There’s a long-standing notion in education that teachers aren’t supposed to directly teach concepts to children: instead, we are supposed to let children figure things out on their own. Instead of teachers telling children the rule, children are often asked to come up with it themselves. Word sorts lend themselves to the “exploration” kind of teaching. Memorize which is which.” Introducing how to sort words is not the same thing as explicitly teaching a phonics skills. It’s more of a “sometimes words look like this, sometimes words look like this. While the word sorts (at least the ones in Words Their Way) do move along a general continuum of skills, there’s no real explicit instruction. The act of sorting words by itself will never yield the results we desire. I was taught that the sort WAS instruction, but it simply isn’t true. They are a single tool: one that, in all honesty, is very low on my list. Word sorts are not a systematic and explicit way to teach children. Even if they can read the words, will it help them internalize the patterns? Without a discussion of which diphthongs we use in the middle, and which we use at the end, students will never remember the words past Friday’s spelling test. All they would need to do is find the oi and oy before they could effectively complete the activity. I could ask my children to sort these words. Let’s use the oi and oy sort as an example. The biggest trouble with the “word sort” mentality is this-most of the activities associated with sorting words can be done without children ever actually knowing how to read or write a single word. Another huge change for my county was this-there wasn’t a county-provided word sort in sight. This means we are exposing all children to grade-level expectations, and systematically moving them through a sequence. This does not mean we are using the random spelling tests from when we were children. Not only that it is required by our state standards. It took me a long time to become comfortable with the fact that having grade-level phonics expectations is okay. Because of the way I was trained, I was taught we had to teach children at their level. The first time I heard of it, I had to take several deep breaths. That meant there was a scope and sequence and required word lists. I was doing all the things I was taught were best practice, and yet I still wasn’t getting results.Ī few years ago, my district began mandating phonics skills in k-3. Maybe once a week they would get with a partner and have a practice spelling test. Throughout the week, because time was so short, the only word work we did in my small group was to sort and read our words.ĭuring independent work and homework throughout the week was where my students got their “real practice.” Students were asked to do things like rainbow write the words, roll and write their words, and to sort and write their words. Friday small group was spent giving a word study test to each different group. On Monday I would introduce the word sorts in small group, and on Friday we would take the test. Each group would have their own spelling words for the week. Based off their DSA, I would create groups. All students were given a DSA (a spelling inventory) in September. When I was a classroom teacher, this was how I taught word study. So let’s take a look at some old practices, why the traditional word sort approach doesn’t work, and how we can alter them for today’s instruction. Looking back, despite having an entire word study course, I was not trained in the actual phonics of English and how that translates into instruction for our students. At the time, I thought I was doing what’s best for children. We were elbow deep in word sorts and word sorting activities. Bye-bye whole group spelling tests, HELLO individualized word sorts for each small group. I live in Virginia, where Words Their Way originated, and I felt like I was on the cutting-edge of word study instruction. (I’m out of hands, or I’d be raising another one).Īs part of my master’s degree in reading, I took a course in word study. Raise your hand if you have ever had children sort and glue their words in at the end of the week. Raise your hand if you have ever asked children to write a word 3 times each. Raise your hand if you have ever given children the assignment to “sort and write” their words.
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