THREAD .
Quite simply, the first 100 high frequency words are words which occur most frequently in sentences. They are not words that ‘cannot be decoded’. They are not tricky. Children should not be taught to ‘look and say’ whole words. Proof? Please continue reading:

Teach a child to sight read ‘said’, they can look and say ‘said’.

Teach a child that <ai> can spell the sound /e/, they can read said, again, against.

Teach a child to sight read ‘what’, they can look and say ‘what’.

Teach a child that <a> can spell the sound /o/, they can read what, was, want, wash, wasp, watch, swap, swan, squad, quantity etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘some’, they can look and say ‘some’.

Teach a child that <o> can spell /u/, they can team some, come, above, done, love, month, son, other etc.; <me> can spell /m/, they can read some, come, thyme etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘the’, they can look and say ‘the’.

Teach a child that <th> can spell the voiced /th/ sound (different to the unvoiced /th/ sound ‘thin’), they can read the, that, with, there, this, then, than, them etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘have’, they can look and say ‘have’.

Teach a child that <ve> can spell the sound /v/, they can read have, give, love, above, we’ve etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘is’, they can look and say ‘is’.

Teach a child that <s> can spell /z/, they can read is, his, was, as, hills, pains etc. (Fun fact: <s> represents the sound /z/ more frequently than the sound /s/).

Teach a child to sight read ‘looked’, they can look and say ‘looked’.

Teach a child that <ed> can spell the sound /t/, they can read looked, jumped, kicked, walked etc. (Fun fact: the simple past tense -ed suffix can represent /t/ looked, /d/ opened, or /i/ /d/ wanted).

Teach a child to sight read ‘they’, they can look and say ‘they’.

Teach a child that <ey> can spell /ae/, they can read they, prey, grey, convey, obey etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘he’, they can look and say ‘he’.

Teach a child that <e> can spell /ee/, they can read he, she, be, we, me, even etc.

Teach a child to sight read the personal pronoun ‘I’, they can look and say ‘I’.

Teach a child that <i> can spell /ie/, they can read I, I’m, I’ll, I’d, icy, iron, bible, china, climb, kind, wild, alibi etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘go’, they can look and say ‘go’.

Teach a child that <o> can spell /oe/, they can read go, no, so, don’t, old, only, open etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘to’, they can look and say ‘to’.

Teach a child that <o> can spell m/oo/n, they can read to, do, into, lose, move, tomb, who etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘you’, they can look and say ‘you’.

Teach a child that <ou> can spell m/oo/n, they can read you, group, coupon, route, soup etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘for’, they can look and say ‘for’.

Teach a child that <or> can spell /or/, they can read for, born, order, north, ordinary etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘all’, they can look and say ‘all’.

Teach a child that <a> can spell /or/, they can read all, ball, called, tall, also, call, hall, walk, water etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘house’, they can look and say ‘house’.

Teach a child that <ou> can spell /ow/, they can read house, out, about etc.; <se> can spell /s/ they can read house, mouse, chase, dense, horse, nurse etc.

Teach a child to sight read ‘could’, they can look and say ‘could’.

Teach a child that <oul> can spell b/oo/k, they can read could, couldn’t, should, shouldn’t, would & wouldn’t. (6 ‘look and say’ words, or one piece of code?).

Teach a child to sight read ‘put’, they can look and say ‘put’.

Teach a child that <u> can spell b/oo/k, they can read put, bull, bush, full, awful, painful etc.

You can find all of the first 100 high frequency words, organised by sound, here: https://linguisticphonics.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/first-100-high-frequency-words-letters-and-sounds.pdf

Some reading programmes promote ‘sight reading’ of high frequency words, where children are encouraged to memorise whole words without explicitly discussing sound-spelling correspondences. However, research into eye movements shows us that words are not read as wholes 1/2

the brain processes sound-spelling correspondences for quick retrieval (Dehaene, 2010; Ehri, 1998; Rayner et al., 2001). 2/2

When we know that the majority of words in the English language are represented by 175 sounds (McGuinness), we can’t justify teaching *some* words though whole language: there is a logic to teaching sound-spelling correspondences 1/2

and this is through systematic phonics. Teach the 175 spellings explicitly; work through a basic (initial, 1:1 correspondence) then complex (extended, alternative spellings) codes, until chn can read and spell with fluency.

Some quotes from the National Curriculum regarding High Frequency Words/Common Exception Words: 1/3

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239784/English_Appendix_1_-_Spelling.pdf

”The ‘exception words’ contain GPCs which have not yet been taught as widely applicable, but this may be because they are applicable in very few age- appropriate words rather than because they are rare in English words in general.” 2/3

”Pupils’ attention should be drawn to the grapheme- phoneme correspondences that do and do not fit in with what has been taught so far.” 3/3