Sort It Out

Today in class I tried a game with my boys called Sort It Out, which I learned about from a colleague who went to Project Zero this summer. I didn't get to experience the excellent mini-session where she learned about this and several other routines, but I observed her sixth grade class using it a couple weeks ago. I gave each group of boys the same set of VA and spelling words (about 30 words total), and they were to sort the words into categories. I didn't give them much guidance beyond this, and it actually was more successful than I imagined. Even I would have had a hard time finding categories to fit all these words, so I was impressed with their ideas. One group sorted by parts of speech, one by where the words came from (spelling or VA), and the two other groups sorted the words by meaning. (example: one group put reproach, accuse, and presume together and provided an excellent explanation for the reason behind it). Obviously the groups that sorted by meaning were satisfying the goal of the game more than the others, but this was a good start to use this in the future. I had a spokesperson for each group explain how they sorted their words and gave time for others to ask questions. I plan to use this in the future for VA words especially because it gives the boys an opportunity to learn from each other and to develop a better understanding of these higher-level vocabulary words. I am curious to ask my colleague about other ways this game can be used. I might try sorting characters from novels they have read because hopefully this would be a great way to draw connections from text to text.

Sort it Out 4C from Courtney Humphreys on Vimeo.

Sort it Out Reflection from Courtney Humphreys on Vimeo.