Rethinking Heart Words!
This month we want to revisit Heart Words/ Red Words/ Irregular Words (whatever you'd like to call them!)
Years ago when I took my first Orton Gillingham training, we were taught that students need to just memorize the letters of irregular words because they do not follow phonetic patterns. I taught that method that for several years. It worked for some students, but not at all for others. I noticed a pattern. The students who exhibit dyslexia tendencies failed at memorizing heart words. This make perfect sense because students with dyslexia often struggle with rote memorization!
When you know better, you do better. Now, the OG community has re-evaluated how to teach irregular words. This new way brings success to more students and creates more background knowledge about how language works. After doing this word analysis with students, I am convinced! Let's take a look at 3 shifts for Heart Word Instruction.
Let's Collaborate! I started a new Google Slide Presentation with common irregular words. My hope is that our community can all utilize and contribute to it. Let's add the etomology and background knowledge in the notes section that will help students really understand these words. We no longer want kids just memorizing the letters, but it takes time to research and learn the history/etomolgy/explanations. You can check out what I have so far here. I made it free, shareable, and editable. My hope is that this will make everyone's planning just a little easier.
If you are using Reading Rev's Phonics, Spelling, & Morphology Program, you can plug these Red Word Slides into the free weekly Google Slide Presentations where the generic red word slide currently are. Remember Red Words are a great place to differentiate too! If you would like to see our Red Word K-5th Grade Scope & Sequence, you can access that in Reading Rev's Free Resource Library . These meaningful Red Word Poster Packs can be found in the Reading Rev VIP site.