Irregular Word Activities

From FreeReading

Revision as of 20:07, 30 March 2008

This page contains all the Free-Reading activities for Irregular Words. They are divided into Sequenced Activities and Supplemental Activities. You can click here to add your own supplemental activity.

Note: Free-Reading also includes a sequence introducing more advanced irregular words: Irregular Word II -- click here for those activities.

About the irregular word activities

Many of the most frequently occurring words in English are irregular, meaning that students cannot completely decode them by using the letter-sound correspondences they have learned.

The objective of the irregular word sequence of activities is to teach students to read 30 high-frequency irregular words.

The 30 very common irregular words taught in this strand are:

was, of, the, to, you

I, is, said, that, he

his, she, her, for, are

as, they, we, were, be

this, have, or, one, by

what, with, then, do, there.

There are, of course, many more irregular words that students will need to recognize. In addition to the 30 taught here, another 120 are taught in the Irregular Word II sequence.

This strand of instruction was constructed on the following principles:

We introduce a new word every three lessons at first and then, later, increase the pace to one new word every other day.
Each word introduced is reintroduced in the very next lesson to provide adequate daily practice.
We use fluency-building activities to help students become automatic in this skill--i.e., to become so fast they don't have to think about it.

When introducing an irregular word (but not when building fluency), we ask students to sound it out and say the word correctly. There are multiple reasons to ask students to sound out irregular words:

When students encounter an irregular word in connected text, they may initially attempt to sound it out. These exercises prepare them to read the word correctly.
We want to show students that, though some word-parts may be irregular, other parts are often regular, so that students can decode those parts, giving them a clue to the full word.
If we sound out some words and not others, students may learn that sounding out should only be used intermittently, and not know when. So they may decide not to use it even when they should.
Even for irregular words, the process of connecting symbols to sounds helps students learn the word: "The knowledge of letter-sound relations provides the powerful mnemonic system that bonds the written forms of specific words to their pronunciation in memory." (Ehri, 1995)

Note: Some educators use the term sight word to refer to an irregular word. But others use sight word to mean any word (regular or irregular) that a student can identify immediately, without sounding it out. To avoid confusion, we use the term irregular word here.

Tips and tricks for teaching irregular words

One way to accelerate learning of irregular words is to print out flash cards for all 30 words (download them here), and give a copy to each student to take home with them with instructions to ask their parents: "Help me learn these words."
If words are being introduced too slowly for your students, you can introduce a new irregular word every day. You should feel free to vary the pace, being careful to ensure that your least capable students are keeping up.
When you point to a word, wait before touching it and train students to respond only when you touch the word. That gives all students time to think of the answer, so that slower students don't just copy faster students.
For each activity, keep a record of items a student had problems with. Review this activity log before the next activity so you pay special attention to those students.

Irregular word resources

Irregular word cards: Index-card sized printable copies of all the irregular words used in this sequence

Sequenced irregular word activities

A Note on Lesson Deltas. If you're using an integrated instructional program such as IPID 101 that comes with a map, follow the lesson numbers in the map and ignore the deltas below. If you're using this sequence outside of a program map (e.g., you're creating your own program), take whatever lesson number you are at when you start this sequence, call that Lesson N, and add the deltas below to N to calculate the lesson number for each subsequent lesson -- i.e., if you are on Lesson 10 when you start this sequence, then the activities below labeled +14 should be included in your Lesson 24.

**Irregular Words (SID: 215)**
Lesson Δ	Introduce	Reintroduce	Build Fluency
+0:	was
+1:		was
+2:
+3:	of
+4:		of
+5:			was, of
+6:	the
+7:		the
+8:			was, of, the
+9:	to
+10:		to
+11:			was, of, the, to
+12:	you
+13:		you
+14:			was, of, the, to, you
+15:	I
+16:		I
+17:			was, of, the, to, you, I
+18:	is
+19:		is
+20:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is
+21:	said
+22:		said
+23:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said
+24:	that
+25:		that
+26:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that
+27:	he
+28:		he
+29:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he
+30:	his
+31:		his
+32:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his
+33:	she
+34:		she
+35:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she
+36:	her
+37:		her
+38:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her
+39:	for
+40:		for
+41:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for
+42:	are
+43:		are
+44:	as		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are
+45:		as
+46:	they		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as
+47:		they
+48:	we		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they,
+49:		we
+50:	were		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we
+51:		were
+52:	be		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were
+53:		be
+54:	this		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be
+55:		this
+56:	have		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this
+57:		have
+58:	or		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have
+59:		or
+60:	one		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have, or
+61:		one
+62:	by		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have, or, one
+63:		by
+64:	what		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have, or, one, by
+65:		what
+66:	with		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have, or, one, by, what
+67:		with
+68:	then		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have, or, one, by, what, with
+69:		then
+70:	do		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have, or, one, by, what, with, then
+71:		do
+72:	there		was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have, or, one, by, what, with, then, do
+73:		there
+74:			was, of, the, to, you, I, is, said, that, he, his, she, her, for, are, as, they, we, were, be, this, have, or, one, by, what, with, then, do, there

Supplemental irregular word activities

Retrieved from "/wiki/Irregular_Word_Activities"

Category: Strands

 *When students encounter an irregular word in connected text, they may initially attempt to sound it out. These exercises prepare them to read the word correctly.
 *We want to show students that, though some word-parts may be irregular, other parts are often regular, so that students can decode those parts, giving them a clue to the full word.
-*If we sound out some words and not others, students may learn that sounding out should only be used intermittently, and decide not to use it even when they should.
+*If we sound out some words and not others, students may learn that sounding out should only be used intermittently, and not know when. So they may decide not to use it even when they should.
-*We want to prepare students to learn to spell later by showing them that they cannot always rely on the sounds in a word to spell it.
+*Even for irregular words, the process of connecting symbols to sounds helps students learn the word: "The knowledge of letter-sound relations provides the powerful mnemonic system that bonds the written forms of specific words to their pronunciation in memory." [[Intervention A, the research base| (Ehri, 1995)]]
 '''Note:''' Some educators use the term ''sight word'' to refer to an [[Regular and irregular words|irregular word]]. But others use ''sight word'' to mean any word (regular or irregular) that a student can identify immediately, without sounding it out. To avoid confusion, we use the term ''irregular word'' here.

Personal tools