Sight words or high frequency words are words that are commonly used and seen in our reading and writing.

Usually these words do not have a concrete image that accompanies them. (Example: “the”-“or”). Sometimes these words cannot be spelled out or blend phonetically. They are mostly adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and the most common verbs. They are the service words in the language. They give meaning and direction to language.

As such, these words are simply memorised and understood.

Children need to immediately recognise, read and understand them upon seeing. This way they can approach a text confidently and read with more fluency and better comprehension.

A number of sight word lists have been compiled and published; among the most popular are the Dolch sight words(first published in 1936) and the 1000 Instant Word list prepared in 1979 by Edward Fry.

There are 220 Dolch Words that comprise about 60 to 85% of the text that you find in children’s early reading books and materials. The list can also help anyone starting to learn the English language.

Dolch sight words are based on high-frequency words that students in kindergarten through second grade typically would be reading. They are listed by age group.

Fry sight words have a total of 1000 words where the first 300 Fry words are listed by order of frequency. They are broken down into groups of 100 because Fry advocated focusing on a few words at a time until a student memorized the entire list.

How to teach:

Start with only five to ten words. Once a your child masters that list, add five to 10 more, but continue to review the previously mastered words.

You can use flashcards, play games like bingo and “swat the words”(our favourite!) Spell read the words and many more.

Happy teaching!