Heart Words... and a Freebie!

When the heart sunglasses are on, that can only mean one thing.... it's time to learn new heart words! What is a heart word you may ask? These words, also commonly called sight words or high frequency words, are words that kids encounter frequently in their reading and have a part that can't be sounded out. This part is called the "heart part" because you have to know it by heart.

In the past, sight words have been taught through rote memorization of the whole word. With the recent discoveries in the science of reading, we have learned more effective ways to get these words to "stick" for our students.

Dr. David Kilpatrick explains what is needed to permanently store words in our sight word memory. In his book, Equipped for Reading Success (2016), he explains that "To be good orthographic mappers, children need to develop three skills: 1) automatic letter-sound associations, 2) highly proficient phoneme awareness, and 3) word study” (p.41). In essence, word study is the unconscious or conscious process of connecting the phonemes (sounds) to the written form of the word (Kilpatrick, 2016). Kilpatrick continues, “The word-study aspect of mapping is the superglue that anchors words into permanent memory” (p. 41).

When we teach our students to read and spell heart words by rote memorization, we are leaving out the critical word study component! Instead, we want to draw students' attention to the parts of the word that can be sounded out, and the part(s) of the word that can't. The vast majority of irregular words only have a single irregular letter-sound correspondence. Knowing this, it is very helpful to students to point out the regular letter-sound correspondences that can be decoded!

Involving them in this process of determining regular and irregular letter-sound correspondences can be fun and exciting! I announce "It's heart word time!" and throw on the pink heart glasses to help get the kids jazzed about learning new heart words. If you walked into the room when I'm preparing for this, you will definitely think I'm quite the dork, but the kids get an absolute kick out of it!

When I'm teaching whole class, I use digital Elkonin boxes for the lessons (see the end of this post for a free download of this template!). When I'm in a small group, I use Elkonin boxes in a plastic sleeve with counters. Here are the steps that I follow when introducing a new heart word:

• Start by saying the word and having students repeat it back to you ("Say want") This is really important to start with SOUNDS and not by showing them the word first.
• Using the manipulatives, have students help you break the word up into all of it's sounds. Push up a counter for each sound in the word. While I'm pushing the counters up into the boxes at the top, students are tapping the sounds on their fingers.

• Now, start with the first sound- /w/. Have students identify the first sound and then write the letter in the box underneath the counter that matches the sound- <w>. Ask students if the /w/ sound matches with the letter <w>. Yes!

• Move to the next sound in the word <want>, /u/. Write the letter <a> in the next box and have students tell you if the letter matches the sound /u/. No! This is the heart part of the word. Place a heart underneath this part of the word.

• Continue with the sounds /n/ and /t/. Students will tell you that the letters and sounds match!

• After showing students the completed word, I have them write it on an index card and color code it green and red (with underlines) for the letter-sound correspondences that match and those that don't (the heart part). We also add a little heart sticker under the heart part(s). I found a ton of these for cheap on Amazon! Click HERE for the link to these stickers. These cards then get added to their heart word ring in their reading folders. This ring is taken home so that students can practice reading and spelling their heart words for extra practice.

If you'd like a free template for creating digital heart words using elkonin boxes, click on the picture below to download! These are the ones that I use for whole group lessons. I find that they are so easy because after you edit the slides to match the words you are teaching, all you have to do is click through the slides!

I hope you find this helpful! Let me know if you have any questions about how to implement heart words in your classroom :)