Teaching vocabulary is something that every teacher needs to be doing regardless of the content being taught. The Word Sort Reading Comprehension Strategy is a simple reading strategy that effectively teaches and reinforces vocabulary. Words Sorts have students find meaning in vocabulary words by having them group the words based on some common characteristics.

The Word Sort reading strategy really only has three simple steps to follow:

1. The teacher makes a list of words from a particular lesson, unit, or reading passage.

2. The students then work in pairs to discuss the terms and organize the terms into different categories. The categories can be set up before hand by the teacher, but it is better to have the students create their own categories. For example, a unit on the Civil War could have the students creating categories such as Causes, Major Battles, and Effects.

3. Have students discuss their reasons for categorizing the way they did.

Word Sorts can be used before reading in order to pre-teach vocabulary and tap into students’ prior knowledge about the subject, or after reading as a closure activity or reinforcement activity. Words Sorts can even be given as homework assignments. Regardless of how you decide to do your Word Sort, it is a great strategy to use when it comes to teaching vocabulary.

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