Word Sort and

Making Words
Stephanie Thomas
Word Sort

• Instructional focus: phonemic awareness/phonics, vocabulary, spelling,

content areas
• Grade Levels: PreK-Grade 2; Grades 3-5; English Learners
• Strategy supports the following CCSS for Reading: Informational Text,
Reading: Foundational Skills, and Language:
• Students apply phonics and word-analysis skills.
• Students recognize relationships among words
• Students understand the meaning of academic vocabulary
Word Sort
• Helps students focus on
conceptual and phonological
features of words.
Word sorts are used to examine and
categorize words • Helps students identify recurring
patterns.

Words can be categorized by their

meaning, graphophonemic clues,
similarities, or spelling patterns.
How to use this Strategy
Choose a topic

Compile a list of words

Introduce the sorting activity

Make a permanent record

Share word sorts

Why Use this Strategy

• Participating in word sorts helps students learn important phonics, spelling, and
vocabulary concepts.
• Activity is successful because it is relevant to what they are learning, teacher
provides instruction about the topic, students collaborate in small groups, and
students are actively involved in learning.
About the Book

• The Girl and the Wolf by Katherena

Vermette
• For Grades PreK- Grade 2
• Genre: Fantasy; Picture Book
• Cultural Experience: American Indian
• A little girl is picking berries with her
mother. She wanders too far into the
woods and gets lost. She starts to panic. A
wolf finds the girl using his sense of smell
and decides to help her. The wolf begins
asking her questions. Through the
questions, the little girl realized she had
the skills to navigate back home all along.
 Activity Using this Book
Before After
Making Words

Instructional Focus: phonemic awareness/ phonics, and spelling

Grade Levels: PreK- Grade 2; Grades 3-5; English Learners

Strategy supports following CCSS for Students apply grade-level phonics and word-
Reading: Foundational Skills and analysis skills.

Language: Students spell grade-appropriate words correctly.

Making Words

Teacher choose words from a

Activity where students arrange book that the students are reading
letter cards to spell words. to practice phonics concepts and
spelling patterns.
How to Use this Strategy

1 2 3 4 5
Make Letter Choose a Name the Make Words Share Words
cards Word letter Cards
Why Use this strategy

• Teacher-directed spelling activity

• Students practice what they are learning about spelling patterns and sound-
symbol correspondence
• Gives teacher feedback as to if the student understands the skill.
About the Book
• Silly Billy by Anthony Browne
• For Grades K-5
• Genre: Social Emotional; Picture Book
• Billy worries about everything and
struggles to sleep at night. His
grandmother gave him worry dolls to
put under his pillow for him to tell his
worries. This works at first but then he
begins to worry that he has given to
much of his worries to his worry dolls.
He then makes worry dolls for his
worry dolls and they all sleep through
the night.
 Create letter cards or use magnetic tiles for the letters:
b,l,y,m,n,w,r,s,f,c,y,I,a,o. You need two l’s and r’s for
each student.

Activity
Using the I chose words that go with many jobs of y skill. In
this lesson y make the long e sound.
Book

Words to spell

Billy Many Worry Silly fancy

References
• Tompkins, Gail E. 50 Literacy Strategies: Step by Step. 4th ed.,
Boston, Pearson, 2013, pp 71-73; 151-154.
• Vermette, Katherena. Girl and the Wolf. Theytus Books, 2019.
• Browne, Anthony. Silly Billy. London, Walker Books, 2006.