Word boxes and word sorts

Inside: My 10 favorite word sort activities. Use these in your classroom or for distance learning to build up spelling and phonics skills.

O

n Thursday nights when I was in 2nd grade, my mom turned into a spelling cheerleader.

“B clap, U-R clap, R-I clap -E-D!” she’d chant.

It wasn’t that my mom loved spelling like teachers love a snow day.

But there was a reason she got involved.

I did the typical practice, copy the word a few times, try it from memory, question what in the world is wrong with me when my attempt doesn’t match the narrow paper list… again!

That’s when my mom stepped in with something loud and theatrical to sear the word into my memory (and also to get my perfectionistic butt to bed!)

The question is: why, for a decent reader and writer like me, was it so hard to memorize the words on my spelling list?

The Problem Was This:

In the early 90s the weekly spelling lists were a random collection of words that someone, in some office, somewhere, thought kids needed to know how to spell.

With no rhyme or reason to the word lists, it WAS a tedious effort to memorize those spellings.

But that’s just the way spelling had to be… or was it?

Enter: The word sort

Words in a sort are chosen because they fit in specific categories.

Word sorts work like this:

• Kids learn the sound or rule for each category
• They sort cards with words that each fit into each of the categories
• They practice with the spelling sort in a variety of ways

So the critical question is…

Do Sorting Activities Actually Improve Spelling?

I was excited to learn that researchers find word sort activities improve not only spelling, but also reading skills!

Studies show that students who receive word sort instruction perform better in phonemic segmentation, word identification, and spelling than students who receive traditional spelling instruction.

(Joseph, 2000)

Word sorts help you explicitly teach phonics skills and tap into the power of word families, both research-based strategies for teaching.

You might be thinking: Ok, word sorts improve spelling, but don’t kids get bored with lining up word cards? How do I keep the task fresh so kids stay engaged?

9 Word Sort Activities for Busy Teachers

With simple supplies that you probably already have, you can easily switch up your word study routine to keep it interesting. These tasks work well as part of a daily whole-class word study time, a spelling center, or as homework.

1. Highlight the pattern – When kids notice familiar letter patterns in words, suddenly they go from tediously sounding out “c – a – t” to fluently putting together chunks in bigger words, like “c – au – tion.” Have students use highlighters (and even color-coding) to mark the patterns they find.

Keep in mind: this might be a “sometimes” activity because finding and marking the patterns is beneficial but students could then rely too heavily on color matching instead of pattern recognition when using the word sort repeatedly.

2. Speed Sort – Lots of kids are motivated by competition. Here are my favorite ways to speed sort:

• Students start sorting their words when you say “go.” They stand up when they’re done.
• Students race against a partner to see who can sort faster.
• Students work on their own with a timer and try to improve their time.

3. Sort and Write – Students sort their word cards and then record their work by writing it in a notebook or on a whiteboard.

**Definitely do this one!** Students seem to retain the words much better if they have practiced writing them, not just sorting the pieces.

4. Find My Mistake – Challenge students to solve the puzzle and prove that they can’t be tricked!

• Each student completes their own word sort.
• Then the move a few words into the wrong columns.
• Switch with a partner and see if each student can find the other’s mistakes and fix them.

5. Digital Sort – Take word sorts to Google Classroom, SeeSaw or another digital platform. Set up a background and word boxes yourself or go for a premade set of digital word sorts. This option is great as a word work center in class or as an option for distance learning.

Digital Sorts for Google Classroom

Digital Sorts for Seesaw

6. Sort the Room – Cut apart a word sort and tape the words around the room. Kids write the headings in their notebook. Then they walk around the classroom and write the words in the correct column as they find them.

Worried about finding the time to cut and tape up the words? Make it a special job that a student or two can help out with.

7. Rhyme and Write – Students draw out a card from their word sort. They write the word and see how many other rhyming words they can come up with. This way they are generalizing the spelling pattern to more words.

8. Quiz a Partner – Students work in pairs. Both write the sorting categories on their paper. One partner pulls a word card and reads it. The other partner tries to spell it in the correct column. They check the word together. Then they switch roles and continue.

9. Use in a Sentence – To push students to the next level of understanding, challenge them to use words from their sort in the context of a sentence.

10. Sort and Glue – Save this one for the last time you want to use each word sort. Kids sort out their word cards and then glue them down either in a notebook or on a piece of paper. The glued sort can be used later for reference during writing and for review.

A Simple Routine for the Win

One of the worst mistakes I made as a new teacher was thinking that kids could be exposed to a skill once and be good to go! Wouldn’t that be nice? That would be like if I could follow my phone’s navigation to get somewhere once and never need to look that place up again….pshh :::shades face with hand:::

Kids need to practice with the same sort a few times.

You don’t want them to get bored with it but you also don’t want to exhaust yourself by reinventing the spelling practice wheel every day or week.

There’s a simple solution: Set up a weekly rotation of word sort activities from the choices above. After a few weeks, change out one of the activities for something new. Repeat all year!

It might look like this:

• Monday – Introduce the spelling sort, kids all sort once
• Tuesday – speed sort
• Wednesday – sort and write
• Thursday – sort and glue
• Friday – spelling test on the sort words

Looking for More Support with Word Sorts?

• Research About Spelling for More Effective Instruction

References:

Joseph, L. (2000). Developing first graders’ phonemic awareness, word identification and spelling: a comparison of two contemporary phonic instructional approaches. Reading Research and Instruction, 39(2), 160-9.

