High-Frequency Words For All Learners

High-frequency words, Dolch words, Fry list, sight words…many terms for the words our young children need to learn to recognize. We have previously explained the five components of reading here.  Under the reading umbrella, one of these components is vocabulary. When children are emerging readers and writers, vocabulary means recognizing sight words. Later, vocabulary focuses on words that students may be able to decode (sound out) but cannot understand. Then teachers focus on using context clues, Greek and Latin roots, etc.

As teachers of young children, we focus on teaching sight vocabulary. We want our children to recognize words like this:

it

Many of these words DO follow phonics patterns. The word it is an example.  Let’s take a look at the pre-primer list of Dolch words. Many of these words can be taught using phonics principles. This is helpful for children who are auditory learners.  Below we have listed words from this list that follow the early short vowel rules and the common long vowel pattern, vCe.  We have listed 18 out of the 40 pre-primer words. Many of the remainder words like play do follow higher-level phonics rules but because they are further along the phonics continuum, we have not included them here.

and

big

can

go

help

I

in

is

it

jump

make

me

my

not

red

run

up

we

Look for more posts on teaching both visual and auditory learners as you focus on high-frequency words.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.E.06 & 2.E.09.

Head Start - VII. B & D.