Why should my child learn sight words?

Sight Words are words that good readers instantly recognize without having to “figure them out.” There are two reasons why sight words are an essential component of good reading: First of all, many of these words do not sound like their spellings might suggest, so “sounding them out” would be unproductive. Also a good reader really can’t afford the time to dwell on too many words, or he may lose the speed and fluency necessary for determining the author’s message.

Which sight words should students learn?

Believe it or not, the 100 most common words actually make up about 50 percent of the material we read! The 25 most common words make up about one-third of our written material.

Our students will be working with two word lists: Fry’s Instant Words and the Dolch Sight Words. On the Fry’s list the first 100 words should be learned by the end of First grade and the second 100 words by the end of Second grade.

Goals for the Dolch List: Goals for the Fry List:

Preprimer by November of First Grade First 100 – end of First Grade

Primer by February of First Grade Second 100 – end of Second Grade

First by May of First Grade

Second by May of Second Grade