Anne Bayetto

Summary Report of the Oxford Wordlist, Stage 2 Research Study

The Words Children Write

An investigation of high frequency words in Years 3 and 4 students’ writing development

beyond the early years

2010

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PREFACEStage 1 of the Oxford Wordlist research study, An investigation of high frequency words in young children’s writing and reading development, was conducted by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Australian schools in 2007. This study was the first of its type in over 30 years and produced the 307 most frequently used words by students in their first three years of school.

Following the interest and requests from educators beyond the early years, OUP has expanded the study to examine the word choices of students in Years 3 and 4. This latest research study, An investigation of high frequency words in Years 3 and 4 students’ writing development, was conducted in Australian schools in 2009.

Using the same research methodology, writing samples were collected from approximately 1000 Years 3 and 4 students from a range of schools to ensure that all Australian students were represented. These included students from:

rural and urban settings

schools across the range of socio-economic groups

indigenous backgrounds

English and non-English speaking backgrounds

Drawing from over 315 000 words entered into the database, Oxford Wordlist Plus©—beyond the early years is a list of the 404 most frequently used words by Years 3 and 4 students in their own writing and has been developed as a resource freely available to all Australian educators.

This publication, The Words Children Write—beyond the early years, is the analysis of the data.

JULIE BAILLIEResearch Manager: Primary DivisionOxford University Press Australia

Julie Baillie has led both stages of the Oxford Wordlist research study. She supported schools, school leaders and educators in all aspects of the process of this study, including collating the data for further analysis. Julie taught in early years’ classrooms in South Australia for over 20 years. Her understanding of the needs of educators and students was instrumental in the formation of this study.

ANNE BAYETTO MEd, Grad Cert Disability Studies (International Education), Grad Cert Disability Studies (Learning Difficulties), BEd, Grad Dip (Reading Education), DipT (Primary)Lecturer: EducationFlinders University, Adelaide

Anne Bayetto is an experienced educator who has worked in a range of roles. She has been a primary mainstream and school-based special education teacher and worked in district-wide disability support positions. She was a founding member of the Learning Difficulties Support Team in South Australia and since 1989 has taught courses for the Specific Learning Difficulties Association of South Australia (SPELD).

Anne continues to provide professional learning sessions for educators in government, Catholic education and Independent schools. She has authored articles and chapters and 2009 saw the publication of her book Read, Record, Respond: Moving from Assessment to Instruction by Oxford University Press.

Anne lectures in special education at Flinders University and focuses on literacy and numeracy for students with learning difficulties.

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INTROdUCTIONThe aim of Stage 2 of the Oxford Wordlist study An investigation of high frequency words in Years 3 and 4 students’ writing development has been to document the words that Australian students from these year levels choose to write. The writing samples collected from students in Years 3 and 4 has provided an opportunity for reflection about how students represent themselves in and out of school. These different contexts influence, and are influenced by, students’ speaking, listening, reading and writing skills and, accordingly, the words they bring to the page or screen. They provide a window into their worlds. So what do the words written spontaneously by students teach us about themselves, about what they know, and what they like to do (Horn & Giacobbe, 2007)? What influences may have led to their word preferences? What might be the implications for educators’ planning and programming decisions?

The range of word knowledge that students bring to school is understandably diverse. Early years educators build on students’ word knowledge by engaging them in a wide range of experiences, and by talking and reading to and with them (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2000; Kissel, 2008). Students’ early reading and writing often focuses on people and contexts they know, about events they have experienced, and about print and IT activities (NCTE, 2009). While students continue to come to a wider awareness about the world, they internalise new word meanings and their spoken vocabulary expands. So, as students set about authoring, they draw on their spoken language repertoire; after all, if they don’t use the words in their oral communication it is highly unlikely they will spontaneously use different words in their writing. Spoken language is an essential foundation for development of writing as both ‘are reciprocal processes that involve learning about literacy and language’ (Cohen & Cowen, 2008, p. 286). In fact, Gregg & Hafer (2001 cited in Brice, 2004, p. 38) maintain that ‘written language is dependent [emphasis added] on oral and reading language skills, which form a basis for writing’. It is this strong interdependence between speaking and writing that Cappello (2006 cited in Kissel, 2008, p. 56) believes allows students to ‘use their spoken and written voice to show the world who they are as people and as writers’.

