High-frequency words are words that occur most frequently in written material and do not follow phonetic rules or, as we say in the EL Education curriculum, "don't play fair." Due to this fact, it is important that students are able to navigate these words with ease to improve their reading fluency and comprehension.  While high-frequency words on their own don't carry much meaning, they are essential to sentences and help students gather meaning. Below you will find five activities for each day of the week that teachers can do with students or parents can do with their children at home as high-frequency words are being introduced cycle by cycle.

• Read it, say it, write it, read it again
• Use high-frequency words in sentences (oral and written)
• Read a list of high-frequency words and time yourself on fluency (keep running list)
• Search for high frequency words in sentences / poems and underline them
• Fishing for high-frequency words (one person reads the word aloud, other students find the word in a stack of other high-frequency words)

The instructional practices listed below summarize the instruction that accompanies the skills that are being taught in this cycle for the respective grade level. Teachers should review these routines for guidance on how to teach the skills and patterns reflected in the microphase.

Lesson 91

• Suffixes: Students segment and blend base words that end with a suffix. They analyze the vowel sounds and ending spelling patterns to better understand suffix (inflectional endings) rules.
• Suffix Sleuth: Students read words with different suffixes (-ed, -s, -ing). Students analyze each word by identifying the base word and suffix within each word. This analysis supports their ability to decode and spell words with suffixes because it helps them better understand the spelling rules when adding inflectional endings.

Lesson 92

• Engagement Text: Students use knowledge of phoneme segmentation to isolate and identify the initial, middle, and final sound in a word. As they identify each sound, they must connect it to its written representation (grapheme) and practice proper letter formation using a skywriting technique.
• Comprehension Conversation (optional): Students answer suggested (or similar) text-based comprehension questions about the engagement text.

• High-Frequency Words: Students are introduced to the high-frequency words of the cycle. The teacher explicitly teaches all high-frequency words students will see in the Decodable Student Reader. Students decode and analyze each word to determine if the word is "decodable" because it is regularly spelled, "doesn't play fair" because it hasn't been explicitly taught yet, or "irregular" because it is irregularly spelled.

• Decodable Reader Partner Search and Read: Students read a short text that incorporates words using familiar phonemes (sounds) and high-frequency words from the cycle, which students search out in the text with a partner before reading the text. Students receive practice with concepts of print (e.g., one-to-one match and return sweep) and apply knowledge of taught graphemes and phonemes as they decode words.

Lesson 93

• High-Frequency Word Fishing: Students apply decoding (reading) skills and growing knowledge of irregularly spelled words to review the high-frequency words. Students begin the process of committing such words to memory by using known letter-sound connections and context.
• Spelling to Complement Reading: Students work through a series of scaffolded steps to successfully spell words from the current or past cycles. They first isolate and identify the individual phonemes (sounds) in the spoken word, then apply their growing knowledge of letter-sound connections to identify the grapheme (letter) that matches each individual phoneme (sound). Finally, they use that information to encode (spell) the word.

Lesson 94

• Question and Switch: Students apply growing knowledge of grapheme-phoneme (letter-sound) connections and of decodable and high-frequency words by reading cards with graphemes or words, then switching with a partner to read a new one.
• Interactive Writing: Students work together to construct a sentence, crafting a shared sentence from the decodable text or content from the Integrated Literacy block. Students spell words by segmenting the sounds (in sequence) of spoken words and match them to their letter(s). They also use rules of capitalization, spacing, and punctuation as they construct the sentence as well as practice high-frequency words.

Lesson 95

• Reading Silly Words: Students decode (read) nonsense words in isolation and articulate the decoding strategy they used.
• Spelling with Style: Students spell words using patterns they have learned. They practice spelling words in a unique way, "with style" (e.g., like an opera singer or chicken), and then write them on their own whiteboard. 
• Assessment and Goal Setting (during cycle assessments): Students take on-demand assessments at the end of each cycle. Teachers score immediately to track student progress and possibly revise their personal goals for the module accordingly.

The text listed below can be utilized to reinforce the skills taught in the cycle.  Teachers can use the text to have students apply their learning during small group work or teacher-led groups.  By focusing on the skills/patterns being taught, students can apply their learning to text.  A list of activities to consider with the text are listed in the activity section. 

Baseball is a fun game to play and watch. We call baseball a pastime. We say it is America's pastime because it has been played and watched for many years. 

Boys and girls play baseball in backyards, on playgrounds, in the street, and on baseball fields. Some kids even use a long stick to hit the ball instead of a bat!

Baseball can be played during the day in the sunshine. Or sometimes games are played at night under very bright lights. Fans sit in the stands and cheer on their favorite team. 

Each team tries to score points by hitting the ball and running around the bases. First, the batter tries to hit the ball. If the ball is hit, the batter runs to first base, then second base, then third. If he or she gets to home plate, he or she scores a run and gets a point! 

If the batter hits the ball really far and runs around all the bases at once, it is called a home run. Sometimes the batter slides into home plate. All the fans cheer when their team hits a home run!

The players in the field try to get the batter out. If the batter is out, he or she cannot get to a base and score a point. If a player in the field catches a ball in the air, then the batter is out. If a player in the field tags the batter or tags the base before the batter runs there, then the batter is out. 

In baseball, the players hit and run and catch and slide. The fans watch and cheer and taste hot dogs, too. There is so much to see and do! That is why baseball is America's pastime! Do you like to play baseball?