There are two well-respected word lists used by educators in the classroom: the Dolch list and the Fry list. Both were developed out of research and interest, and both are great additions to our educational paradigm.
Dolch Word List
Dr. Edward William Dolch developed his list when he became curious about frequently used words in children’s books for kids pre-K through 3rd grade. He realized that the more words occurred, the easier they were for students to learn if they focused on those exclusively.
Fry Word List
Dr. Edward Fry expanded this idea of recurring common words by developing a list for older students in grades 3 through 9. He composed his list of 1,000 words that commonly appear in reading material in the English language.
Typical speech includes these words so often that 90% of them appear in our everyday reading materials.