As Cunningham advises, I use a word wall where I introduce five new words a week. Most are words that can be decoded and will be useful in decoding other words, but one or two will be irregular high frequency words, or "Outlaw Words." For a short amount of time each day, we do different activities to automate the recognition of all five words.

One day I will have my students write the words in the air, on their hand, and on each others backs. Another day they will close their eyes and visualize forming the words one letter at a time. Students will spell the words with their whole bodies, becoming the shape of each individual letter and with the enthusiasm of cheerleaders, shout out the letters in the word. We play games like "What's in My Head" where I give the children structural clues to a word that I am thinking of. One of their favorite activities is "Scavenger Hunt." Students take the irregular word and search the classroom's books, posters, charts, boxes, and walls for that word. Each time they find the word, they record it on their individual paper and make a tally mark. This helps to automate recognition of these "outlaw" words.