Sight Words vs. Spelling Words

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Sight Words vs. Spelling Words
By SusanTeach

I thought about posting this with the other spelling topic, but it has a different angle. Now my question is about the actual benchmark. Maybe someone can help me. What is the difference between a "sight word" and a "spelling
word"? Is a sight word just to be able to read it without sounding it out? That's how I always understood it, but now I'm questioning it.

Our state (MS) gives us a list of words per grade that the students should know. They're the Dolch Sight Word List, and that's where I'm having a hard time. The 2 spelling-related benchmarks (for 3rd grade) say:

*Read 300 to 400 high

frequency and/or irregularly spelled words in connected text (a third grader should read between 100 and 115 words correctly per minute in connected text by the end of third grade).
*spell words commonly found in third grade level text.

So, should the spelling words come from the Dolch Sight Word list, or should I just use the spelling words from the basal since I know it's 3rd grade level text? And.... in the first benchmark, is that where the sight words come in (although there are only 41 words)? There is also a list of "Fry Instant Word Lists" - is that more sight words (there are 1,000 of them!)?

Our new state framework binders are confusing - can you tell this has been on my mind a lot lately?! :D