As ubiquitous as colored pencils and alphabet posters, lists of 鈥渟ight words鈥� have long been a fixture in kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms.
These inventories identify some of the most commonly occurring words in the English language, words that children will need to recognize automatically in order to read fluently. Often, the approach to learning them is rote memorization, learning to recognize the word as a whole.
But as the science of reading movement has spread, researchers and advocates have taken aim at this method鈥攁nd more generally, the idea of using 鈥渟ight word鈥� lists as an instructional tool.
Children must be able to read words like 鈥渁,鈥� 鈥渁nd,鈥� 鈥渘ot,鈥� 鈥渘ow,鈥� and 鈥渃ome,鈥� said Kari Kurto, the national science of reading project director at the Reading League, an organization that promotes science-based reading instruction. It鈥檚 just that memorization isn鈥檛 the route to get there.
Decades of research has shown that phonics instruction鈥攕howing children how letters represent sounds and blend together to form words鈥攊s the most effective way to teach beginning readers how to identify new words on the page.
When children learn these phonics patterns, and practice reading words using them, those words get stored in their memory. 鈥淥nce you practice that word enough, you are able to recognize that word as if by sight,鈥� Kurto said鈥攏o memorization necessary.
A set of developed by the Reading League penalize programs that teach high-frequency words as whole-word units to be memorized.
But even as more states mandate that schools adopt explicit, systematic phonics programs, sight word lists have stuck around. They鈥檙e still included in popular reading programs, including some , and lesson-sharing websites offer up thousands of results for sight word flashcards and other drills.
In part, that鈥檚 because the English language presents some messy realities.
Many of these high-frequency words are phonetically irregular; they don鈥檛 follow normal sound-spelling patterns. Others, like the word 鈥渉er,鈥� follow regular phonics rules, but are likely to show up in early grades books before students have mastered those skills in a systematic program.
Figuring out an approach to teaching these words is essential, said Tim Shanahan, an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an author of McGraw Hill鈥檚 K-5 literacy curriculum, Wonders.
鈥淐ommonly what you鈥檒l see in programs, including programs I鈥檓 involved in, is you want kids not just to work on decoding, but also to read stories as part of beginning reading,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you have to wait until kids can decode everything before they can read a simple story, you鈥檙e going to have to wait years, which is silly.鈥�
Why high-frequency words should be woven into instruction
Calling the words on these lists 鈥渟ight words鈥� is a bit of an aspirational misnomer.
In research, a 鈥渟ight鈥� word is simply any word that a reader can recognize automatically, said Shanahan. The lists in question are made up of words that have a high frequency in text, with the hope that children will learn to read them on sight.
There are about 300 of these high-frequency words that make up three-quarters of the words in print in English, said Shanahan, though estimates vary slightly depending on which texts are analyzed.
Most are articles and prepositions鈥攚ords like 鈥渁,鈥� 鈥渢he,鈥� and 鈥渇or,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not content words. They carry meaning, but a lot of it is grammatical.鈥�
When these high-frequency words are automatic for kids, reading becomes easier, he said, because kids can turn their brainpower to the text鈥檚 meaning. 鈥淭he more cognitive resources you鈥檒l have to think about the ideas, and deal with whatever鈥檚 hard in [the text],鈥� he said.
Instead of a list-based approach that鈥檚 divorced from regular instruction, teaching kids to recognize these words automatically can be woven into regular instruction, Shanahan said.
For example, when teachers are introducing new sound-spelling patterns, they can make sure to . The digraph th could be taught with words like 鈥渢hem,鈥� 鈥渢hese,鈥� and 鈥渢heir.鈥�
鈥淲hen kids are learning to decode, in a way they鈥檙e really learning how to remember words and how to recognize words鈥攚hich is what allows them to recognize words as if it鈥檚 instantaneous,鈥� Shanahan said.
Very early in their school career, though, students will encounter high-frequency words they can鈥檛 decode鈥攐r can鈥檛 decode in whole.
鈥淵ou have to, of course, teach them some of these irregular words, because it鈥檚 hard to have any sentence that doesn鈥檛 have 鈥榯he,鈥欌�� said Kurto.
When these words are introduced, and in what sequence, could vary by classroom to classroom.
鈥淭here鈥檚 not a research-defined list of, 鈥榊ou should teach these words at this time,鈥� 鈥� she said. 鈥淥f course we have the Dolch and Fry lists,鈥� she said, referencing two commonly used lists of high-frequency words. 鈥淏ut it depends on what you鈥檙e having the kids read and what you鈥檙e having them practice.鈥�
What should teachers do with irregular words?
Exactly how to teach irregular spelling patterns in high-frequency words is up for debate. Research offers some conflicting evidence.
One approach is to focus on the parts of the word that follow regular phonics rules, and build students鈥� understanding from there.
For example, th in the word 鈥渢he鈥� follows regular phonics rules, even though the e at the end of the word does not. In this method, students would be encouraged to sound out the beginning of the word, using their phonics knowledge, and then learn that the e violates the regular sound-spelling pattern.
This way, kids aren鈥檛 working with two different approaches to word recognition, Kurto said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e still decoding.鈥�
Teachers can explicitly address exceptions to phonics rules, said Virginia Berninger, an emeritus professor of learning sciences and human development at the University of Washington鈥檚 College of Education.
鈥淲e never let them think English is hopelessly unpredictable,鈥� she said.
A from researchers in Australia found that when kindergarteners were taught to attend to irregular words鈥� spelling and pronunciation, they could read them more accurately than kindergarteners who were taught to memorize them.
Words taught this way are often referred to as 鈥渉eart鈥� words. Students decode the parts they know, and then learn the rest by heart.
But some words don鈥檛 follow any regular patterns鈥攍ike the word 鈥渙f,鈥� said Shanahan. In those cases, he said, the easiest route is to have kids memorize the word.
There鈥檚 evidence that teaching kids to memorize a small number of irregular words doesn鈥檛 interfere with their reading ability, as long as they鈥檙e also receiving systematic phonics instruction.
A from Laura Shapiro and Jonathan Solity, researchers in the United Kingdom, found that two curricula鈥攐ne that taught phonics, and another that taught phonics and memorization of high-frequency words鈥攚ere equally effective at teaching young children how to read words.
鈥淎t the very least, it鈥檚 not doing any harm to include high-frequency words,鈥� said Shapiro, the lead author on the study, and the director of the Cognition and Neuroscience Research Group at Aston University in Birmingham, England.
Some in the education community are 鈥渁nxious鈥� that teaching any high-frequency words by sight could confuse students who are learning phonics principles, but that doesn鈥檛 seem to be the case, Shapiro said.
Still, the number of words that students memorize should be 鈥渢iny,鈥� said Shanahan. By the end of 1st grade, Shanahan said, students ought to know how to read the most commonly occurring English words, some of which are irregular. But they should know another 400-500 that they鈥檝e learned to read through their decoding ability.
The skills that children develop to map letters to sounds should be driving their reading progress, he said鈥攏ot the handful of irregular words they鈥檝e memorized along the way.
