How to Teach Heart Words to ELLs Using Visuals, Phonics, and Daily Routines

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Have you ever taught your students the word "said" on Monday, only to hear them confidently write "sed" on Tuesday?

If you work with English learners, you already know that memorizing sight words by rote isn’t enough. ELLs need meaning, phonics connections, visuals, and repetition in real contexts — not just flashcards.

Disclaimer: In this blog, the terms ESL students (English as a Second Language), ELLs (English Language Learners), and ML (Multilingual Learners) are used interchangeably. While “Multilingual Learners” is becoming the more widely accepted term, “ESL students” and “English Language Learners” are still commonly used in various contexts. My aim is to be inclusive and clear to all readers, regardless of the terminology they are familiar with.

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According to Reading Rockets, “Just because a word is high frequency doesn’t mean it needs to be memorized by sight.” Many heart words are partially decodable - students can sound out some of the letters. That’s why approaches like "Heart Word" mapping are so powerful: students decode the regular parts and only memorize the irregular part “by heart.”

So… How Many Heart Words Should You Teach Per Week?

Based on literacy guidance from UFLI and Shanahan on Literacy, here’s a realistic range:

Newcomer / Kindergarten ELLs: 2–3 words
1st–2nd Grade ELLs: 4–5 words
Older ELLs with literacy foundation: 5–8 words, with repeated exposure across contexts

The key is not how many words you introduce — it’s how deeply you recycle them through speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Step 1: Connect Heart Words to Phonics + Meaning

When I teach a new heart word, I don’t just show it and say “memorize this.”

Instead, I break it apart with students:

🔵 Highlight the regular/decodable sounds (e.g. /s/ and /d/ in said)
❤️ Place a heart over the irregular part /ai/ — “We can’t sound that out yet, so we remember it by heart.”

Then — before students forget — I attach visuals and meaning. Especially for ELLs, a word without meaning is just noise.

That’s why in my Heart Words Visual Slides, every word comes with:

Movable sound boxes + hearts for tricky parts
Picture support (connect the word to meaning)
Editable sentence examples or translations

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It’s not about giving them the word — it’s about making them understand it. Depending on the needs of my ENL students and the literacy skills they bring from their home language, I often use trans-languaging activities to teach heart words. This means helping students make connections between the English word and its equivalent—or lack of one—in their first language.

For example, when we learn the heart word "said", I explain that it is a past tense verb, related to say and says, and that its spelling and pronunciation change depending on context. Then, students explore how this kind of verb change works in their own language. In Spanish, for instance, we might connect it to decir and its forms like dice, dijo, and decía. This helps students see patterns across languages and deepen their understanding of English heart words.

They see it. Say it. Hear it. Write it. Live it. That’s when it sticks.

Step 2: Build Heart Words Into Daily Routines

Instead of pulling students for isolated drills, I embed heart words into morning meeting, read-alouds, and writing time. For example, in October, I introduce one weekly set of sight words during our Digital ESL Morning Calendar Slides.

Students look at the word and identify its regular and heart word parts. They use the picture to access the meaning (this is crucial for ELL newcomers). Partners then come up with a sentence. In our ENL calendar morning meeting workbooks, students either color images, trace the words and color them, or label the images with the correct sight word. This way, everyone's needs are met—they are all accessing the content at different levels but still working toward the same goal of learning four sight words that week.

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We spell these sight words aloud together and later find them in a morning meeting (today's date), read-aloud or song.

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During our morning meeting, we do the calendar and read our morning message together. I ask students to spot and circle new or old sight words. We do this every day, so they get a lot of repetition and practice with them. They also get to see them used in everyday language and meaningful context.

Step 3: Extend Learning

Once a heart word is introduced, don’t let it disappear. Make students actively notice and reuse it with these easy extensions:

Word Detectives: Students search for newly learned heart words in books, morning messages, labels, or signs — and record their finds. This activity turns passive reading into active noticing.
Heart Word Wall: Create a dedicated display for only heart words. Students add heart shaped sticky notes every time they “spot” one in the wild. This activity builds visual memory and ownership.
Choral & Echo Reading: Read short poems or sentences with repeated heart words. Students echo or read together. This activity boosts fluency and pronunciation with confidence.
Partner Spelling Games : One says the word, the other builds it or skywrites it. This partner game is multi-sensory and so it is perfect for ELLs.
Use-It-to-Keep-It Challenge: Students must use the word 3 times in speech or writing that day. This challenge promotes authentic application.
Heart Word Journals: Students collect mastered words and use them in sentences or drawings.

ELLs don’t need more worksheets — they need consistent exposure, visual support, and meaningful use.

Whether you’re teaching look, said, or because, remember: Teach the sound, show the meaning, repeat with joy - and the heart word becomes theirs.

If you’d like ready-to-use slides and visuals I’ve linked the October calendar resource set and the Sight Word/Heart Word bundle below — but even if you don’t use them, I hope today’s tips save you time and stress. Traceable weekly picture pages come from my students’ workbook for the October digital morning slides.