The majority of the words on the Word Wall come from the Dolch Word list. This is a list that shows the 220 words seen most often in books. Now, when these word lists were created, these 220 words made up something like 50% of all books. I am not sure if that is still the case but I do know that beginning readers run into these words A LOT in books.
The idea with the word wall words is that students will become used to seeing them and be able to read them on sight. No sounding out. No trying to figure out the word. Just automaticity in reading these words.
This allows them to spend their brain power figuring out words that truly are tricky. When students have to spend a lot of time figuring out the words, they tend to forget what they have read by the time they get to the end of the sentence! This does not help with comprehension!
So, if you are one of those parents who loves to have work to do at home, I would highly suggest going over the Dolch words until your child can read them automatically in any order. It will help their writing and their reading tremendously. My favourite place to download Dolch word is from Mrs. Perkins site or you can get simple lists from the sidebar on this blog. Look for the page named Popcorn (or Dolch) Words.
Happy Reading!
Ms. Hughes
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