By Years 3 and 4, students have started to move away from using ‘home talk’, which is generally contextualised, informal, spontaneous and characterised by simple, short sentence structures, and into ‘school talk’. This school literate language is more likely to be decontextualised, with use made of more complex sentences, grammar and descriptive vocabulary that is specific to the topic. Speaking opportunities are occasionally planned and rehearsed, and more formal in nature. According to Brice (2004, p. 45) ‘it is apparent that written language is a complex task that requires a higher control of all the components of language than does speaking’. Written language needs to be taught explicitly.

RESEARCh dESIgN ANd mEThOdOLOgY Stage 2 of the Oxford Wordlist study gathered samples of free writing from Years 3 and 4 students. The significance of collecting free choice, non-teacher-directed writing samples for analysis is supported by Cunningham and Allington (2003, p. 97) who state that educators need to be aware of ‘whether the writing children are doing is broad and representative of the various types of writing necessary in school and outside school’. Selected key factors of gender, socio-economic status, language background and location were considered and comparisons made with the data set gathered for the Stage 1 study.

In keeping with the Stage 1 study, which investigated word selection of students in their first three years of school, writing samples were collected from Years 3 and 4 students in Australian schools. Ethics approval was granted by the relevant educational authorities who provided access to a broad range of schools. Proportions for each of the selected demographic factors were calculated using the Australian census figures cited in the Stage 1 study (Lo Bianco, Scull, & Ives, 2008) enabling participant numbers in each of the two year levels sampled to be broadly reflective of its representation in the whole Australian primary school-aged population.

Writing samples were obtained from participating students in intact classes over a period of two weeks. Classroom teachers were asked to collect writing samples generated by students during free writing sessions. In this way, students were able to use writing materials and resources with which they were familiar. It is believed that samples of free writing offer a truer account of what words students spontaneously choose to use (Beckham-Hungler & Williams, 2003). These word choices provide opportunities to observe contemporary use of Australian English across a range of school settings.

Data for the Stage 2 study was drawn from 896 students in Years 3 and 4 (see Table 1); with approximately equal numbers of students in each of the two year levels and with slightly more girls than boys. Three writing samples were collected from each student, giving a total of 2688 writing samples and 315 345 words overall. The writing samples were photocopied by the class teacher who attached a code and indicated the demographic data for each student. All of the words written by the 896 students, excluding proper nouns and brand names, were entered into a database. Information about socio-economic status (SES) was drawn from the existing education system data and is based on the SES of the school.

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Table 1: Number of participants by gender, year level, SES, location, language background and indigenous identification

Gender

male Female

1332 (444 students) 1356 (452 students)

School year (this equates to 4th and 5th year of formal schooling)

Year 3 Year 4

1437 (479 students) 1251 (417 students)

Socio-economic status

Low SES mid SES high SES

1170 (390 students) 516 (172 students) 1002 (334 students)

Location

Urban Rural

2151 (717 students) 537 (179 students)Rural = 20% of total

Language background

English speaking (ESB) Non-English speaking (NESB)

1632 (544 students) 1056 (352 students)NESB = 39% of total

Indigenous

45 (15 students)Indigenous = 1.7% of total

RESEARCh RESULTSStudents in the early years of school often write about topics that revolve around recent and current experiences. However, data from the Stage 2 study indicates that in Years 3 and 4, there is less evidence of students writing about lived experiences and a movement toward writing imaginative texts. The more formally prescribed oral and reading language skills in the middle primary years appear to be having an impact, with Years 3 and 4 students beginning to express themselves through self-created, or media-related, characters. They aren’t just ‘telling about’, they are authors who are playing with language, and with this comes the need to understand ‘the role that precision of word choice plays in effective writing’ (Scott & Nagy, 2000, p. 204).

