Be sure you know all these words automatically High frequency words are words that students encounter frequently in reading and writing. It is critical that readers and writers develop automatic recognition of high frequency words, a skill that leads to fluency. Students need to be able read about 300 high frequency words "instantly" without hesitation, because these words make up 65% of all written material. Comprehension begins to break down when students are focused on trying to decode or sound out words. Many high frequency words are called "Sight Words". Sight words do not follow regular phonetic rules. They do not follow easy spelling patterns (example: cave, save, wave, gave, have). As a result, these words are more difficult for students to master. Asking a child to "sound it out" is pointless with this type of word and generally causes increased frustration for beginning and struggling readers. Young readers need to recognize these words as "sight word". In order for students to retain a difficult word, they need many opportunities to experience and manipulate it.