He published it in his book, “Problems in Reading,” in 1948.ĭolch created this list by studying kids’ books from his time. Edward William Dolch, a scholar, made this list. Kids should know these words right away when they see them. 1st Grade Dolch Sight Wordsĭolch Sight Words are a group of English words. The more quickly students can recognize and recall these words, the more efficiently they’ll be able to read. Words like “would” and “which,” for example, will be part of their lessons. These include words like “you” and “the.” As they work through 1st grade, you’ll see the sight words become a little more complex. In kindergarten, your child will learn and remember about 20 sight words. They play a significant role in basic reading and are part of the early literacy foundation essential to long-term reading success. Of course, the more the merrier! While rote memorization is a lower rigor task, when it comes to reading-memorizing these words is key. Typically, you want your 1st grader to consistently recognize about 100 sight words. How Many Sight Words Should My 1st Grader Know?

Check Out These Additional 1st Grade Resources.What Should a First Grader Be Able To Read?.Ideas for Implementing Sight Words in First Grade.Importance of Learning Sight Words for Fluent Reading in First Grade.First Grade Sight Word Resources and Activities.How Many Sight Words Should My 1st Grader Know?.Their ability to recognize these words is a big part of reading fluency. Each child will learn at their own pace and establishing a solid foundation in sight words will set them up for success as they progress in learning to read.There is so much more to reading than memorizing a first grade sight word list, but that doesn’t mean memorizing sight words themselves aren’t important! Because sight words aren’t easily sounded out, we want our children to recognize them quickly. The Dolch word list does, however, include 220 words, sometimes known as high frequency words sight words, that are broken up into five different lists:Įach Dolch sight word list corresponds to a particular grade level, but by no means should a child be rushed through the lists to make sure they match up. In my opinion, the Fry words are much more comprehensive as they cover a larger number of high-frequency words and common words and they are more up-to-date than the Dolch sight words. The Fry lists are also fairly common and my own personal preference when it comes to teaching sight words. Teaching sight words like those in the Dolch word lists ensures that your students will not only read more fluently but that they’ll retain and comprehend more of what they read as well.ĭolch words are basic sight words typically the ones that most people know of, although there are other lists out there. Well, if a student has to stop reading every time they come across the words it or is because they need to sound them out, their fluency and comprehension would suffer greatly. On the path of learning to read, words like these act like big stop signs since they can’t be decoded, meaning kids can’t sound them out. They’ll learn the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that those letters make and as they progress, they’ll learn to sound out vowel teams and consonant blends.īut, what happens when they come across a word that doesn’t follow the typical phonetic rules like the, was, or of? When we’re teaching students to read, we’re working on a number of different concepts that will help them sound out the words that are in front of them. Before we get to the lists themselves, it may help to understand why sight words are so important.

1st grade sight words checklist