While many words in the Stage 1 study were nouns, it can be noted in this study that there is an emerging use of other grammatical forms; for example, adjectives that embellish nouns, and words that suggest engagement with a range of text types such as narratives where creative writing requires language that effectively and more explicitly conveys a writer’s intent. However, while word samples were taken from students’ free writing it is not unexpected that the writing was ‘influenced by their sense of audience’ (Tompkins, 2004, p. 13) as most school writing is read by educators. It is also interesting to note that some students have stayed with familiar topics (more about this later).

What are Years 3 and 4 students doing at school?The students in this study have recently emerged from the early years and have now entered the primary years. By the time students are in Years 3 and 4, they have been introduced to many of the listening, speaking, reading and writing genres through educators broadening their knowledge, skills and understandings about ways to communicate. However, it’s not just been about skills but also about pragmatics: knowing how and in what form their communication should be. Most students have learned to read and write and are now expected to read and write to learn. Educators are looking for and expecting students to do more independent work, to read longer and more complex texts, to increase the quantity of their writing and to improve its quality. It could be suggested that Years 3 and 4 are the ‘growing up’ years when students are offered a more academically focused curriculum. After all, they have already participated in (or are soon to) the Australian National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). This identification and stratification of literacy ability publicly indicates those who are on target, those who are exceeding expectations, and those who are not yet meeting minimum requirements for attainment. Differences in achievement are starting to become part of the public domain.

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There is some evidence in the Stage 2 study that the content of the NAPLAN tests may be influencing words that students choose to write. While there is, as expected, a range of educator responses to the NAPLAN, it is not unreasonable to suggest that some take a decidedly down-to-business approach and explicitly teach their students how to write the designated text type. Schools were advised that the assessable text type was a narrative with the writing prompts ‘Found’ used in 2008 and ‘The box’ in 2009. While uptake and use of the 2008 writing prompt is difficult to pinpoint in the data obtained in this study, it is interesting that the word <box> was in the top 404 words for Years 3 and 4 and was used 162 times. It could be that, as the timing of the data collected for this study was close to the administration of the NAPLAN, some students chose to write the same or a similar narrative as they did for the NAPLAN.

What are Years 3 and 4 students doing outside of school? Students in Years 3 and 4 are becoming increasingly active and are out and about. By the ages of eight and nine, many children are participating in a range of activities focused on sport and fitness, using words like <football>, <kicked>, <goal>, <pool>, <swimming>, <team>, <race>, <run>, <game>, <played>, and in social outings with family and friends using words like <birthday>, <beach>, <car>, <bus>, <drove>, <friend>, <friends>, <park>, <party>, <Saturday>, <Sunday>, <weekend>, <family>, <fun>, <sister>, <brother>, <cousin>, <mum>, <dad>, <play>, <games>, that may focus on food <breakfast>, <lunch>, <dinner>, <eat>, <eating>, <ate>. It appears that some are making spending decisions using words like <money>, <buy>, <shop>, <clothes>. They also show an interest in animals using words like <cat>, <dog>, <fish>, <horse>, <pet>, <puppy>.

Media has found a place with these tech savvy, informed and influential young people—words like <computer>, <TV>, <movie>, <watched>, <games>, <played> feature in the Stage 2 data. Many children have a range of IT items in their bedrooms; for example, CD players, iPods computers, televisions, game consoles and mobile phones. Their world is interactive. Eight and nine year olds are watching television and they have more channels to watch. These channels may be ones that are pure entertainment or ones that encourage them to think. They are viewers and consumers and while proper nouns were not included in the Stage 2 data, there were ample examples of students writing about favourite drinks, fast food outlets, shopping venues, movie/television characters and personalities, the latest interactive gaming technology, characters from interactive games and sporting teams/players collected in the data set.

What’s common among writers in Years 3 and 4?Students in their first year of school are averaging 20 words per writing sample but, as Table 2 shows, by the time they are in Years 3 and 4, the average has risen to 104 and 132 words respectively.

