It is essential that younger readers be able to recognize those high-frequency words instantly by sight to be able to build their reading fluency. So the first 100 words of Fry's are the 100 words that occur most frequently in English. Fry's words are listed based on how frequently they occur and often are broken into groups of 100 words. If all 1,000 words from Fry's list are learned, it can allow a child to be able to read around 90% of words contained in a typical website, newspaper, or book. As a consequence, students must have the ability to read the initial 300 Instant Words quickly based on the words that appear most commonly in reading materials that are used in Grades 3 to 9. It is hard writing a sentence without several of the first of the 300 words being used from the 1000 Instant Words List by Fry. Nearly half of every novel, children's story, textbook, and newspaper article is comprised of those 300 words. Fry, in his research, found these results: 300 words comprise around 65% of written material 100 words make up around 50% of all words contained in publications, and 25 words include around 1/3 of all items that are published. Edward Fry developed this expanded list during the 1950s, and then in 1956 he expanded the sight word lists of Dolch, researched, and published a book called 'Fry 1,000 Instant Words.' Dr. There are 315 Dolch Sight Words in total.Ī more current list is the Fry Sight Words list that was extended to include the most commonly used 1,000 words. Dolch words are divided commonly into groups according to grade level, which ranges from pre-kindergarten up to third grade, along with a separate nouns list. The words make up 80% of all the words found in children's books, along with 50% of words found in adult writing.Īfter the list of words is known by a child, it makes it much easier to read since the child then can focus her or his attention on the words that remain. There are 220 'service' words contained in the list along with 95 commonly used nouns. Edward William Dolch was an educator who developed this list during the 1930s-40s by studying the words that most frequently occurred in children's books from this era. The most commonly used sight words list is the Dolch Sight Words list. In this article, we will be explaining the origins of the list as well as detail the included words.

The number of words required at every grade level is 100 words at Kindergarten, 200 words at first grade, 200 words at second grade, 200-650 words at third grade, and 650-1000 words at fourth grade. There is an expanded list that included the most common 1,000 words, which is the Fry Sight Words List.

You might have heard before of the Dolch sight word list.

Approximately 1,000 sight words exist that range from pre-k up to 4th grade, and these are used in an estimated 90% of all of the text read on a daily basis.Īt the beginning reading phase, it is critical for students to master the 1,000 sight word age-appropriate list with a 95% accuracy rate to ensure successful reading in school. Since those words are used frequently, it is very important for readers to have the ability to recognize them right away without needing to sound them out. Sight words are those words frequently used in writing and reading.

Fry sight word list for kindergarten