Sort the words given in the box into 3 groups: nouns, verbs and adjectives. Write them down. Mind that some words can belong to 2 groups.
Example:

nouns: hope, …

verbs: hope, …

adjectives: modern, ..
hope, modern, language, discovered, natural, translation, communicate, foreign, success, secret, need, learn, connect, talent, great, technical, month, different, wait, English, progress

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A word sort is a developmental word study activity espoused by the Words Their Way curriculum as written by Donald R. Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, and Francine Johnston. The activity focuses students’ attention on critical features of words, namely sound, pattern, and meaning.^[1]

Recent descriptions of comprehensive vocabulary programs identify fostering word consciousness (getting students really interested in and excited about words) as a crucial component of effective programs.^[2] Word sorts are a method to foster word consciousness.

Role of Word Sorts[edit]

The process of sorting words into various categories is the heart of word study. By categorizing different words by certain elements, young children make sense of words and patterns within words. Word sorts combine both constructivist learning and teacher-directed instruction.^[1]

Students receive a stack of cards containing either pictures or words that have several types of contrasting sounds, patterns, or meanings. Each student must then figure out the patterns that exist within the stack, and sort the cards accordingly. By doing this, students construct their own knowledge of words, creating a lasting understanding of how language works. This process contrasts greatly to the simple memorization related to traditional spelling tests.

The more students understand about the structure of words — their spelling or orthography — the more efficient and fluent their reading will be. Word sorts place instructional emphasis on the exploration of patterns that can be detected in the sound, structure, and meaning features of words. Thus, word sorts contribute to orthographic or spelling knowledge, the engine that drives efficient reading as well as efficient writing.^[3]

Types of Sorts[edit]

There are three different types of word sorts: sound sorts, picture sorts, and word sorts.

Sound Sorts[edit]

Sound sorts can take on many forms in a primary classroom and this is essential because sound is the first layer of English orthography.^[1] Sound study can be introduced at a very early stage and develop with a child’s individual ability. Sorting pictures or oral vocabulary is a manipulation of sounds, and this manipulation increases awareness. A simple introductory sort is by initial sound and this can develop to ending sound, vowel sounds, and word families sorts. The root of importance is student motivation and involvement in the sort. By “setting the scene with sounds,»^[4] sorts may include concrete materials and pictures linked to learner interest. Phonemic awareness, not phonics, is the understanding that our spoken sounds work together to make words. This is a very early understanding that can be developed in a variety of ways. Comparing sounds is the easiest task for developing phonemic awareness.^[5] Sound sorts can be introduced very early on and develop strategically throughout primary learning.

An ability to sort sounds is essential for early reading because sound manipulation is a stepping stone to word study and decoding ability. For some students a direct instructional approach is not necessary in the development of sound study and sorting. Other children who have had less exposure or lack the understanding of sounds and their manipulability may need further instruction to develop their ability. Teachers have a responsibility to students they serve to identify their needs and implement instructional strategies to scaffold students’ understandings of sounds.

Intervention strategies may be necessary in remediating students who cannot correctly identify sounds in isolation on a given opportunity.^[6] Programs like Reading Recovery have contemporary phonemic techniques embedded in the program. Also, books and poems may specifically focus on word families and similar sound patterns for children to identify and understand in context.^[7] Sound sorts can be integrated through programs, or very inexpensively through teacher-created materials. For example, students can sort pictures by beginning sound, rhyme, or ending sound. Students do not need to have strong phonics skills in order to engage in sound sorts. This can be a beginning phonemic awareness activity because students need only to identify the sound in order to complete the sort. Letter knowledge is not required, and phonemic development can mature as students do acquire more print knowledge.

Picture Sorts[edit]

Picture sorts are one component of word study and are used to help beginning readers develop Concept of Word, phonological awareness, and phonics.^[1][8] Picture sorts most often begin with focusing on initial sound (single consonant, digraphs, or blends). By using picture sorts teachers are able to help students who do not have extensive reading vocabularies focus on isolated sounds (Initial, final, or medial) within a spoken word.^[1] These sorts are often a child’s first introduction to word study and are most commonly used with students whose developmental skills are at the emergent, letter name-alphabetic, or early within word Spelling Stages.^[9]

Word Sorts[edit]

Word sort activities involve students comparing, contrasting, and classifying words — considering words from a variety of perspectives.^[3] Bear et al. emphasized the importance of comparing those words that do fit into a particular category with those that don’t. This type of engagement with words will for most students lead to the abstraction of spelling patterns and the sounds to which they correspond.^[1]

Word sorts can be teacher directed (closed) or student directed (open). For example, students in the with-in-word pattern phase of word knowledge could sort words according to a vowel pattern; in such sorts there is always a miscellaneous category for words that do not follow the target categories.^[3]

cat	make	car	miscellaneous
mad	race	star	fall
flat	game	hard	ball
cap	place	mark	x
grab	plate	park	x

Game-like formats such as board games and card games can also be effective if they focus on words that reflect spelling patterns. Word-building activities also facilitate abstraction of pattern: word wheels, flip charts, making words. Spelling or word study notebooks may be used to record, collect, and organize information about words and spelling patterns learned from the word sort.^[10]

Digital Word Sorts[edit]

To complement the many ‘hands on’ activities students use for sorting words, digitized word sorts provide an efficient way for teachers to deliver spelling pattern differentiation. A variety of these are ready-made, including Word Sorter.

Adjusting Word Sort Instruction for Students with Learning Problems[edit]

Research has shown that students who experience significant difficulty with spelling follow the same developmental course as other students, but do so at a slower pace. In such cases, it is critical to provide word sort words at the appropriate developmental level, regardless of the students’ age and grade. Once the appropriate spelling instructional level is established — be it alphabetic, within-word pattern, or syllable juncture — instruction can be adapted by focusing on fewer words at a time, teaching spelling patterns in an explicit manner, and providing for copious amounts of practice and review.^[11]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Reading A-Z
• International Reading Association Publications