Homeschool Fever

Edward William Dolch, PhD, originally published this list of sightwords in his book Problems in Reading in 1948.

The list was based on children’s books of his era. It contains 220 words that must be easily recognized in order to achieve reading fluency. The compilation excludes nouns, which comprise a separate 95-word list.

Many of the 220 Dolch words can’t be “sounded out” using common sound-to-letter phonics patterns and have to be learned by sight; hence the alternative term, “sight word.” Although the list is divided into grades, for native English speakers, all the words in the Dolch should be mastered by the end of 1st grade.