What are Heart Words???

Heart words are words that appear frequently in reading and writing. It is critical that readers and writers develop automatic recognition of Heart words, a skill that leads to fluency. As students progress through the grades, they will need to be able to read about 300 heart words "instantly" without hesitation, because these words make up 65% of all written material. Comprehension begins to break down when students are focused on trying to decode or sound out words.

Heart words are also called "Sight Words". Sight words do not follow regular phonetic rules. They do not follow easy spelling patterns; for example the word "have" does not follow the same rule as "cave", gave", "save". As a result, these words are more difficult for students to master. Young readers need to recognize these words as "sight words". In order for students to retain a difficult word, they need many opportunities to experience and manipulate it.

Unit 1

I, am, the, little, to, a

Unit 2

have, is, we, my, like, he, for

Unit 3

me, with, she, see, look, they, you, of

Unit 4

are, that, do, one, two, three, four, five, here, go, from

Unit 5

yellow, green, blue, what, said, was, where, come

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Letters and When They are Introduced in the Curriculum:

Unit 1

Consonants /m/ and /t/

Unit 2

Short /a/, /i/,

Consonants /s/, /p/, /c/, /k/

Unit 3

Consonants /b/, /n/, /r/, /d/, /k/, /f/,

Short /o/

Unit 4

Consonants /h/, /l/, /g/

Short /e/

Unit 5

Consonants /w/, /j/, /x/, /v/, /z/, /y/, /qu/

Short /u/