HOTWORDS

Hotwords are ‘high frequency words’, which as the name suggests, are words which are commonly found in our reading. Learning to read these ‘at a glance’ will greatly aid in improving reading fluency and comprehension, as time is not taken to decode.

Students should practise these Hotwords daily for short period of time, perhaps about 5 minutes, depending on their level of engagement. These are practice tool to reinforce the learning progress made at school. At this level we are not focusing on being able to ‘sound out’ (decode) these words, instead your child is working towards being able to recognise the word as a whole.

There are many ways that you can practice the Hotwords with your child. Some game ideas have been included here, below, so you can use a variety of activities.

Levels should be learned in order. Please don’t expect your child to learn too much in one go – focus on three or four words at a time and gradually build up. 

Once a level is mastered, they can progress to the next. Copies of each level are found here, below.

It is recommended to keep revising previous levels – to help keep them locked in long-term memory.

Keep in mind that if your child doesn’t read the Hotword correctly within approximately three seconds then you remind them of the word and move on. Let’s keep their learning positive by celebrating the wins.

Please feel free to contact me via the office (bayviewoffice@stlukes.nsw.edu.au) if you have any queries.