Table 2: Average word count for the Stage 1 and Stage 2 Oxford Wordlist studies

First year Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

20 51 78 104 132

Notable too is the word count spread presented in Table 3, with 13.8% of Year 3 students writing fewer than 50 words and the highest percentage writing 50–99 words (41.5%). The range was no less dramatic for Year 4 students, with 9% writing fewer than 50 words and the highest percentage writing 100–199 words (45.9%). Comparatively few students wrote more than 200 words (Year 3: <8% and Year 4: <16%). However, by comparison with the Stage 1 study each writing sample, on average, had only three new words.

Table 3: Word count spread for the Stage 2 Oxford Wordlist study

Year 3 Year 4

No. of words No. of samples % No. of samples %

<50 198 13.8 112 9

50–99 597 41.5 361 28.9

100–199 547 38.0 574 45.9

200–299 86 6 163 13

300–400 7 <1.0 32 2.6

>400 2 <1.0 9 <1

Data from the Stage 1 study, presented in Table 4, reveals that recounts were often written in the first year of school (58%) but the Stage 2 data shows recounts used less the longer students are at school, with 25.1% of students in Year 3 and 22.8% of students in Year 4 choosing to write this text type. Conversely, relative to years at school, students are increasingly writing more narratives. Where in the first year at school the rate was 17.2%, narratives increased to 55.6% in Year 3 and 58.9% in Year 4. This rise in the writing of narratives may reflect students’ increased engagement with fantasy, perhaps through the influence of media (television, movies and

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the internet), specific genre teaching, or targeted instruction based around the NAPLAN. In total, other text types (description, discussion, explanation, exposition, information report, poetry, procedure, response, and other) were used in less than 20% of the writing samples for Years 3 and 4. By comparison, different text types used in the Stage 1 study were around 25% in the first year of school, 19% in Year 1, and 14% in Year 2.

Table 4: Frequency of narratives and recounts used by early years and Years 3 and 4 students

First year Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

No. of samples % No. of

samples % No. of samples % No. of

samples % No. of samples %

Narrative 326 17.2 299 31.3 452 48.2 799 55.6 737 58.9

Recount 1097 58 478 50.1 382 40.7 361 25.1 285 22.8

It is also evident in the Stage 2 data that students are continuing to write significant numbers of texts using past tense. Few new contractions were noted in the Years 3 and 4 sample, with the additional words being <let’s>, <wasn’t>, <can’t>, <I’ll>. Similarly, only three new prepositions <before>, <through>, <under> appeared in the writing samples

Adjectives were mostly used to describe items <cool>, <cold>, <dark>, <brown>, <hard>, <small>, <sunny> with very few applied to describe characters, settings, feelings and sensory details. However, as Fletcher and Portalupi (2007, p. 60) state ‘using too many adjectives often leads to verbose, overwritten prose’. Verbs used were mostly general rather than specific <been>, <doing>, <eating>, <getting>, <having>, <knew>, <looking>, <sat>, <used>. However, it was evident that the introduction of some verbs <excited>, <decided>, <replied>, <yelled>, <shouted>, <happened> was related to the higher incidence of narrative writing in this cohort of students. Few comparatives or superlatives were used <quickly>, <later>, <best>, <more>.

What’s different between early years writers and Years 3 and 4 writers?There was a high correlation between the 50 most frequently used words generated in both studies. The first 50 words in the Stage 2 data were represented in the initial 59 words in the Stage 1 data with the differences being <played>, <dad>, <weekend>, <once>, <after>, <fun>, <like>, <some>, <going>. When looking at the first 100 words in the Stage 2 data there were 19 words not in the first 100 of the Stage 1 data. By 200 words in the Stage 2 data there were many words from the Stage 1 data no longer included with many of them being nouns and perhaps related to the higher use of recounts by early year students.

Interestingly though, there appears to be fewer differences between students by the time they are in Years 3 and 4. Lo Bianco, Scull and Ives (2008, p. 6) consider ‘differences of gender and probable differences in socio-cultural experience, as well as the personal imaginative and creative capabilities of individual children’ would likely start to account for variations beyond these levels.

GenderScott (2005, in Catts & Kamhi, p. 262) has noted:

an inherent clash between topics that interest boys and topics and attitudes valued by the educational culture. Researchers since the early seventies have documented differences in self-sponsored writing topics (as cited in Newkirk, 2000): wild animals (boys) versus domestic animals (girls); secondary territory of wars, presidents, space (boys) versus primary territory of home, school, parents, friends (girls); contests in which protagonists act alone (boys) versus joint action and staying connected to the community (girls).

