🌻Hello everyone,
Here is some information on teaching Dolch Words. I think they are so important to teach all students, but especially struggling readers and English Language Learners. Dolch Words can give all students the boost they need to succeed. Grab our freebie for First Grade Dolch Sight Words here!
✅What are Dolch Sight Words?
According to Wikipedia, The Dolch word list is a list of frequently used English words compiled by Edward William Dolch, a major proponent of the “whole-word” method of beginning reading instruction. The list was first published in a journal article in 1936 and then published in his book Problems in Reading in 1948. Dolch compiled the list based on children’s books of his era, which is why nouns such as “kitty” and “Santa Claus” appear on the list instead of more high-frequency words. The list contains 220 “service words” that have to be easily recognized in order to achieve reading fluency in the English language. The compilation excludes nouns, which comprise a separate 95-word list. Between 50% and 75% of all words used in schoolbooks, library books, newspapers, and magazines are a part of the Dolch basic sight word vocabulary.
These lists of words are still assigned for memorization in American elementary schools. Although most of the 220 Dolch words are phonetic, children are sometimes told that they can’t be “sounded out” using common sound-to-letter implicit phonics patterns and have to be learned by sight; hence the alternative term, “sight word”. The list is divided according to the grades in which it was intended that children would memorize these words. Wikipedia
Grab our freebie for First Grade Dolch Sight Words here!
✅Why do they call them Sight Words?
Sight words, often also called high frequency sight words, are commonly used words that young children are encouraged to memorize as a whole by sight, so that they can automatically recognize these words in print without having to use any strategies to decode.
✅Why are Dolch Sight Words important to teach?
Sight words are very important for your child to master because, believe it or not, “sight words account for up to 75% of the words used in beginning children’s printed material”, according to Study to Identify High-Frequency Words in Printed Materials, by D.J. Kear & M.A. Gladhart. There are different sight words for every grade level. Each set of words builds upon the other, meaning that once your child learns the sight words in Kindergarten, he will be expected to still recognize those words as he learns new words in first grade, and so forth.
✅Practicing Dolch Sight Words
💥Introduce Dolch new sight words in isolation,
💥Use familiar books and identify new and old Dolch sight words in text
💥Schedule daily Dolch sight word instruction, but keep it short under 10 minutes
✅Here are some resources for Dolch Sight Words:
Happy Teaching!
