High-Frequency Words for Special Education

Have you ever wondered how to teach your students pre-primer sight words with confidence that they will have fun and be excited about the next lesson? This High Frequency Words for Special Education is here to support YOU.

Our secret??? Using sign language reinforcement while learning a high-frequency sight word provides an inclusive and interactive hands-on learning environment. This increases student’s retention of the lesson. We’ve created an American Sign Language sight word series for special education teachers to use during group instruction, flexible group time, centers, warm-up, RTI intervention, take-home practice, or any other time while you are instructional teaching. Want to learn more about High Frequency Words for Special Education? Keep Scrolling⇣⇣⇣

What are High-Frequency Pre-Primer Sight Words?

For starters, a pre-primer sight word refers to what is known as high-frequency words also called Dolch words or Fry Words aimed for children to be recognized “at first sight”. Usually, children learn their first sight words once they start to learn how to read. It is also said that a list of pre-primer sight words makes up to 75 percent of the words used in beginning children’s printed material.

In many classrooms, recognition of common sight words among beginner readers is still of top priority. The earlier the exposure to words, the more likely the child will learn more vocabulary, increase their fluency, and therefore, develop a love for reading.

How Many High-Frequency Sight Words Are on the Pre-Primer List?

Common Core typically requires 40 beginning pre-primer sight words to be taught to students. Our pre-primer for special education series contains some of the most common sight words taught to children today. These worksheets (also known as ASL Dolch words or ASL Fry words)  contain pages for learning, writing, reviewing, reading, signing sight words, and answer sheets. Teachers find it easy to keep track of student’s progress with the Sight Word Assessment.

Popular pre-primer sight words for special education vary in grade level. For example, a common list of pre-primer sight words for Pre-K students include: And, Big, Blue, Can, Come, For, Go, Help, Here, I, You, We

Each grade level students build upon the previous year’s sight words to learn an approximate total of 220 sight words through third grade.

 

Sight Word Free Worksheets &

Google Slides™!

 

If you’re wondering if you read that right, the answer is yes. We’ve made pre-primer sight word worksheets and also included our sight words online game and sight words flashcards sample for you to download to see the quality of our resources.

 

Get your FREE Sight Word FREE packet here.

How Are Sight Words Taught in the Special Education Classroom?

You can use this free resource for pre-primer sight word worksheets and online Google Slides™ to teach students common sight words and the equivalent signs. This will also benefit especially for deaf and hard-of-hearing, and kids on the autism spectrum or other special needs.

5 Ways to Use Your High-Frequency Sight Words for Special Education

1. Say the word, sign the word
The teacher will say and sign the feature word when speaking to the students. Then together with the students, repeat the featured word by speaking and signing it simultaneously.

2. Read the word, sign the word
For deaf and hard-of-hearing students, they can be encouraged to read and sign the featured word. This can also work when teaching sight words online. Speaking of which, regular sight words online practice is also a teaching tool option.

3. Write the word, sign the word
Same as above, except that instead of reading, students will be encouraged to write and sign the featured word.

4. Wall Charts & Pocket Charts
Display the sign language high-frequency fry sight words wall charts during each unit of study. As a bonus, you can also get the pocket size for the student’s desk AND a mini size for them to keep and use for study. The more they collect, the more games you can play with them.

5. Use online interactive learning
You can find a large selection of our sign language-supported sight word series for your students to access at home or in the classroom. These can be found in our:

☆ Flipbooks that will also include the Google Slide™ version
☆ Boom Learning will give data tracking information while the students have fun learning online. See our Boom store here.
☆ Teachers Pay Teacher will also carry our online series in Easel format. Visit our TpT store here. Just remember membership on our site will give you access to ALL our ASL resources.

Of course, it is still important that students can enjoy learning functional sight words for special education and have fun with it as well. For example, teachers can put wallcharts in the room for constant visual sight word reminders/additional learning tools.

 

How to Organize Sight Words

I prefer to create my sight word activities, whether they are worksheets, ASL sight word flashcards, flipbooks, etc. to be a reusable resource. However, here are 2 ideas for you to choose which meets your needs best. Next, I’ll show you how I store my ASL flashcards and flipbooks.

1. Print and staple it for single-use
For students’ self-study, classwork, or homework. Print out your pre-primer sight words, then cut out the cards with scissors and arrange them in numerical order to create a flipbook. Staple the flipbook together, and you can start using the flipbook for teaching!

2. Laminate it for multiple uses
If you are planning to use it multiple times, you should laminate this learning resource. It can be kept in the classroom or sent home with a student for further practice.

Aside from the pre-primer sight word worksheets free resources, you can also check out sight words online practice resources in our Boom Learning store.

Sight Word flashcards have never been easier! I found these on Amazon and fell in love with them. These colorful photo storage boxes can easily fit all of my ASL fry sight words. I use the card covers on the front to help keep everything so nice and organized. If you cannot find this storage container, you can purchase any 4 X 6 photo holder, use bins, folders, or Zip – Loc bags to store each set. Click on the photos to take you to Amazon’s online shopping to purchase and start getting organized.

 

 

How can teachers make learning high-frequency sight words fun? Incorporate sight words online games into your everyday learning schedule to enhance the ease of learning for your students. This also creates a positive and exciting atmosphere that boosts your student’s desire to learn and confidence in their abilities.

The earlier you expose kids to words, the more they will appreciate reading and vocabulary. Teaching sight words for special education to young students should be fun and informational at the same time. You can gain your time back by getting the full series. BONUS!  Get unlimited access with a Pro membership.

 

 

Teachers have the major responsibility of teaching students things they should know in an engaging and fun way. This is where our ASL teaching resources can help YOU with your teaching. You can check out the FREE Pre-Primer Sight Words. that will serve as a guide for you when teaching sight words to your students.

 

Look what’s here for YOU! Sight Words Series ⇩⇩⇩

Bonus gift for you here! 

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