"Teaching high-frequency words isn't easy, because many of them have little or no meaning when they're used in isolation."
This is something I totally hadn't thought of, I mean it seems a little ironic that the words kids use the most may be the hardest to define and learn, but it makes sense! When you think about it, it would be helpful to teach that a lot of these are articles, etc, but those are concepts probably above the level of kindergardeners who are working on spelling these. This is one reason I am motivated to really master this teaching skill, because without a lot of these high-frequency words, children's writing would come to a halt (good luck writing much if you can't spell "the" or "it") and they need to become easily recognized because many are also irregulars.
How do you effectively use a word wall, does its mere presence in the room make the words familiar to students, or should they be reviewed by a class more often?
I think the words on the word wall should be reviewed often, and in context. Since it's true that the word doesn't mean much by itself, perhaps the students could practice using the words in short sentences in a shared writing activity. Depending on the age of the students, you could practice a sentence or two a day in kindergarten and maybe one or two more in 1st grade.
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