A Week Worth of Sorts

Monday: /

The students “lay and say” the cards on their desk.

The students share “what they noticed” about the words.

The teacher explicitly explains the sort to the students. Discussing the differences between the exemplars.

The teacher reads the headers. The group reads each card chorally. The teacher guides the students to compare individual cards to all of the headers. Then decide as a group where the card will go. Finally, read the header and new word each time they are added.

Students do the sort on their own. Directions:

Place your headers in front of you.
Place the word card under the header ‘where the word looks and sounds the same,’ or ‘where the pattern belongs.’
After placing a card, come to the top of the column; point and read down.
At the end of the column, state the pattern. (ex: short “a” says /a/)
When you have finished the sort, have your partner/teacher okay it as you read each column.

Bingo: The students combine cards with their partner and place them face down on the table to create a draw pile. Each player has their own Bingo card. Students take turns pulling a card from the draw pile and placing it in the appropriate column. Then the student must read all the words in that column and state the pattern. (Cent, icy, “C” says /s/). The first person to have two complete columns on their board wins the game.

Written Sort: The students write their sorted words in their word study notebooks.

Tuesday: /

As the students arrive, they will sort the words on their own, just as they did the day before. You may want to time them each day and have them keep track of the timings on the back of their “header” strip.)

Memory: Use only one set of cards for each pair of students. Turn all cards face down in a grid format. The first student turns over a card and reads it. A second card is then selected, turned, and read. If the cards turned have the same rime or spelling pattern, they are a match. The student retains the matched cards and gets another turn. If the student does not make a match, cards are placed back in their original spots, and play goes to the other player. The game ends when all cards are matched. The winner is the one with the most matches.

Quick Peek Written Sort: Students work individually. They quickly look at the card (word) and turn it over. Then they write it in the appropriate column. They turn the card back over to check the spelling. If it is correct, they put it in a separate pile. If they misspelled the word, they put it on the bottom of the pile to attempt again. (This helps them to move from decoding to encoding the spellings.)

Wednesday /

Begin the day again with an individual word sort. You may want to time the students to make it more challenging.

2.Zoom Around:

Each player gets seven cards.
Decide who goes first.
The first player places a card down, reads the word, and states which vowel pattern is to be followed. (Like rain: ai)
The next player places a card down with the same pattern (ai) and reads it aloud.
The play continues around the circle until all of the players are out of ai pattern word cards.
Players pass if they do not have a word card to match the category.
The player who played the last pattern card begins the new round. This player chooses a different card from his or her hand, places it in the middle, and declares the new pattern to be followed.
The object of the game is to be the first player to play all of your cards.

3. No Peeking Written Sort: The columns in the student’s notebook are headed by the same key words or pictures the students have used all week. The teacher (or partner) will dictate the words the students have studied and have them write them in the correct columns in their word study notebook. The partner double checks their accuracy and repeats any words that are incorrect, after pointing out their partner’s errors.
Thursday: /

Begin the day again with an individual, timed word sort.

Slap Jack or Slap At (anything but each other!): Students work in pairs using their own deck. Cards are placed face down creating a draw pile for each student. The partners turn over their top card at the same time. If the pattern is the same on both cards, a student should slap the words and read them. If both students agree that the words follow the same pattern, the student that slapped first gets possession of all the cards in the pile. If a student slaps a set that does not match, he must give his partner two of his cards from his own draw pile. Play continues until all cards belong to one player.

Write-O: Students write one word in each box (like in Quick Peek Written Sort) anywhere they choose on their card. (You may want to laminate the card and use Expo markers to wipe off.) The teacher reads words from one set of cards and the students either cover the words with Bingo markers or cross the words off as they hear them. The first one to cross off five in a row is the winner!

Friday: /

Begin the day again with an individual, timed word sort.

Guess My Sort: Students create their own sort using their sorting cards. In the beginning, it is best to have them sort into two columns (things that do and things that don’t). The child has another student “guess” how they have sorted their cards. Then the student records the sort in their word study notebook with the headers showing how they have sorted their words.

Guess My Written Sort: The student writes down the sort created (see above) with column headers that describe how the words are sorted.

Spelling Test: This may be given in small groups. Choose a certain number of words from the sort each week on which to test. The students are responsible for learning all of the words, but will only be tested on a few of them at the end of the week.

Any of these activities are interchangeable. These activities can take place in small groups or as a whole class. You should try to pair up students that are working on the same word sorts.

Other sorting activities:

Word Hunt: The students may use their guided reading books, words found around the room, or words that they have heard that follow the same patterns they have been practicing all week. They will record them in the appropriate columns in their word study notebooks. This activity can go on all week. You may want to have a larger board for them to record their words or pictures. The “Word Hunt’ should be used all week. You can talk about the things the students add each day.

Guess My Sort: Students create a sort on their own, using the word cards from their weekly sort. They may choose the number of letters in a word, number of syllables, alphabetical order, things that are alive or not alive, etc. Their partner tries to figure out how they have sorted their words.

Go Fish! This can be played with two to four players. Use one word sort “set” for each student playing. The word sort cards are shuffled and five are dealt to each player. The first player asks any other player for a match to a card in his or her hand: “Do you have any words that rhyme with hat (or whatever you are matching this week.)” If the player receives a matching card, he or she may put the pair down and ask for another card. If the other player does not have the card requested, that player tells the first player to “go fish.” The first player’s turn is over when he or she can no longer make a match. Play continues around the circle until one player runs out of cards. Points can be awarded to the first person to go out and to the person who has the most matching cards.

Old Maid: Add a card that says either “oddball” or “out of sorts.” The students draw from each others hands trying to make a match but not getting the “oddball” card. The one with the oddball card at the end of the game loses.

Word,-Whack- Whoa! This game is played just like Tic-Tac-Toe except instead of using X’s and O’s, the students use two different “patterns” from their weekly word sorts.

Adapted from Bear, Ivernizzi, Templeton, and Johnston (2008). Words Their Way

Sorts may be found on-line at t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/cbl/ Go to the “tools” tab, then to Word Sorts to Print.

Gerri Hixenbaugh