This chapter dives into the two sides of sight words. On one side, some teach whole words as whole units for visual mastery, the argument being that sight words are the most frequently occurring words in a text (such as the, a, and, is, etc.) so that students can read fluently through them since they have been memorized. The other side says that only 4% of words in the English language are irregular and the other 96% can be spelled or read accurately using sound-symbol connection. This book leans toward the latter citing that the amount of words a student can memorize is limited and they point out brain research that shows an increase in brain activity for beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships over rote memorization. They encourage orthographic mapping - a process that connects letter/word sounds to a word's meaning to store the word in long term memory. They call these orthographically mapped words "heart words" which is right in line with the Fundations program that NH uses for K-3 students. Just like decodable books should follow a scope and sequence that aligns with phonics instruction, so too should the heart words being taught.
