Concept/Word Sorts

A concept/word sort is a strategy used to introduce students to the vocabulary of a new topic or book. When used before reading, concept/word sorts provide an opportunity for a teacher to discover what his or her students already know about the given content. When used after reading, teachers can assess their students' understanding of the concepts presented. This technique is beneficial when there is a lot of specialized vocabulary to introduce. Concept/word sorts enhance reading skills by providing the content to which students can attach new oral vocabulary.

The purpose of the concept/word sorts

1. Sorts enable students to look at the structure of words in print as they examine the patterns in each word to determine how to categorize it.
2. Students learn classification skills as they discover how sets of words, ideas or concepts are alike or different.
3. Sorts allow teachers to assess each student’s understanding of what is being taught.
4. Sorts are easy-to-check assessment tools that enable a teacher to quickly evaluate a student’s understanding of content without the usual paper/pencil format.
5. Sorts provide a multi-sensory experience as students read, sort, manipulate, and categorize in multiple ways.
6. Sorts allow students to look at words, concepts, and ideas from their various levels of knowledge.
7. Students are able to apply what they know in an organized and fun format.
8. Students are empowered to make their own decisions about categories based on their prior knowledge.

Implementation

1. Different Types of Sorts

· Open sort—Teacher provides only the words and students decide upon the sort categories. Open sorts are valuable because they allow the teacher to see what students know and understand.

· Closed sort—Teacher provides the categories for the sort. Closed sorts are more frequently used than open sorts because they allow the teacher to focus the students’ attention on a feature, characteristic, pattern, or concept that the class is studying. Closed sorts are also valuable assessment tools because the teacher can rapidly assess student understanding by checking the students’ sorts for accuracy.

· Speed sort—This is a timed sort that students can do once they are adept at sorting. Speed sorts are excellent for building fluency and accuracy when working with well-known patterns and concepts. Students can record the time it takes to sort and then try to beat their own records.

· Blind sort—This is a closed sort in which the teacher calls out the words and the students point to or say the categories they see listed on the worksheet, board, or overhead. Blind sorts are useful when the teacher wants to focus on sound patterns rather than visual patterns.

· Writing sort—Students have key words written as column headers. They write words under the appropriate categories as the teacher calls them out, using the key words as spelling guides. Writing sorts focus on auditory and visual patterns in words and are a combination of closed and blind sorts.

Source: Literacy Now, MRSH

2. Write letters, words, formulas, concepts, problems, etc. on index cards or strips of paper.

3. Students separate, categorize, or match them depending on the criteria you give.

· Sorts can be made by sound, definition, numerically, chronologically, sequentially, alike and different, synonyms and antonyms, problem and solution, figures, etc.

4. Have students work in pairs or individually.

5. Keep your sorts in baggies or envelopes so you can use them repeatedly.

 

Classroom Management

1. Decide which words will be used. Possible sources include:

· classroom word wall

· individual word walls or word banks

· read aloud, shared reading, or guided reading texts

· poems read together in class

· children's own writing

· math, science, or social studies texts

2. Determine the appropriate level of difficulty.

· In general, the more categories there are, the more difficult the sort.

3. Be sure that the students understand your expectations for both the process and the product of the word sorting activity.

4. It is a good idea to model your expectations when you introduce the Concept Word Sort for the first time.

6. One word sort outlined in Vocabulary Their Way focuses on the Greek roots crat/cracy (meaning "rule/government") and arch/archy (meaning "rule").

· Students working in pairs or small groups sort a shuffled stack of word cards of terms ending with this set of Greek roots (see below).

· Then they discuss what each column of words shares in common in regard to part of speech or usage and how each word has a distinct meaning within that group.

· Students could use Visual Thesaurus or another dictionary to help them define each word in the sort and then make generalizations based on their research. E.g., Which words (or columns of words) represent individual people or rulers? Which words or columns of words represent forms of rule or government? What examples of rulers or governments that they have studied in class could be labeled with each term?

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