FROM AN ARTICLE ON DOLCH WORDS WRITTEN BY BETSY LEE FOR
from the Homeschooler's Notebook
Encouragement and Advice for Homeschool Families

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What's important about Dolch words?

Mr. Dolch had a look in
book after book.
He saw these words in every book,
Again and again when he had a look.
You will see these words again and again,
and so
the words that he saw are good ones to know.

Indeed, these are essential words to know if reading is to progress smoothly. Dolch words need to be recognized instantly. Pictures can't supply cues for words such as and, the, was. Many of these words cannot be sounded out, e.g. is sounds like iz. For these reasons, Dolch words are also called sight words, i. e. words which are recognized on sight. Some of the Dolch words are ones which are frequently reversed: was, saw, on, no.

E. W. Dolch surveyed numerous books written for children in first through third grades. He compiled a list of 220 words which he found in 50% to 75% of these books . Words such as "and," "a," "an," and "the" are probably in 99%. He also identified 95 of the most commonly used nouns.

Schools give tests in which children have to recognize these words instantly or they don't get credit for them. This helps place children in appropriate reading groups.

The original Dolch books were written in the 1950's. They had no pictures. I assume he did this for the same reasons there are no pictures in my own Dolch books which were published this year.

1. Children can develop creativity by creating their own mental images. Pictures are great but children need to use their own imaginations instead of always depending on what a professional artist has created.
2. They can make their own illustrations. They might have a different mental image than the artist had.
3. Remedial use is enhanced because ages of the children is not obvious. In some of my stories, the only characters are animals. Some entries could refer to an adult.
4. Children can make lucky guesses from pictures. Some children pretend to read a whole picture book this way. If you point at a specific word and ask what it is, they have no idea.

Here is another caution about teaching reading. I heard a first grader sound out the word "said" but his tone of voice suggested he had no idea of the meaning. He slowly vocalized, "s - ai - d" which sounded more like "paid" than "said" after all "said" is a sight word. His grandmother said, "Put those sounds together faster than that." He did it several times getting faster each time. Finally his eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "Said! That word is said, Granny!" Just because a child come close to the accurate sounds for a word doesn't mean that he knows it. He must say it the way he speaks it.

Confidence and reading skills are enhanced when readers recognize Dolch sight words "on sight" or instantly.

You can create your own flash cards for recognizing these words. You can guide your child into arranging the flash cards into sentences. Here are some sentences made from the whole list of pre-primer words. After children have had success with a few words, let them have a larger selection of words from the same list.

You can go. You can play. We can run. It is big. It is yellow. It is blue. Come and find me. Look for me. See me? Run and jump. Look down. Look in here. I jump away. Go and find it. See me play. We can play.

It is limiting to create such short sentences without words such as "with" which is on the first grade list. If a child wants to create a sentence using a word which is not on the lists, include it in the group of cards. Decisions about this depend on the child's needs and progress. Occasionally, include a few names of people if the child wants to do this.

It is good to do this with flash cards so handwriting doesn't slow the child down. You can make flash cards form 3 x 5 cards. Put them in an index box with alphabetical dividers. This helps with learning the order of the alphabet as well and developing dictionary skills.

Enjoy excerpts from my books and notes for teachers and parents on this page of my site: http://www.gate.net/~labooks/xDolchtext.html

DOLCH WORDS
printed in an article for the Homeschooler's Notebook

Betsy Lee wrote a great article for the Homeschooler's Notebook about Dolch Words. (For your convenience a reprint of her article is located above. I felt it might be helpful to have these words listed on my site. For some great word search games with these words, please stop by Betsy's site to check them out!

Note: the Homeschooler's Notebook offers these suggestions as a service, but not as medical advice.

A note from Betsy: Before children finish first grade, they should be able to read all of the Dolch sight words and the commonly used Dolch nouns. The lists represent frequency of use in books on different grade levels. The word, if, is on the third grade list. This only means that E. W. Dolch found this word frequently in third grade books. He did not find it often in pre-primer through second grade books. The nouns aren't listed by grade level.

PRE-PRIMER WORDS: a, all, am, and, are, at, ate, away, be, big, black, blue, brown, but, came, can, come, did, do, down, eat, find, for, four, funny, get, go, good, have, he, help, here, I, in, into, is, it, lump, like, little, look, make, me, must, my, new, no, not, now, on, one, our, out, play, please, pretty, ran, red, ride, run, raid, saw, say, see, she, so, soon, that, the, there, they, this, three, to, too, two, under, up, want, was, we, well, went, what, where, white, who, will, with, yellow, yes, you

FIRST GRADE WORDS: after, again, as, by, fly, of, over, round, some, take, give, had, has, how, may, stop, thank, them, then, think, any, ask, giving, him, just, let, live, open, walk, were, an, could, every, from, her, his, know, old, once, put, when

NOUNS: (Note - nouns are generally learned in first grade):
apple, baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, game, garden, girl, good-by, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitty, leg, letter, man, men, milk, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, robin, Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, wood

SECOND GRADE WORDS: (NOTE: Words designated as second and third grade words are taught in first grade; however, by the time children reach second and third grade, they should have no hesitation about these words.)
apple, baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, game, garden, girl, good-by, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitty, leg, letter, man, men, milk, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, robin, Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, wood

THIRD GRADE WORDS: about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm

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