Sight Words vs. High-Frequency Words
- California Scottish Rite
- 19 hours ago
- 4 min read
Take the word “the.” According to the Fry 100 List, which charts the 100 most common words in the English language in order of frequency, “the” is No. 1. You’ll find it about once every 20 words in written English.
But as common as “the” is, it’s not always a sight word. And when it comes to teaching the science of word learning, sight words aren’t always the same as high-frequency words. The two terms—contrary to conventional wisdom—are not interchangeable.
For beginning readers, many sight words are also high-frequency words. But not all sight words are high-frequency, and not all high-frequency words are sight words. Sight words are in the minds of the beholder—the individual reader. What may be a high-frequency sight word for one reader may not be one for another.
Take first names. Young readers recognize their names on sight. But you wouldn’t consider names like Morgan, Jason, Madison or Gillian high-frequency words.
There’s further confusion because of the overlap between the two categories. Many of the first words children learn: the, is, you and we, are both high-frequency and sight words. But as reading instruction becomes more refined and systematic, educators make a distinction between words taught for automatic recognition (sight words) and words taught because they occur often in text (high-frequency words).
So what’s the difference?
Consider sight words the cheat code for reading, the easiest way for kids to become faster, more confident readers. Sight words are words that readers recognized instantly, by sight. They do not need to sound them out and require zero effort to recall. They are words that a reader can summon from the mental Rolodex on command, without expending phonetic effort or hesitation. The key is automatic recognition.
A typical, active adult reader has a mental Rolodex of between 30,000 and 60,000 sight words. Those are developed through a process called orthographic mapping. That is the process where students use the oral language processing part of their brain to map, or connect, the sounds of words they already know (phonemes) to the letters of a word—the spellings. That gets permanently stored as connected sounds and letters of words—along with the meanings as instantly recognizable words.
Sight words.
It all has to start somewhere and reading sight words on command provides the foundation of a young reader’s vocabulary. Getting young readers to build up their sight word vocabulary is the key to building a confident, excited reader.
There’s no cheat code needed for explaining high-frequency words. What you see is what you get: the words most commonly written or spoken in the English language. They are often called the “glue” of language—words that bond sentences together into a readable, accessible manner.
High-frequency words are an essential block in the reading foundation, because they’re literally everywhere. The words in Fry’s 100 List comprise 90% of the words used in children’s literature. They are an unmistakable key to building literacy in beginning readers.
We can chart high-frequency words, thanks to Fry and Edward Dolch, who created the 220-word Dolch List in 1948. The Dolch List includes 220 “service words” plus 95 nouns that make up a large portion of children’s reading materials. The Fry List took that and expanded it to 1,000 words, which are organized in groups of 100 based on how many times they appear.
High-frequency words are broken up into two categories: decodable and irregular. Decodable words such as in, and, that, him, did, then, with, at can be sounded out using regular phonics. They are also called “flash words.”
Irregular words such as was, from, have, of, there, want, you, said, does, like and, yes, the, aren’t phonetic. They are also known as “heart words.” To learn those, teachers and parents must teach them as a unique word. It’s also helpful to instruct them in how to tell the difference.
BUILDING HIGH-FREQUENCY WORDS INTO SIGHT WORDS
So how do you build high-frequency words into sight words? Joan Seditha in the Keys to Literacy blog makes these suggestions:
Teach new high-frequency words before students see them in their readings.
Write the word on the board or put it on a flash card. Spell it aloud, pointing to each letter. Describe the parts of the word that are regularly spelled and the parts that are not.
Have students spell and trace the letter in the air—known as air writing—to build large muscle memory or on paper using two fingers to build fine muscle memory.
Have students cover the word and try picturing it from memory. Then, try to write it from memory.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 to reinforce the lesson and build comprehension.
Limit the number of words introduced at one time to prevent confusion.
Introduce visually similar irregular words such as where and were or was and saw in separate lessons to avoid confusion.
The Rite Care Childhood Language Center has the resources to help your child build their sight-word vocabulary and send them on the rewarding path of becoming a strong, confident reader.
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