Partner Routine for Building High Frequency Word Automaticity

With all the necessary focus on teaching students phonics to help them become automatic word readers, there has been some debate about whether learning words by sight (Moats et al., 2020) is still necessary. Phonics instruction, which involves teaching letter sounds and blending them to decode words, is an effective strategy for helping students tackle unfamiliar words. However, since over 50% of the words we encounter in texts are made up of just 107 high-frequency words (Zeno et al., 1995), it seems like a worthy endeavor to help developing readers learn to recognize these words by sight rather than sounding them out.

As a school improvement coach, I often work with students who have yet to master these 107 high-frequency words. While these students may know their letter sounds and can blend them to read words, they often struggle with these common words in text. They tend to try to sound out these words, but many of them are not decodable, or the time spent blending them leads to increased cognitive load, slowing down their reading. This affects both their fluency and comprehension.

So, what can a teacher do? First, we must provide high-quality core instruction that allows students to learn to decode words using their phonics skills. This includes learning the phoneme-grapheme correspondences, including digraphs and vowel teams, position-based spellings, like open and closed syllables, orthographic patterns, and morphology and etymology. Next, for the high frequency words we want to highlight regular spelling patterns, create a spelling pronunciation (e.g., was looks like /w/ /a/ /s/, but it sounds like /w/ /u/ /z/), and limit the number of irregular high frequency words taught at one time to 3-5 per week. For more information on how to approach these words in core instruction, see Moats (2020) article.

Assuming students have received explicit phonics instruction and quality core instruction, some students may still struggle with mastering these core words. In such cases, additional intervention may be necessary, and more rote practice could be effective (Shapiro & Solity, 2016).

So, what might an instructional routine look like to provide additional practice for students who have not yet acquired these essential 107 words? One strategy is to use a peer-assisted learning approach, where a more proficient reader acts as a "coach" for a developing reader. The coach selects three words that the reader doesn’t know and follows this routine:

• The coach shows the word to the reader. The reader attempts to read the word aloud. If the reader doesn’t read it correctly within five seconds, the coach provides the word, and the reader repeats it.

• 2) The coach asks the reader to spell and say the word. The reader spells and says the word aloud.

• 3) TThe coach asks the reader to write the word. The reader spells the word out loud while air-writing it, then says the word once it's fully written.

• 4) The coach uses the word in a sentence. The reader then creates and says a new sentence using the word.

• 5) The coach asks the reader to read the word again. The reader reads the word aloud.

• 6) The coach and reader repeat this routine with two more words.

• 7) After practicing the unfamiliar words, the coach leads a "speed round" with high-frequency words the reader already knows. The coach shows each word, and the reader has a few seconds to read it. If the reader misses a word, the coach places it back in the pile to be revisited. If the reader misses the word multiple times, it is moved to the "practice" pile for additional review.

To determine which words need practice, take the first 25 most frequent words (you can find Zeno's word list online) and assess which ones the student can read automatically in 1-2 seconds without sounding them out. Place these words in the "knows" pile for the speed round. Words that the reader cannot decode quickly or reads incorrectly should go in the "practice" pile. Once the reader can consistently recognize a word with automaticity for 2-3 days, move it to the "knows" pile. If the student knows all the first 25 words, continue with the next words until you identify a few that require practice.

References

Moats, L. (2020). Evidence challenges teaching words “by sight”. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 46(1), 27-30.

Schwartz, S. (January 10, 2025). Does teaching "sight words" contradict the science of reading? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/does-teaching-sight-words-contradict-the-science-of-reading/2025/01

Shanahan, T. (2023). Should we still teach sight words? Shanahan on Literacy. https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/should-we-still-teach-sight-vocabulary

Shapiro, L. R., & Solity, J. (2016). Differing effects of two synthetic phonics programmes on early reading development. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 86(2), 182-203.

Zeno, S., Ivens, S. H., Millard, R. T., & Duvvuri, R. (1995). The educator's word frequency guide. Touchstone Applied Science Associates.