Both, depending on the word. The U.S. practice guide says a common word with a regular spelling should first be worked out with letter sounds, while an irregular word that a beginner cannot yet sound out is taught as a whole word. A major review adds that memorized words can only ever be a small share of what a child must learn.
The guide says to teach very common words, both those with regular spellings and those with irregular spellings, so children know them fast.
In the source’s own words“Teach regular and irregular high-frequency words so that students can recognize them efficiently.”
For irregular words, which are hard for beginners to sound out, the guide says to teach the word as a whole.
In the source’s own words“the typical sound–spelling patterns and are not easy for early readers to decode. Teach these words holistically—that is, as whole words, rather than as combinations of sound units.”
For common words with regular spellings, the guide says the child should first work the word out with letter sounds.
In the source’s own words“For regular words, have students apply their letter–sound skills—for example, using Elkonin sound boxes—to identify the word initially.”
The guide gives the reason: knowing very common words quickly speeds up reading and frees attention for meaning.
In the source’s own words“Because these words occur so often in text, learning to recognize them quickly will speed up the reading process so that students can focus more on the meaning of the text.”
The authors of this review hold that carefully choosing a small number of sight words to study in detail has a place next to phonics.
In the source’s own words“the judicious selection of a small number of sight words for children to study in detail has its place in the classroom alongside phonics.”
The review reports one large study in which struggling readers taught phonics plus sight words gained as much in sounding out as those taught phonics alone.
In the source’s own words“struggling readers who received mixed phonics and sight word instruction made just as strong gains in their alphabetic decoding ability as those receiving phonics instruction alone.”
The review says memorizing single words can only cover a tiny share of the words a child must learn, since children learn about 3000 new words a year from mid-childhood.
In the source’s own words“learning individual sight words could only ever be a drop in the ocean in terms of children’s orthographic learning: it is estimated that from mid-childhood onwards children learn approximately 3000 …”
We read each of these ourselves on October 9, 2026. Follow the links to read them too.
“Cannot remember common words like the, said and was”
Words That Stick is a full 10-day plan, with a short video that shows you every step. The goal: on day 10 your child reads 16 of the most common words, on their own and inside sentences never seen before. It is the goal, not a promise.
