For first graders, word study involves examining, manipulating, comparing, and categorizing words. Students use hands-on opportunities to learn critical features of words including sounds, pattern, and meaning. Since we want to support children with recognizing and transferring spelling words into their long-term memory, we use a strategy called word sorting. Word sorting uses about 20 words that follow contrasting features, and asks children to place them into categories. CURRICULUM RESOURCES: F&P Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction
Sight Words
Students learn the Fry Sight Words list in first grade. Learning all 1,000 words in the Fry list would equip a child to read about 90 percent of the words in a typical book, newspaper, or website. The Fry words are listed by the frequency with which they occur and are often broken down into groups of 100. So, the first 100 Fry words are the 100 most frequently occurring words in the English language.
Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum provides 35 weeks of daily explicit modeling that focuses on eight phonemic awareness skills, along with two additional activities to develop letter and sound recognition, and language awareness. Main focus of Phonemic Awareness: phonemes/sounds; spoken language, auditory listening and manipulation of sounds and sounds in words.
CURRICULUM RESOURCES: Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum by Literacy Resources, Inc.