How to teach “tricky words”

"Sight words" or "Tricky words."

What they are and how to use evidence-based practices to help a child learn them:

First, I have a confession. I recently had a discussion, just this past June, about playing games, using repeated practice, using your whole body to get up and move, all to help memorize tricky words.

I take it back. This is just proof in the pudding that I am a lifelong learner, and I will tell you when I am wrong and correct my mistake.

How many of you have seen the words, 'and' or 'like' on sight word lists and thought…why is that tricky? Why do they have to drill it to memorize it? Just decode it.

I have, but then I snapped into my well-rehearsed answer of, "They HAVE to be automatic; you can't waste time sounding it out, or you will lose meaning!"
Insert screeching brakes. Back it up and throw this train in reverse.

Remember the phonemic awareness email course I offered you for free? (It's still available, go nab it if you haven't yet). Those are the same skills we need to teach our children so that they have tens of thousands of sight words simply because their brain did what it was supposed to. It unitized a word after it processed its phonograms, it's pronunciation, it's meaning, it's written representation, and then BAM. They own the word, and that is the real definition of a sight word.
Let me break down that paragraph.

Sight words are words that the brain broke down into parts and then stored it for later and more automatic retrieval. Meaning, the brain doesn't need to break it down into its pieces again. What am I talking about when I say 'parts' or 'pieces'? I am talking about the sounds that make up that word—knowing that sounds make up words = phonemic awareness. THIS, my friend, is why you must make sure a child is learning and practicing phonemic awareness. Not just toddlers and kindergartners, kids through fourth grade should be developing this skill and exercising that part of their brain to learn massive amounts of words correctly, an enormous amount of words that become their "sight words."

Now that we know a sight word is a word that a person owns because he has decoded it enough times and no longer has to think to read it, it just pops when his eyes see it, then what is a tricky (or irregular) word? What are you supposed to do instead of writing these words 7-10 times every night before a Friday test? 
Well, let's start with the obvious but new revelation. These words (that come from Fry and Dolch lists and have been assigned for ages by great teachers (me) to be drilled and drilled again) are not all irregular; our brain can learn many of them the same way it turned 'cat' and 'mom' into a sight word. A word that instantly pops when we see it. That is, it follows the rules and can be decoded and processed normally.

A tricky word is a word with irregular spelling. You should focus on the odd spelling and not just present the word as a whole and force it into the child's sight word bank. Look at this list of second-grade "sight-words" that I just pulled off of google.

five-take-no-sing-do-could-read-eat-says-play

Is the word 'like' tricky? No. Because by second grade, that child should know the sounds attached to the letters, 'l, i, k,' and understand the silent-e rule. Not tricky. Their brain should be able to break the word down into phonograms and phonemes that they know and then file that word. Therefore, we need to let the kids attack such words how they know how versus telling them they need to memorize it as a whole word unit.

Look back at that list of 10 words. There are three words with tricky, or irregular, spellings for a second-grader.

Do. There are two sounds in that word. /d/ and /oo/. Next, we would draw two lines to teach this word because there are two sounds. 
___ ___
Now tell the child to write the letter that says /d/ on the first line. 
Then tell them, "The tricky part is that the single letter 'o' says /oo/ in this word." Have them write an 'o' on the second line and read the word 'do.' Make connections with them to other words with that same irregular spelling. For example, 'to'.

Let's talk about another word from the list that is truly irregular. The word 'says'. Have your child break it into the sounds. /s/ /e/ /z/. Make three lines.
___ ___ ___
Talk about the first sound. Use the first spelling of /s/. And then talk about the last sound. By second grade, kids will know that 's' is frequently used to spell the sound /z/, so talk it through. That chat may sound like this, "Which ways do you know how to spell /z/?" Finally, tell them, "The tricky part of this word is the middle sound; 'ay' makes the short e sound."

And the last word that is genuinely tricky on this second-grade list; could. Have the child break the word into sounds and draw lines for each sound (3 lines total). The first and last sounds are apparent and straightforward for the second-grader. Then you tell them that the middle sound is spelled 'oul'. Here you can make connections with would and should.

Let me summarize: for both sight words and irregular/tricky words, a child needs to know how to break a word into its sounds, its phonemes. Strengthening phonemic awareness should be the first goal, always. Second, sight words are the words that each person has stored for quick recall. It is not the most common 250 words that we pull off google to memorize during early elementary years. 
However, tricky/irregular words can be pulled off those lists and taught with evidence-based methods in the same way we teach decodable words, break down the word into how many sounds there are, and then focus on how to spell the sounds. Only 1, maybe 2, sounds are going to be tricky. Focus on that one sound when teaching that tricky/irregular word by making connections to other words that share the odd spelling, and while the child is learning it, you tell them how to spell that problematic sound when they go to spell the word. Do not let them guess and make errors that are going to get stuck in their brain.

"Let's practice your irregular sight words."
Child, "Again? Okay, let me get a pencil." 
"The first word is says. Remember the middle sound is tricky. 'Ay' spells /e/."
"Great job! Now spell do. Remember…"
Child, "I remember, don't tell me. One 'o' says oo, you spell it d-o. Just like the word to, t-o." 
"Yes, amazing! Those are the only tricky words this week, so now let's practice all 10 common words from your homework.. Read them first, and then we will spell them."

Insert the famous phrase, "I wish I knew then what I know now." This method would have made so much more sense to my oldest child and several kids I have crossed paths with in the last 17 years. It wouldn't have been overwhelming, and it would have allowed success. But it is not just a few; it would have allowed all the kids to have long-lasting results with these words versus memorizing for a test and then purging. I hope this long-winded explanation helps you or someone you know to help a child from feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, or unworthy of success. Success will come when we teach in a way the brain is wired to learn instead of trying to skip steps and force information past the finish line.

photo cred: freepik