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)
Instructional Practices
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 121
- Engagement Text: This text serves to pique students' interest in the Decodable Reader, introduced in Work Time B, by incorporating the topic and words from this cycle into an engaging read-aloud.
Lesson 122
- Poem Launch: Students hear/read a poem that includes keywords for each letter introduced in the cycle. The verses incorporate new high-frequency word(s) and words that feature the cycle's new graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds). This poem is used throughout the cycle for different purposes.
- Mystery Word (Clues to the Mystery Word and Introducing the Mystery Word): Students explore the already introduced poem for a new purpose: searching for a "mystery" high-frequency word. Students are given clues about the number of letters in the word and then search for words with the same number of letters, encouraging student inquiry. They also listen for a word as the teacher reads the words of the poem, clapping when they hear it. This practice is a vehicle for introducing Kindergarten high-frequency words that students will later see in poems and Decodable Student Readers.
Lesson 123
- Interactive Writing: Students apply their growing knowledge of letter-sound connections to writing words by working on a shared sentence. Students apply their knowledge of high-frequency words and letter-sound knowledge to spell familiar words and also practice correct letter formation and punctuation.
Lesson 124
- Phonemic Blending and Segmentation: Students segment and blend single-syllable words with three phonemes. This practice continues to refine students' ability to focus on and analyze the sounds within words.
- Chaining: Students begin by identifying each phoneme they hear in a CVC word and connect each of those sounds to the letter (grapheme) that matches it. Once they have encoded the word in this way, they then decode it by making each individual sound and blending them to pronounce the word.
Lesson 125
- Assessment and Goal Setting (during cycle assessments): Students take on-demand assessments at the end of each cycle. Teachers score immediately to track students' progress and possibly revise their personal goals for the module accordingly.
Cycle Word List
In Modules 3 and 4, Kindergartners work on phonemic segmentation and blending and are introduced to decoding and encoding VC and CVC words, as well as words with digraphs. This cycle continues to review patterns introduced in prior cycles (short vowels) and introduces the long sound of the letters 'o' and 'u.'
The following list provides examples of words with patterns from this cycle. Note that the last five words include four phonemes (initial consonant blends). Students who are ready to segment individual sounds within spoken and written words with four phonemes can use words from this list (or similar). For the full cycle overview with word list, Cycle-at-a-Glance, and teaching notes, download the cycle overview.
Engagement Text and Decodable Readers
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.
It is a lazy day for Chip. He is lounging at the park, enjoying the beautiful spring day. Then he hears something flying around his ear. Is it far away? Is it a jet? He turns his head from side to side but still sees nothing. Is it a little bug? Like a gnat? Then he sees it: a small, beautiful butterfly.
“Hi, butterfly!” Chip says, trying to get a better look at the shapes and colors of her wings.
“I am not a butterfly, silly! I am a moth. And you will never catch up with me!” the moth teases him as she zips by his head. Chip runs after her. She dips closer to him but then flies back up into the air beyond his reach.
Chip follows after her, trying to get a better look. She lands on top of a dog. Chip is not going to follow her there! Then she flaps her wings, flying off the dog and on top of a woman’s head! The woman has lots of curly hair. Chip thinks she must be wearing a wig.
She is laughing at Chip as he unsuccessfully tries to catch up with her. As she laughs, she does not notice a spider web in the branches of a tree. She flies right into it! She is stuck.
Chip is worried. The spider could come back any minute and catch her. But the moth is strong. She flutters her wings back and forth and breaks free. She flies away.
Chip is sad that he never got to see her beautiful wings up close. He did not even get to ask her name. He wonders if she will ever fly back to visit him.