What are Fry Words?

What are fry words is a question I've been asked numerous times. I imagine people are thing of the large fries from McDonald's or Burger King each time they ask the question. As educators we know there are multiple varieties of sight words and high frequency words that young readers benefit from knowing. So here is the quick version on what fry words are and why I have chosen fry words as my vehicle for teaching students through structured literacy.

What are fry words?

Fry words are a compilation of high frequency words that appear in english text regularly. Words are taught from the highest of frequency to the lowest of frequency, so words like I, you, me, my, said, etc. are taught early on so students recognize these words automatically since they appear so often in text. This helps students to build fluency and automaticity for words that don't have common spelling patterns and or early taught skills in structured phonics instruction. This leads to comprehension and students ability to read texts faster and with more confidence which leads to further skill acquisition and understanding of the texts students are reading.

Why I chose fry words?

I chose fry because of my training with high frequency words and structured literacy. Teaching students words in order of their most common appearance in text for me is common sense. Teaching them the highest frequency words first help students to read sentences and comprehend faster. There are so many versions of sight word lists, and all are helpful, don't get me wrong. I just felt as an educator and structured language certified teacher that fry words fit structured language and phonics acquisition best by teaching most common to least common, which is also how I teach phonemes and letters to my students which we can talk about in a future post.

How I use Fry.

I use fry in a sequence of 10 words for week 1, 10 words for week 2, then for week 3 I combine the lists from week 1 and week 2 to help students to review and practice the words further as a spiral and continuous review. Students are assessed the first day of the first week by reading the list of words to me in a round robin reading during our reading centers time. I go to students desks and have them read the words to me, or sometimes if my paraprofessional is available they will have students read to them. Students are again assessed at the end of the tree weeks on the 20 words. Each week the list is sent home to practice with parents at home. Students and parents are asked to practice together nightly Monday through Thursday. Parents are made aware of words students missed for continued practice at home as well as in school after the three weeks. I also have students practice their fry words daily with flash cards as as class as well as with activities and centers within my literacy block during the school day. Below click the picture to see the resource in my teachers pay teachers store that I use for centers and lists to send home to families.

The bundle of fry word practice activities above includes flash cards for each student to cut out, individual practice worksheets for each word, read, trace, and write pages, read and roll activities, read and color activities, and high frequency word graphs with spinners that students can use a paper clip and pencil to use to name a few. I use these activities by having students complete the individual word worksheets each day, students complete two worksheets a day to be sure to complete all ten within the week. I sometimes use these for homework and other times use them within centers time. The other activity worksheets I use with students during centers. Sometimes I use the roll and read in partners for students to roll and read with their own color and they see who colors a row all on their own first kind of like bingo or tic tac toe. The possibilities are endless. Use the worksheets however works best for your students and in your classroom setting.

No matter what high frequency words you use, it is so important to teach students these words to catapult their reading and comprehension.

Happy reading!