First 100 Sight Words

First 100 Sight Words

Sight words, often also called high frequency sight words, are commonly used words that young children are encouraged to memorise as a whole by sight, so that they can automatically recognise these words in print without having to use any strategies to decode. Sight words account for a large percentage (up to 75%) of the words used in beginning children’s print materials. The advantage for children being able to recognise sight words automatically is that a beginning reader will be able to identify the majority of words in a beginning text before they even attempt to read it; therefore, allowing the child to concentrate on meaning and comprehension as they read without having to stop and decode every single word. Advocates of whole-word instruction believe that being able to recognise a large number of sight words gives students a better start to learning to read.