Introduction to Sight Words and E.W. Dolch
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Edward William Dolch Phd, commonly known as E.W. Dolch developed what we now refer to as Dolch words, "sight words", or high-frequency words. Dolch compiled this list of words based on children's books of his era. The list contains 220 "sight words" that must be recognized in order for a young reader 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” and have to be learned by sight; hence the term, “Sight Words”. 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. |
These words generally make up from 50% - 75% of the material that students are encouraged to read. Dolch's ideas were originally published in his 1948 book Problems in Reading