IEP goals for Dolch and Fry sight words

By the IEP Atlas editorial teamLast updated November 1, 2026

Short answer

A sight word IEP goal names the word list, how fast the student must read each word and a criterion with a denominator. Example: given 20 taught Dolch first grade words, Leo will read each within 3 seconds for 18 of 20, up from 7 of 20. Teach the words through their sounds, and use the list only to choose which words.

Sight word goals are among the most common reading goals on IEPs, and the Dolch and Fry lists are where most of them start. The Dolch list has 220 "service words" plus 95 nouns, drawn from children's books of the 1930s. The Fry list ranks 1,000 words by how often they show up in print. Both are useful for picking which words to teach. Neither tells you how to teach them.

The 20 goals below cover five areas: reading words automatically, heart words mapped by sound, words in sentences and books, spelling, and functional words for students who need them. Each goal has a condition, a baseline, a criterion with a denominator and a measure, with a template link. Numbers are illustrations. For phonics goals, see phonics IEP goals examples. The cluster pillar, phonics interventions, covers teaching.

The sight word debate: memorizing lists or mapping sounds

For years, many classrooms taught sight words as whole shapes to memorize: flashcards, repeated until the word "looks" familiar. Many reading researchers now explain word reading through orthographic mapping. Readers store a word for instant recall by linking its sounds to its letters.^[1] Every word a skilled reader knows "by sight" got there that way, including the tricky ones.

That changes how to teach a word like "said." Most of it follows the code: /s/ is s and /d/ is d. Only the middle is irregular. The student says the sounds, matches each to its letters, and marks the irregular part as the "heart" part to learn by heart. The What Works Clearinghouse guide for kindergarten to grade 3 recommends teaching students to decode words and analyze word parts, and to recognize high-frequency words as part of that word study.^[2] The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics instruction helped young readers and older struggling readers learn to read words.^[3]

Teachers still disagree about how much list drill helps, and some students do learn words from flashcards. The practical answer for an IEP:

Use Dolch or Fry to choose which high-frequency words to teach, in frequency order.
Teach each word through its sounds. Mark only the truly irregular letters as heart parts.
Teach decodable high-frequency words ("can," "and," "it") as phonics words, once the student knows those patterns.
Measure automatic reading in isolation and in text, not just recall on cards.

Sight words are not a substitute for phonics. A student who memorizes 200 words but cannot decode a new one will hit a wall around second grade, when new words come too fast to memorize. The high-frequency words glossary entry has a short definition for families.

How to choose a sight word goal

What the student does	Sub-skill to target	Measurement method
Reads few Dolch pre-primer words	Accurate reading of a small taught set	Words correct out of 20
Reads words correctly but slowly, sounding out each time	Automatic recognition	Words read within 3 seconds out of 20
Reads "was" as "saw," "where" as "were"	Mapping and look-alike words	Words correct out of 10 pairs
Reads words on cards but not in books	Words in connected text	Words correct in a passage
Reads words but cannot spell them	Spelling heart words	Words spelled correctly out of 10
Older student with limited reading, needs daily life words	Functional and community words	Words read out of 20 in context

Reading high-frequency words automatically

Given 20 taught Dolch pre-primer and primer words in random order, Ava will read 18 of 20 correctly on 3 consecutive weekly probes. Baseline: 7 of 20. Measure: word list probe. Template.
On a 1-minute timed list of taught Fry words (first 100), Ava will read 40 words correctly per minute on 2 of 3 weekly probes. Baseline: 15 words correct per minute. Template.
Given 20 taught Dolch first grade words, Leo will read each within 3 seconds for 18 of 20 words on 3 consecutive probes. Baseline: 7 of 20 within 3 seconds. Template.
Given 20 taught words flashed for 1 second each on a screen, Leo will read 16 of 20 correctly across 3 probes. Baseline: 6 of 20. Template.

Weak: "Leo will learn all Dolch first grade sight words." Measurable: Goal 3 above. It names the set, the time limit and the count.

The 3-second rule separates words the student knows automatically from words they decode slowly. Both are progress, but only the first means the word is stored.

Heart words mapped by sound

Given 10 taught irregular words (said, was, of, one), Mia will read each word and point to its irregular heart part in 9 of 10 words on 2 consecutive probes. Baseline: 3 of 10. Template.
After mapping 5 new heart words in a lesson (saying the sounds, matching letters, marking the heart part), Mia will read all 5 at a next-day check for 4 of 5 lessons. Baseline: 2 of 5 words retained. Template.
Given 10 pairs of look-alike high-frequency words (was and saw, where and were), Omar will read both words correctly in 9 of 10 pairs across 3 probes. Baseline: 4 of 10. Template.
After mapping heart words, Omar will write 8 of 10 from memory when dictated, on 3 consecutive weekly probes. Baseline: 3 of 10. Template.

Weak: "Mia will memorize irregular words." Measurable: Goal 1 above. It shows the student knows which part is irregular, which is the mapping step.

A next-day check (goal 2) tells you whether the word was stored, not just recalled during the lesson. It is the most useful single data point for a heart word routine.

