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This Amazing High-Frequency Word Mapping Tool Changed The Game For My Students

ByNatalie

Before I share about the high-frequency word mapping tool that changed the game for my 2nd grade students, let me give you some background on my experience as an educator. I’m sure some of you are in the same boat, and it’s important that you understand where I’m coming from with this post.

My Experience With Sight Words & High-Frequency Words

I taught in the early elementary grades for 30 years. Trust me, I had tried all the fads for teaching “sight words” – flashcards, rainbow writing, teaching them in isolation without connecting them to phonics skills. I followed every recommendation and teaching hack out there. I truly thought I was doing the best I could to teach my students those high-frequency words. But it wasn’t until I became a literacy specialist that my mind was shattered with new information.

Once my school adopted a Science of Reading based curriculum, I dove into learning the best practices for structured literacy. And that’s when I had my first “aha” moment – I learned that sight words and high-frequency words are not the same thing at all. In fact, I learned that all the effort we were putting into those traditional memorization techniques was not only ineffective, but quite literally proven to be pointless based on neuroscience. 

So if you’re a language arts teacher who’s heard the term “heart word” or “high-frequency word” before, but you’re not entirely sure you know what it means, you’re not alone. I also used to think those terms were synonymous with “sight word”. But hey, when you know better, you can do better!

If you’re looking for one single thing to try in your classroom that’s rooted in the Science of Reading, let it be this. Teaching high-frequency words through mapping is hands-down the most effective (and research-based) way to get your students to master these skills.

So let’s dive into the high-frequency word mapping tool that changed the game for my students!

Key Takeaways Ahead:

High-Frequency Words v.s. Sight Words v.s. Heart Words

It’s important to understand the difference between all of these terms before diving into instructional techniques. Let’s break them down:

  • High-Frequency Words: These are the most frequently used words in the English language. Some of these words are regularly spelled and are decodable using patterns students are taught. Some of these words are irregular. 

  • Sight Words: These are not words that we have to know by sight, they are words that we do know by sight. Our “sight word vocabulary” or the collection of words we know by sight, differ from person to person, made up of words from our own background experiences. 

  • Heart Words: Heart words are irregular words that have a part that doesn’t follow typical phonics patterns our students are taught. Because these words contain one or more elements that do not follow the most common letter-sound correspondences, those elements must be learned “by heart”, hence the term “heart” words.
sight words for high-frequency word mapping tool

How The Brain Learns New Words

First, let’s break down how the brain understands and stores words – it’s more complicated than we used to think. Words are not stored visually. Graphemes, phonemes, and the meaning of words are all stored in separate parts of the brain. Readers achieve sight recognition of a word when they activate all three parts during reading.
 

high-frequency word mapping tool brain science

This is why flashcards and other traditional methods for memorizing high-frequency words don’t work. Looking at a flashcard activates only one area of the brain. Instead, research has proven that word mapping is a much more effective way to learn and store new words in the brain. 

What Is Word Mapping?

Word mapping is an activity that helps students form strong connections between the sounds (phonemes), letters (graphemes), and meaning. The brain automatically undergoes this process during a word mapping activity, known as “orthographic mapping.”

This mental process is essential for turning high-frequency words into sight words, meaning students can recognize and spell them instantly without having to sound them out each time. The science of reading research has shown that using orthographic mapping significantly reduces the number of repetitions needed to learn a word compared to rote memorization techniques.

A typical word mapping activity looks like this:

Students go through systematic steps in order to decode each section of the word. First, they determine which phonemes they can decode based on an explicitly taught phonics pattern. Then, they identify any phonemes that do not follow an expected pattern (such as the “o” and silent “e” phonemes shown above). 

The goal is for students to recognize which parts of a word they can decode and which parts they cannot. They will “heart” the non-decodable part, and potentially learn that spelling pattern later on. In that case, the word moves from a “heart word” to a fully-decodable word. 

Why Teach High-Frequency Words This Way?

Students need to see a word 5 to 500 times with flashcards and traditional memorization before committing it to memory. However, when choosing an activity that promotes orthographic mapping, such as a word mapping activity, students can learn a word in just 1-4 repetitions! 

High-frequency word mapping tools actually revolve around how the brain processes sounds and stores patterns, instead of trying to force memorization. Check out a few simple swaps to what you might currently be doing in your classroom: 

By incorporating word mapping into your instruction, you’re not just helping students recognize words – they’re learning to understand and internalize the structure of language itself. This leads to stronger spelling skills, better comprehension, and long-term retention of high-frequency words, setting students up for lifelong reading success.

The High-Frequency Word Mapping Tool That Changed The Game

As I mentioned, once I got a taste of how word mapping could improve my students’ reading skills, I became obsessed with learning more. I knew I could put together all of the things I learned into an amazing resource for teachers – something that includes everything needed to teach high-frequency words effectively. 

So here it is: the high-frequency word mapping tool that changed the game for my students (and thousands of others!):

Buy Now

This resource provides:

  • A comprehensive list of 260 high-frequency words from both Dolch and Fry’s lists, sorted by phonics patterns and whether they are decodable or heart words.
  • Teacher scripts that explain the morphology and orthographic mapping of each word.
  • Over 1,200 pages of student activities designed to help students map and practice high-frequency words using look-alike words and other strategies proven to boost retention.

By implementing this resource in your classroom, you’ll be able to teach high-frequency words more effectively using a research-backed, high-yield strategy. 

Teachers who have tried this approach have reported incredible results, with students not only reading high-frequency words more fluently, but also using them accurately in their writing. Orthographic mapping truly is the “special sauce” that transforms struggling readers into confident ones.

Other Incredible Science of Reading Instructional Techniques

If you’re following a Science of Reading aligned scope and sequence, you already know that word mapping is just one piece of the puzzle. We need to give students authentic opportunities to put what they have learned into practice. Here are a few other strategies you can use in your classroom to support your students’ learning:

  1. Guided Writing Activities: Dictated sentences are one of the most valuable (read: best bang for your buck) activities you can do with your students. It is the link between isolated phonics instruction and authentic practice. Requiring students to encode (write) is taking student knowledge to the next level.
  1. Decodable Texts: Incorporate decodable texts that use high-frequency words to reinforce the sounds and spelling patterns students have learned. These texts allow students to practice reading fluently while applying their knowledge of letter-sound relationships.
  1. Independent Practice: Research shows that students need regular review and practice using phonics skills authentically. Sentence scrambles are a fabulous activity to get your students reading and writing! The concepts spiral so your students will get lots of practice reading and writing independently.

→ Click here to view my top 8 favorite Science of Reading activities for elementary students.

FREE Resources To Support You

Looking for FREE Science of Reading resources for your elementary classroom? Check out my full collection here.

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