Sight Words are those words that cannot be sounded out (decoded) phonetically – over 60% of the English language, in fact. However, sight words can be easily learned once a student has developed automaticity – the immediate recognition of whole words.
Mastering these words through instant recognition helps improve reading fluency and reading comprehension. The same can be said for high-frequency words, which are those words that occur most frequently when reading and writing.
To become a fluent reader, it is important to have the ability to quickly recognise both sight and high-frequency words automatically, of which LiteracyPlanet covers the 300 most common sight words and hundreds of more high-frequency words.