High-Frequency Words in Read Well
Common Core State Standards:
Foundational Skills RF.K.3d, RF.1.3g, RF.2.3f, RF.3.3d.
High Frequency Words—both pattern and irregular words—are introduced and taught within Read Well’s decoding sequence. When a word is irregular, students learn to use the sounds they know and their knowledge of oral language to read words correctly. (We don’t say /iiisss/, we say /iz/.)
Once introduced, the words are practiced repeatedly in subsequent exercises and stories.
Conventional wisdom is to teach the first 100 words by the end of Grade 1, and the first 200 words by the end of Grade 2. Read Well students exceed these goals.
- By the end of RW1, students will have mastered 383 of the first 600 words.
- By the end of RW2, students will have mastered 588 of the first 600 words.
High Frequency Words Introduced and Mastered in Read Well:
| Fry’s Instant Words | First 100 | First 200 | First 300 | First 400 | First 500 | First 600 |
| Read Well 1 | 96 | 173 | 245 | 297 | 341 | 383 |
| Read Well 2 Fluency Foundations | 99 | 183 | 261 | 318 | 371 | 439 |
| Read Well 1 Plus | 99 | 199 | 296 | 382 | 461 | 532 |
| Read Well 2 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 397 | 491 | 588 |
E.B Fry, K.E Kress, and Fountoukidis, D.L. (2000). The reading teachers’ book of lists.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.