What exactly are “sight words?
” These are words that good readers may 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. Most teachers are familiar with the Dolch set of Sight Words. The Dolch list of 220 words, prepared by E.W. Dolch is generally made up of 50 % of the reading material encountered by students. These words are generally known as DolchWords or high-frequency words. The Dolch list was prepared in 1936. In 1980 Edward Fry published a new updated and expanded Instant Word List ranked in order of frequency of use. The 600 word list compiled by Edward Fry contains the most used words in reading and writing. The words on this list ma
