Routine · Irregular words
Heart word routine
Read a heart word, sound out the parts that follow the rules, mark the tricky part with a heart, spell it aloud and write it.
- Time
- 2 to 5 minutes
- Skill
- Irregular words
- In a session plan
- Heart words
When to use it
Each time a new high-use word with an irregular part comes up, and for any heart word a student keeps misreading.
Materials
- A whiteboard
- Index cards for the student's heart word deck
Steps
Shown with example words: heart word said; heart part ai.
Get ready
Say said and use it in a short sentence. The student repeats the word.
I do
Say the word slowly and tap a finger for each sound. Write a line for each sound, then write the spelling on the lines, talking about which parts are regular.
Say: Said. Most of this word does what we expect. This part, ai, does not. We learn it by heart.
Draw a heart above ai.
We do
Read the word together. Then spell it aloud together, saying the letter names, and read it once more.
Student: Reads said, spells it aloud, reads it again.
You do
Cover the word. The student writes it from memory, saying the letter names, and draws the heart.
Student: Writes said and marks the heart part.
Check
Uncover and compare. Add the word to the student's deck.
If the student...
Sounds out the heart part as if it were regular.
Point to the heart and say this part is the one to remember. Say the word, have the student say it while pointing to the heart, then spell it aloud together from the first letter.
Say: This is the heart part. It says something new. The word is said. Say it and spell it with me.
Writes the regular parts right but misspells the heart part.
Show the correct spelling, trace the heart part together while saying its letters, then have the student write the whole word again.
Tips
- Most heart words are mostly regular. Say so out loud. It keeps the student sounding out the rest.
- Once the irregular part has been taught as a pattern, the word stops being a heart word. Tell the student.
- In a group, have everyone write on boards at once and turn them round together.
Example words
- Heart word
- said
- Heart part
- ai
Original routines written by Literacy Trail. In the app, every routine is filled with your student's lesson.
Related routines
Have this routine filled in for every lesson
In Literacy Trail, the session plan picks a routine for each block and fills it with the words, sounds and sentence from your student's lesson. Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial.