Have you heard of the term sight words? Do you know them as words to memorize because they don’t follow the spelling rules? Here is a list of the first 20, most common sight words.
| 1. the | 11. he | ||
| 2. of | 12. was | ||
| 3. and | 13. for | ||
| 4. a | 14. on | ||
| 5. to | 15. are | ||
| 6. in | 16. as | ||
| 7. is | 17. with | ||
| 8. you | 18. his | ||
| 9. that | 19. they | ||
| 10. it | 20. I |
Sight words are common words that a reader should know on sight often called “high frequency words” or “instant words”. They are often considered words that generally do not follow phonic analysis or decoding rules. This last statement is a misnomer, in fact of the 20 sight words above only three do not follow phonic analysis or decoding rules.
At FCS, we teach the students spelling rules and decoding skills so they have the tools to spell and read. They can put their faith in a decoding system without having to rely on the sight in their visual memory banks. The reason most people don’t think the majority of sight words don’t follow the rules is that they don’t know the rules!
Spiritually, we want FCS students to walk by faith and not by sight. The Bible shows how Jesus is the greatest Prophet, Priest and King and that by walking by faith in Him, is fullness of life. If we try to do it by sight, looking to our righteousness, we will fall short. Jesus atones for us completely and now we must walk in that light.
