The Science of Reading: Heart Words
Have you heard of heart words? If you teach in the primary grades or know about the science of reading you may have used the heart word method to teach your students high frequency words. To best understand heart words let’s first talk about high frequency words which are words that are seen frequently when reading.
High Frequency Words vs. Sight Words
The terms “high frequency words” and “sight words” seem to be often interchanged however they are actually different. High frequency words are words that are seen frequently when reading (think words like the, to, he, etc.). whereas sight words are words that readers instantly recognize with little effort. The science of reading has taught us that readers require explicit instruction of high frequency words that include irregular spellings.
Some high frequency words can be phonetically decoded without any irregular phonics patterns (words such as ask, at, big, had, etc.). Other high frequency words include irregular phonics patterns (words such as down, good, into, etc.).
What Are Heart Words?
High frequency words that include irregular phonics patterns are the words we call Heart Words because they include an irregular phonics pattern that we want students to “learn by heart.” It is important that students learn how to read and spell these words. During writing it is important that students not use invented spellings for these words so as not to train their brain to read and write these words incorrectly.
Explicit Heart Word Instruction
Using explicit and systematic phonics instruction will help students to best learn high frequency words and is aligned with the science of reading. Students need explicit instruction on how to read and write high frequency words. Depending on the overall need of my students I sometimes choose to explicitly teach high frequency words to the whole class and at times I teach them in small groups. The high frequency word routine I use includes seven steps for introducing the word, teaching students the irregular parts, and having students use phoneme grapheme mapping.
Phoneme Grapheme Mapping
My high frequency routine utilizes big heart word cards that students can trace with their fingers, count the sounds, and identify the irregular parts of the word that we want to learn by heart. The big cards are perfect for kindergarten and first grade students. My favorite part of the routine is utilizing the phoneme grapheme mapping on the backside of the card to allow students to orthographically map the word. Students color in one box for each sound they hear in the word. They then write each sound in a box and finally rewrite the whole word underneath and identify the heart part to draw a heart above.
Resources for Teaching Heart Words
If you’re ready to jump into teaching heart words to your students I have created a set of 121 editable big heart word cards to use in your classroom along with instructions for the 7 step routine I use for teaching high frequency words to my students.
Editable Big Heart Word Cards
Here’s everything you will need to start explicitly teaching high frequency words to your students including 121 editable big heart word cards with phoneme grapheme mapping. Move away from expecting your students to learn sight words by memorization and provide them with a systematic approach for learning to read and write high frequency words that is aligned with the science of reading! Find the cards here!
-Ashley @ Little Learning Ladybugs
