrieve on a daily basis. This is the work that our brain does to connect sounds to letters so that when we come across a word, we can quickly and accurately put those sounds together. Orthographic mapping is a key piece to this complex puzzle. What’s Happening When We Read High-Frequency Words? The Science of Reading research shows us that there’s more to understanding sight words and how students learn them. When we think about what we’ve traditionally called sight words or high-frequency words, we’re thinking about words that show up everywhere and all the time, right? We want our students to be able to read these words effortlessly and efficiently since they’ll be coming across them often. Thanks again to Science of Reading research that demonstrates how humans learn to read and lays out clear, evidence-based strategies for teaching reading. Today, let’s take a closer look at heart words and how to shift our sight word practices to line up with the research. Let me introduce you to flash words and heart words! Lucky for us, there is a system that spells out how to support our students with these tricky high-frequency words. In those moments, we run through our mental list of how to help. Ever had a student get stuck on a relatively common yet phonetically tricky word? A better question would be…who hasn’t? I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been in this situation.
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