How to use Word Sorts to Teach Reading

Word sorts are an effective tool that can help you teach reading to students of all different ages. It is often performed as a group activity with sets of approximately 4 to 5 students. Students are given a list of words or they may instead identify keywords from a reading selection. Ten to twenty words is a good number for most sorts. They will then begin the process of evaluating and sorting these words.
When students first get the words they should read them and decipher their meanings and properties. They will then be sorting them into either a closed word sort or an open word sort.
In an closed word sort the teacher gives the students categories, and the children will try to fit the words into those categories. What it means to be in these categories will be clearly defined by the teacher. For instance, one use for the word sorts with readers who are just beginning is to sort by the first letter. They may sort all of the words that begin with p into the same category, all of those that begin with the letter r into the same category and so on. This will help the children recognize their letters. An alternative is to make the categories by the ending letters of the words.
There are many other categories that can teach more advanced lessons in a word sort. For instance, they may sort by the sounds such as words with a long “a” vowel sound or a short “u” sound. They may sort works into their tense (present versus past). They may sort them into the nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. The more they learn about these sounds, words and letters, the more they will learn about reading.
Another option is an open word sort. In this manner the children will be allowed to come up with their own categories.
Once the children have the vocabulary words and the categories (or the instruction to make their own categories) give them time to sort them. Ten or fifteen minutes should be appropriate. When they have finished, they should explain why they sorted the words as they did as well as any categories they created. Teachers can evaluate their performance.
Word sorts allows children to utilize higher order thinking. They do not just look at the words, but evaluate them. This can help with their reading. Teachers should utilize ever-increasing complexity in word sorts as the children progress through their skills.