If we use this observation as a framework for consideration we can note that boys and girls in the sample did seem to write many of the same stereotypical words. However, words used uniquely by boys included <dragon>, <monster>, <alien>, <evil>, <giant>, <fight>, <killed>, while words used uniquely by girls included <princess>, <fairy>, <shopping>, <cute>, <dance>, <magic>, <baby>, <kitchen>. Not all of these words appeared with significant frequency to appear on a final, published high frequency list but the unique use of these words does suggest there are still notable differences between the topics and characters included in the texts written by girls and boys.

Again, as in the Oxford Wordlist, there was no mention in the first 100 words by boys of a specific sport so words such as <played>, <play>, <games>, <game> may well be related to electronic games. The use of pronouns by boys and girls seems to have mostly evened up compared with the Stage 1 data although girls used more formal referents such as <Mr>, <Mrs>, <mother>.

DemographicsIt appears that the longer students have been at school, the influence of some demographic factors has lessened. A review of students’ choices in the top 404 words by language background, location, socio-economic status and indigenous identification did not suggest major differences in the frequency of word usage in relation to these factors.

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Which words are written uniquely by early years students and Years 3 and 4 studentsThe Stage 2 research database holds over 315 000 words yet there are only 8131 words that were used uniquely by the Years 3 and 4 cohort. Many words were written again and again by students no matter what the demographics (gender, school year, school setting, location, language background and indigenous identification) or the topic. However, Table 6 shows that, by comparison with the Stage 1 data, there is a significant increase in the number of unique words used by students in Years 3 and 4.

Table 6: Words written uniquely by early years students and Years 3 and 4 students

Early years Years 3–4

bike any giant mother than

boat anything girls never think

cake arrived give no one thought

castle been goal nothing through

chips before gold open top

computer both gone opened town

cousin’s box green parents under

cousins boys ground person used

dogs brown gun pet wait

dressed bus hair police wasn’t

fairy can’t hand puppy way

footy chocolate happened quickly week

Friday class hard rain which

funny clothes having ready while

garden cold hear replied whole

icecream cool heard right window

killed dark hit run year

liked days hole running years

magic decided hot same yelled

movies died hour sat

names different hours say

playground doing I’ll screamed

present drove kept second

princess each kicked shot

rabbit eating kids should

read end king shouted

sad even knew six

shark everything land small

shopping excited later soon

shops eyes left space

show face let stay

slide felt let’s stop

snake few life stopped

soccer finally light story

stayed fire live stuff

thank forest looking suddenly

toy front minutes sunny

yesterday getting money tell

zoo ghost most ten

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OxFORd WORdLIST PLUSAfter analysing the Stage 2 data, 404 high frequency words were identified as being of significance in students’ writing beyond the early years. This list, published as the Oxford Wordlist Plus, provides educators with the 136 unique words for this cohort of students. It also includes 268 words from the Oxford Wordlist, as these words continued to be of significance. The complete Oxford Wordlist Plus is included at the end of this report and words are presented in order of frequency.

ImPLICATIONS FOR EdUCATORSHorn & Giacobbe (2007, p. 3) comment that ‘since we teach in response to what children are doing—or not doing—we need to know what we’re trying to respond to’. The frequently written words in the Stage 2 study, used spontaneously by Years 3 and 4 students, give educators a base from which they can work.

Bear et al. (2000, p. 10) remind educators that ‘students acquire word knowledge through implicit learning that takes place as they read and write and through explicit instruction [emphasis added] orchestrated by the teacher’. While being mindful of developmental stages, it is suggested that educators use the Oxford Wordlist Plus to confirm known words and to teach those that need to be known next. Expanding students’ word knowledge supports many constituent parts of their literacy development. Whether it be teacher-directed writing or ‘self-sponsored writing’ (Brandt 2001 cited in NCTE, 2009), students will benefit from being taught how to read, understand, and write these 404 frequently occurring words.

