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Type of Literacy:
Reading Comprehension (pre-reading and post-reading)
Reading Level:
All Secondary Reading Levels; Based on how the word sort is used in the class, students at lower reading levels could get categories from the teacher so that they can sort into categories without having to think of categories on their own.
Prep Time:
5 minutes or less to think of main topics
Word Sorts in Use -
- Teacher will select vocab words or concepts from a reading, lesson, or unit, and students will sort the words into categories as a whole class, small group, or individually.
- Closed word sorts can be used when the teacher tells the students what categories to put words into.
- Open word sorts would be when the students choose how to categorize the terms.
- Can be used before starting a reading or unit to see students’ prior knowledge to terms and concepts
- Can also be used after reading to show comprehension of new terms and concepts learned.
How to Fit into a Social Studies Classroom:
Strong strategy for the beginning of a chapter or unit to gauge students’ prior knowledge. It can use recurring vocab terms and many categories like a American Political Science class this could be used. Using terms that are located in different branches of government could be useful to see how much students know before the unit and having an open word sort, and then near the middle/ending of a unit, have a closed word sort and see if the students can categorize the correct powers/terms into the correct branches.
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