Word Sorts
Overview
Word sorts are multisensory activities that help learners identify patterns and group words based on different categories while promoting Vocabulary development. Learners can sort words based on a variety of similarities, including meaning, prefixes, and suffixes. This helps students make justifications and supports higher order thinking, and they can be done independently or with a partner.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this fifth grade teacher sets up expectations for the word sorts by introducing a sort-map along with multiple sets of labeled cards. She models the activity and walks them through sorting the vocabulary, emphasizing the importance of thinking about the meaning of words.
Design it in Your Product
Learn how Lexia PowerUp Literacy uses word study as part of its literacy instruction. The word sorts activity supports greater Phonological Processing and Vocabulary development.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Multisensory Supports Strategies
Audiobooks allow students to hear fluent reading and to experience books that may be above their reading skills.
Communication boards are displays of graphics (e.g., pictures, symbols, illustrations) and/or words where learners can gesture or point to the displays to extend their expressive language potential.
Dictation, also referred to as speech-to-text, an assistive communication technology that translates voice dictation to digital text, provides students with transcription difficulties the opportunity to participate in the writing process by allowing them to use their voice to generate and record ideas.
Dictionaries and thesauruses can serve as resources for students to expand their Vocabulary knowledge, as they provide easy access to definitions and similar words to help students remember words and meanings more readily.
Adding gestures and motions to complement learning activates more cognitive processes for recall and understanding, particularly within content area instruction.
Short breaks that include mindfulness quiet the brain to allow for improved thinking and emotional regulation.
Brain breaks that include movement allow learners to refresh their thinking and focus on learning new information.
Connecting information to music and dance can support Short-term and Long-term Memory by engaging auditory processes, Emotions, and physical activity.
Using earplugs or headphones can increase focus and comfort.
Transforming written text into audio supports learning by activating different parts of a learner's brain for comprehension.
Visual supports, like text magnification, colored overlays, and text manipulation, help students focus and properly track as they read.
Research has shown that students write longer pieces with stronger quality when they use word processing software.