An inspection of the Oxford Wordlist Plus suggests some specific points for consideration by educators.

It is possible that some early years educators have not yet started to use the Oxford Wordlist (2008). If this is the case, it is recommended that educators establish, through pre-assessment, which words Years 3 and 4 students can write automatically before moving on to the Oxford Wordlist Plus.

While many students are likely to be successfully writing words from the Oxford Wordlist Plus, there will be others who will benefit from being taught how to pronounce, spell and use them contextually. Pre-assessment will determine which words need to be learned next.

Both Oxford Wordlists have words in common and words unique to their year-level cohorts. Words that appear in both lists provide strong direction about the body of words that must be known automatically by students as they move through the primary years. Educators who ensure students can understand, pronounce and spell these words effortlessly will be setting their students up for more independent control of the writing process in the years ahead.

It is recommended that educators teach the meaning and spelling of these highly occurring words in both Oxford Wordlists and use them as a springboard for developing the skill of spelling by analogy; for example, explicitly model that if students can spell ‘same’ they can readily learn to spell ‘came’, ‘game’, ‘name’, ‘blame’ and so on.

Students in Years 3 and 4 are using more formal school discourses yet their word selection in the Oxford Wordlist Plus is aggregated around relatively few new words. It is recommended that vocabulary development be part of every educator’s literacy programming.

Writing more grammatically complex sentences rarely happens without educator instruction. It is recommended that students be explicitly taught sentence combining, starting with wider use of conjunctions.

The increased number of writing samples that were narratives perhaps goes some way to explain the wider range of verbs used. This indicates that Years 3 and 4 are the ideal time to further consolidate students’ understandings of regular and irregular verbs. Further, teaching the use of stronger verbs would support development of more engaging, readerly texts.

Students who write very few words need targeted support but any emphasis on increasing the quantity of words should not detract from the quality of writing.

There was very little increase in the use of adverbs in the Stage 2 data. It is recommended that educators introduce other adverbs to increase students’ word knowledge.

There were few new prepositions used in the Stage 2 data. It is recommended that educators expand students’ options for use.

A range of compound words appear in Oxford Wordlist Plus; for example, <because>, <into>, <something>, <everyone>, <upon>, <another>, <nothing>, <breakfast>. It is recommended that educators ensure students understand that these and other compound words are composed of two individual words as this can support spelling competence.

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While personal pronouns were evident in the Oxford Wordlist Plus, it is suggested that other forms of pronouns be taught to extend students’ word usage.

New adjectives used by Years 3 and 4 students appeared to be mostly tied to descriptions of concrete items. It is recommended that other forms of adjectives be introduced.

There was some usage of comparatives and superlatives; for example, <later>, <best>, <quickly>. Others should be introduced in these crucial years.

The designated NAPLAN text type may influence students’ writing choices in that year. It could be that students like to stay with a familiar text type and write on the same topic. However, educators need to be mindful that their writing programs should include a broad range of text types beyond the one being tested through NAPLAN.

SUmmARYTeaching students how to correctly spell relevant high frequency words is part of a balanced spelling program (Beckham-Hungler & Williams, 2003) and, as Bear et al. (2000, p. 3) state, ‘becoming fully literate is absolutely dependent on…fast, accurate production of words in writing so that readers and writers can focus their attention on making meaning’ or, as Cunningham and Allington (2003) suggest, it supports them to become thoughtful writers.

REFERENCESBear, D.R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2000). Words their way. Word study for phonics,

vocabulary, and spelling instruction (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Beckham-Hungler, D., & Williams, C. (2003). Teaching words that students misspell: Spelling instruction and young children’s writing. Language Arts, 80(4), 299–309.

Brice, R.G. (2004). Connecting oral and written language through applied writing strategies. Intervention in school and clinic, 40(1), 38–47.

