HIGHLIGHTS: TEACHING HEART WORDS...ALL ARE WELCOME...VRP NEEDS A BOOKKEEPER

​TEACHING HEART WORDS 

High Frequency word lists have been around since Dr. Edmund Fry invented them in the 1950s. Teachers have had lists to teach, grade by grade for many decades.

High Frequency words are defined as “the most common words in written English that help form the building blocks of literacy, helping readers build fluency by recognizing them instantly.” This recognition frees up mental energy for understanding and decoding more complex words and texts.

More recently with the promotion of the Science of Reading, along came Heart Words. These are words that cannot be easily decoded or sounded out because they do not follow the regular phonics rules or have sounds that the child has not learned yet. Early examples are: the, said, and my.

The thinking now is not for children to memorize these words that don’t follow regular phonetic rules but focus on the part of the word that can be sounded out or decoded. These words are called “heart words" because the tricky parts that don’t follow phonics rules must be learned “by heart.”

A good example of this is the word said.  The s and the d are regular and can be easily “sounded out” Ai, is the tricky part and must be memorized or learned by heart making it a “heart” word. Let’s take a look at how you might teach it:

1. Point to the word, read it aloud and have the child repeat it. Do some phonetic awareness.  What sounds do you hear in said? Let’s tap them our s/e/d. That’s right, there are three sounds.

2. Then highlight the sounds that are known and unknown. What’s the first sound in said: s what letter do we write for sss

What’s the last sound in said--what letter do we write for ?

What is the middle sound? -

1. Tell the child that this is the part of said that does not follow the rules.  We need to remember ai in the middle.

2. Spell: have the child orally spell the word.

3. Write: Have the child write said as they say each letter name then circle the irregular part: ai

4. Extend: Its very powerful to have the child use the word in a sentence. You can provide a sentence starter, i.e.’ I am__ “said the girl.

I try to take a look at three or four heart words each time I’m reading with a child. When the child is able to read and spell these words, I introduce a few more. Remember that writing a sentence with your young reader is a great way to enhance their knowledge of phonics.

For your information, I have attached a Heart Word List.

Marjie Calla

Director, Education

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ALL ARE WELCOME

VRP purchased a delightful new book for you to read with and to the children in our program.  It is called "All Are Welcome".   The books are stamped with the VRP stamp and we hope you will make time to enjoy it with the children! Lenora has already delivered it to the 8 schools in the North East, Kristina will visit the South West schools early next week and the rest of the schools will have their copies within the next 2 weeks.  If you are able to deliver books to schools in your area please call Kristina (416.220.5928) right away.

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VRP NEEDS A BOOKKEEPER

VRP is looking for a part time Bookkeeper (on a contract basis) to help manage the financials.  If you know anyone who does this work or can refer us to someone who does please contact Lenora 416.481.5369

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