Words in sentences and books

Given an unpracticed decodable or leveled passage with 15 taught high-frequency words, Jada will read 14 of 15 of them correctly in context across 3 passages. Baseline: 8 of 15. Template.
Given 10 high-frequency phrases (such as "in the," "I can see," "look at the"), Jada will read each as a smooth unit in 9 of 10 on 2 consecutive probes. Baseline: 4 of 10. Template.
On a 1-minute probe of short sentences built from taught words, Kai will read 35 words correctly per minute on 2 of 3 weekly probes. Baseline: 14 words correct per minute. Template.
During class reading and math materials, Kai will read taught high-frequency words correctly in 9 of 10 opportunities checked by the teacher across 2 weeks. Baseline: 5 of 10. Template.

Weak: "Jada will read sight words in books." Measurable: Goal 1 above. It sets the passage type, the number of target words and the criterion.

For fluency goals on full passages, see reading fluency IEP goals examples.

Spelling high-frequency words

Given 10 dictated irregular high-frequency words, Ruby will spell 8 of 10 correctly on 3 consecutive weekly probes. Baseline: 2 of 10. Template.
In journal writing, Ruby will spell taught heart words correctly in 9 of 10 uses across 3 weekly samples. Baseline: 5 of 10. Template.
When writing, Theo will check a personal word ring for taught words and spell them correctly in 4 of 5 uses across 2 weeks. Baseline: 1 of 5. Template.
Given 10 sentence strips with taught words, Theo will build and read each sentence correctly in 9 of 10 across 3 sessions. Baseline: 5 of 10. Template.

Weak: "Ruby will spell sight words." Measurable: Goal 1 above. It names the word type, the task and the denominator.

Spelling a word is the strongest check that it is mapped. If the student can read a word but not spell it, keep practicing the sound-to-letter links.

Functional and community words

For some students, especially older students with significant reading needs, the most useful sight words are the ones on signs, schedules and labels. Teach these through sounds where the student can, and as whole words where needed.

Given 20 functional and safety words (exit, danger, women, men, push), Sam will read 18 of 20 correctly on 3 consecutive probes. Baseline: 8 of 20. Template.
Given the daily classroom schedule, Sam will read the 10 activity words on it in 9 of 10 across 2 weeks. Baseline: 4 of 10. Template.
On a 1-minute timed list of taught functional words, Nora will read 30 words correctly per minute on 2 of 3 probes. Baseline: 12 per minute. Template.
During community outings or job-site work, Nora will read and act on 8 of 10 taught signs and labels across 3 outings. Baseline: 3 of 10. Template.

Weak: "Sam will read functional words." Measurable: Goal 1 above. It lists the word set and the criterion.

How to measure sight word goals

Word list probes: 20 taught words in random order, a new order each time. Score correct and within 3 seconds separately. Record on the accuracy data sheet.
Timed lists: count words correct in 1 minute, and graph them on the rate per minute page.
Words in text: mark target words in a short unpracticed passage and count the ones read correctly.
Next-day checks: after each heart word lesson, check the new words the following day.

Probe weekly and graph the results. Repeated measures show whether words are sticking or need a different approach.^[4] Add new words to the set as old words are mastered, and keep a few mastered words in each probe to check they stay learned.

Short-term objectives for sight word goals

Step up the word set or the speed. For the automatic reading goal: by the first report, 18 of 20 Dolch pre-primer words within 3 seconds; by the second, 18 of 20 primer words; by the third, 18 of 20 first grade words. For a text goal, move from decodable sentences to leveled books to class materials. The short-term objectives guide has the format.

Adapting by grade

Grade band	Typical focus	Example change
Kindergarten	Dolch pre-primer, first Fry 25, heart words	Map 3 to 5 words per week
Grades 1 to 2	Dolch primer to second grade, first 100 to 300 Fry	Add timed lists and phrases
Grades 3 to 5	Remaining irregular words, spelling	Check in class texts and writing
Middle school	Fry words in content texts, functional words	Use textbook and worksheet direction words
High school	Functional, community and job words	Signs, forms and kiosk screens

Templates by grade are on the sight words goals page. Students with dyslexia often need explicit heart word routines; see IEP goals for dyslexia. The goal checker flags missing criteria before the meeting.

Frequently asked questions

Should my child memorize the Dolch sight word list?

Your child should learn those words, but through their sounds rather than by shape alone. Most Dolch words are partly or fully decodable. Ask the teacher whether words are taught by mapping sounds to letters and marking the tricky parts.

What is the difference between Dolch and Fry words?

Dolch is a list of 220 service words plus 95 nouns from older children's books. Fry ranks 1,000 words by how often they appear in print. They overlap heavily. Either works for choosing words to teach.

How fast should a student read a sight word?

Many teachers use about 3 seconds or less as the sign that a word is stored for instant recall. A word the student reads correctly but slowly is still being decoded, which is progress but not yet automatic.

Use it in IEP Atlas

Sources

Orthographic Mapping in the Acquisition of Sight Word Reading, Spelling Memory, and Vocabulary Learning (Ehri, 2014), Scientific Studies of Reading, via ERIC
Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Progress Monitoring: Data & Goal Setting, National Center on Intensive Intervention

Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.