Cohen, V.L., & Cowen, J.E. (2008). Literacy for children in an information age. Teaching reading, writing, and thinking. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Cunningham, P.M., & Allington, R.L. (2003). Classrooms that work. They can all read and write (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Fletcher, R., & Portalupi, J. (2007). Craft lessons. Teaching writing K–8 (2nd ed.). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

Horn, M., & Giacobbe, M.E. (2007). Talking, drawing, writing. Lessons for our youngest writers. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

Kissel, B. (2008). Promoting writing and preventing writing failure in young children. Preventing school failure, 52(4), 53–56.

Lo Bianco, J., Scull, J., & Ives, D. (2008). The words children write. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

National Council of Teachers of English (2009). Writing in the 21st century. Retrieved September 28, 2009 from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Press/Yancey_final.pdf

Scott, C.M. (2005). Learning to write. In H.W. Catts, & A.G. Kamhi (Eds.), Language and reading disabilities (2nd ed., pp. 233–273). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Scott, J.A., & Nagy, W.E. (2004). Developing word consciousness. In J.F. Baumann & E.J. Kame’enui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction. Research to practice (pp. 201–217). NY: The Guilford Press.

Tompkins, G.E. (2004). Teaching writing. Balancing process and product (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

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the

and

I

to

a

was

it

my

we

in

he

they

went

of

said

on

so

then

she

is

had

there

you

that

but

got

when

one

were

for

her

at

day

with

me

up

all

mum

his

go

out

have

because

home

are

saw

came

time

house

called

get

as

like

back

after

going

him

what

be

dad

not

do

them

two

school

some

this

did

next

ran

could

very

from

into

can

their

will

an

about

played

people

down

no

big

just

our

off

didn’t

put

friends

am

would

see

once

little

play

if

name

night

found

I’m

started

really

first

bed

again

know

other

now

took

lived

it’s

later

your

over

who

by

dog

fun

looked

don’t

girl

door

want

made

man

too

morning

boy

come

good

where

asked

best

friend

us

game

water

car

how

OK

three

brother

lots

only

old

room

something

away

has

find

woke

yes

family

suddenly

happy

told

everyone

or

thought

food

around

heard

long

upon

well

more

named

look

birthday

playing

make

sister

still

ever

eat

wanted

inside

five

here

won

why

also

ate

every

outside

way

let’s

dark

last

new

scared

another

opened

until

couldn’t

world

sleep

think

walked

years

things

ball

never

fell

party

black

gave

tried

always

WORdS 1–404 IN ORdER OF FREqUENCYWords in red indicate that they did not appear in the Oxford Wordlist — the 307 most frequently used words by students in their first three years of school.

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Oxford Wordlist Plus© Oxford University Press 2010. The Oxford Wordlist Plus may be used for instructional purposes for students at school and home. If you wish to use the Oxford Wordlist Plus in any other way, you must seek written permission from Oxford University Press

finished

turned

help

thing

teacher

that’s

favourite

minutes

bought

place

finally

yelled

coming

left

ready

take

watched

four

lot

even

looking

great

eyes

fast

girls

person

tell

work

shouted

nice

ten

while

jumped

need

dragon

which

box

cool

love

through

walking

much

dinner

tree

before

lunch

right

TV

cat

shop

knew

let

park

soon

wasn’t

everything

hair

lost

pool

each

screamed

kids

red

whole

stopped

getting

today

been

fish

hours

Saturday

bad

buy

can’t

head

parents

blue

hard

mother

bit

games

weekend

say

swimming

scary

beach

replied

should

someone

Sunday

class

second

year

beautiful

money

felt

happened

story

hit

king

run

life

live

boys

light

small

ghost

team

cold

fire

same

I’ll

police

quickly

loved

running

no one

most

movie

animals

baby

football

give

watch

white

stop

died

end

anything

cousin

monster

used

excited

gone

shot

together

under

walk

arrived

chocolate

days

both

decided

kept

nothing

doing

open

pet

wait

book

few

front

happily

than

stuff

top

any

having

town

forest

ground

hand

space

window

eating

green

land

gun

hole

drove

rain

week

breakfast

different

puppy

ride

sunny

bus

giant

hot

its

sat

six

clothes

goal

brown

face

hear

hour

*gold

*horse

*kicked

*race

*stay

*Words 400 to 404 occurred with equal frequency.This influenced the number of words in this list.

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