How to Organize Your Picture Sorts

Having 72 sets of picture sorts and 6 copies of each, I thought long and hard about how I would organize them.  If you are wondering why I would have so many, my last blog post , "Why You Need Picture Sorts" may be of interest to you.  Once I identify my students' particular phonological needs, I create groups or pull them individually for RTI activities.  Picture sorts are not only a great way to introduce and practice sounds, but they also can be an important intervention in which teachers can target student’s specific letter or sound weaknesses.  

How Pinteresting!

Organizing picture sorts was vital because they have become such an integral part of my teaching and interventions.  One day I was casually Pinteresting (I know that's not a word, but we seem to be adding -ing to everything now, ie: googling), and I found my solution!  I saw a picture in which duct tape was put on the bottom of freezer bags and holes punched through them.  Perfect!  I copy each sort on 6 different colors (so kids don’t mix their set up when I am pulling a small group to work on the same skill), put them in a freezer bag, and bind them in a binder.  I have four binders: Consonants, blends and digraphs, short vowels and long vowels. It was a lot of time creating my own picture sorts, copying, and cutting.  You can see why I wanted to have a permanent system. Once the system is set up you are good for years to come.

In each bag, I have six sorts on six different colors.  That way, when I am working with a small group, each student knows which picture goes with which set.  

But that wasn't enough!

  

In case a picture turned up in the lost and found, I wanted to know what set it was missing from.  So I created my own sorts that were double-sided and had the title of the set it was from.  Then I printed all of the sorts out double sided and voila!: The perfect system that I don't have to recreate for years to come.  I even used the duct tape to label the outside of the binder for a cutesy-matching the duct tape inside.  

   

If I wanted (which I don't, but some people might), I could create a self checking center by highlighting the answer on the back.

If you are interested in obtaining picture sorts, you can download some free samples here:

Consonant Blend Picture Sort

Blends and Digraphs Picture Sort

    Short Vowel Picture Sort

    Long Vowel Picture Sort

If you are interested in purchasing 72 sets of picture sorts that cover all of the levels, you can find them here: 

Picture Sorting Center Bundle 72 sets of Literacy Centers/ RTI Interventions

We have already begun our year and it is off to a good start.  I wish you the best in your beginning of the year as well!  Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

Why You Need Picture Sorts

Picture sorts are a valuable tool in teaching beginning reading.  To start with, students are actively engaged in manipulating pictures during which, they are thinking about sounds and feeling for them in their mouths.  The more students become fluent in identifying how and where the sound is made in their mouth, the more fluent their knowledge of letters and sounds becomes. Picture sorts can be a valuable tool in whole group instruction (introduction), small group instruction (reinforcement/remediation), and individual instruction that targets a specific sound based on assessment.

Which Picture Sorts to Use

When introducing sounds, you can simply find a picture sort that matches the sound you are teaching.  However, picture sorts are not only a great way to introduce and practice sounds, but they also can be an important intervention in which teachers can target student’s specific letter or sound weaknesses.   Look at the assessment below.

The test is a 25 word list that has a variety of short vowels, beginning and ending blends and digraphs.  This test comes from Kathy Ganske's Word Journeys.  You can make your own test, just have a variety of words with these features. 

In the example, you can see that each time the student is asked to spell the sound of short u, he/she writes an o (drum, bump, much, mud) and also the opposite, when asked to spell the sound of o, writes u (chop).  In one word, the student uses both (rub).   This student clearly needs to become fluent in listening and identifying short o vs. short u.   That is when you pull out your O vs. U picture sorts and have the students work on this.   

What else could this student work on?  How about sorting pictures with /s/ vs. /sl/?  or /d/ vs. /dr/?  Also, when spelling grab, the student used an o.  Perhaps that gr blend was difficult and the student reverted back to an old confusion and could use some practice with that vowel combination. 

Drive-by PD

I created this poster to hang in the workroom of our school, so that teachers could see how to notice and use picture sorts.  I call it my Drive-by PD, because teachers just look at it in the workroom while they make copies.  Just like kids learn from pretty anchor charts, adults can too.  I wish all the PD's I had to attend were nothing but attractive anchor charts! 

The Assessments

You can use Kathy Ganske's assessments found in Word Journeys, which has a 25 word test for each stage of spelling, or I have made my own assessments with a variety of short vowels, blends and digraphs.  I also made an ending blend assessment for certain students who, every time they were presented with a word that contained a difficult ending blend, they would revert back to their short vowel mistakes that they had mastered in easier words! This informed me that they needed more practice solidifying their knowledge of certain short vowels and practice feeling for the short vowel in the presence of blends and digraphs.  This is why speech is related so much to beginning reading. 

Next Blog:  How to Organize Your Picture Sorts

   

If you are interested in obtaining picture sorts, you can download some free samples here:

Beginning Consonant Picture Sort

Consonant Blends Picture Sort

Short Vowel Picture Sort

Long Vowel Picture Sort

Download them here:

Consonant Blend Picture Sort

Blends and Digraphs Picture Sort

Short Vowel Picture Sort

Long Vowel Picture Sort

If you are interested in purchasing 72 sets of picture sorts that cover all of the levels, you can find them here: 

Picture Sorting Center Bundle 72 sets of Literacy Centers/ RTI Interventions

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna Sanders

Late Letter-Name Assessment

Here is an example of a letter-name test (I wanted lots of ending blends) I made up to figure out which letter/letter patterns Mary was using and which ones she was confusing.  I know that there are forms to fill out in various word study books, but my personal preference is not to use another piece of paper.  I simply write the features that are missing and being confused and then look for patterns.

As you can see, Mary writes the letter A each time she hears short O and short U.  She has not mastered ch or th, beginning blends-dr and tr, and ending blends.

Now, many word study teachers might say that this is too much detail to go into, and that may be true.  You do not have to find out each feature to be a great word study teacher.  This is because teaching letter-name features each week in the approximate zone they are in will solidify the student's existing knowledge and enable him/her to naturally add to his/her knowledge of words with exposure during reading.  I would put this student in a group that focused on ending blends and short vowels.  However, this particular student was retained last year and I want extensive detail about her knowledge so that I can track progress that seems to be slow. If myself or someone has time to work with this student, I quickly pull out my picture sorts comparing short A and short U. In addition, when I taught any grade beyond first grade, I would do this with below level students.  There is not the luxury of time in that case, to mess around with stuff they already know.

*The most interesting thought about this assessment that I have been thinking about a lot lately:  It seems when a word contains a pattern a student is nervous about (--mp for example), he/she can make a mistake on the short vowel that is known in most other circumstances. This is interesting to me because that would be an additional way to read a child's mind to find out which vowels they seem to have, but could use reinforcement on.  This late-letter name assessment may be useful for that reason as well.

If you are interested in the assessment, you can download it here:  http://tinyurl.com/cltv8j5