Which phrases are students most exposed to?
New Resource for Beginning Readers & the Research Behind It
History of Sight Word Lists (Hint: It involves two educational psychologists named Edward!)
Back in the 1930s, Edward William Dolch, an American educator and reading specialist, created a set of essential words that children needed to recognize and read by sight to improve their reading fluency. Two decades later Rutgers University researcher, Edward Fry, identified words that appear frequently in texts and do not necessarily follow regular phonetic rules. Educators and parents for decades have taught students to learn these words by sight to improve reading fluency and comprehension. While Fry’s and Dolch’s lists have been a staple in early literacy, they may not represent the phrases that students today frequently encounter in their reading. Word frequency has changed over the past 70 years due to shifts in culture, technology and communication patterns. In the coming months, new research will be released on high-frequency phrases that reflect current language usage. (Spoiler alert: Educators and parents won’t have to wait for the research to be published. They can get early access to the phrase list for free!)
Forthcoming Research Identifying Most Used Words
Dr. Tim Shanahan and MetaMetrics (the Lexile creators) conducted a comprehensive analysis of a 39-million-word language corpus drawn from widely used core subject textbooks in Grades 1-12. The result is a modern, high-frequency phrase list that aligns with the reading demands of the 21st century. This 21st Century High-Frequency Phrase List includes 160 bigrams and 16 trigrams, all of which appear frequently in primary grade reading textbooks and across the curriculum in grades 1-12. This new list provides a more effective tool for reading instruction, assessment and research. It offers a more accurate reflection of the phrases students will encounter in their reading, thus providing more relevant and practical learning opportunities. The research findings will be included in The Reading Teacher in the coming months.
How to Access the 21st Century High-Frequency Phrase List
This research is a valuable resource for educators seeking to enhance their reading instruction and better prepare students for the reading demands of the 21st century. Plus, it helps educators and parents know what words to teach together! To access the word list, go to Hub.Lexile.com. The new list appears in the “K-2 Tools” section.