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Education: Open Word Sort

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Education: Open Word Sort

An open word sort refers to a strategic teaching tool aimed at fostering active interaction

and deeper understanding of vocabulary concepts among learners. By enabling learners to group

and use words according to their understanding and existing knowledge, open word sorts foster

significant understanding of how patterns and language relate. Borrowing concepts from

constructivist principles, this strategy allows learners to develop their personal knowledge and

craft their metacognitive awareness as they understand relationship between concepts and words.

Open word sorts promote a student based learning setting in which students control their learning

process, promote critical thinking skills and foster deeper understanding of words and

vocabularies.

An open word sort can be used successfully before, during and after reading to improve

acquisition of vocabulary, comprehension and metacognive awareness. Before reading, the

instructors can engage learners in an open word sort activity to trigger learners’ prior knowledge

and scaffold how they understand major vocabulary related to a given text. Moreover, during

reading, an open word sort allow teachers to evaluate learners’ vocabulary acquisition and

understanding as they interact with new words in text. Further, open word sort activity can be

used after reading to reinforce learners’ ability to retain vocabulary and to foster deeper

understanding through discussion and reflection. Making learners to revisit and revise their

initial categorization based on the newly acquired understanding enables them to consolidate

their learning and better understand vocabulary terms.

While teaching, I would incorporate open word sorts as a valuable teaching tool to inform

and tailor my teaching in accordance to the learners’ needs. Before introducing a new unit, I
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would engage learners in an open word sort activity to evaluate their prior knowledge and how

they understand key concepts or vocabulary. By observing learners’ categorization choices and

engaging them in discussion, I can understand their levels of understanding and areas they have

misunderstood. This consequently informs my teaching planning, enabling me to design lessons

to address certain vocabulary gaps and offer targeted help to the learners.

Linking new vocabulary to prior schema helps promote meaningful retention and

comprehension. By placing new words within the context of existing experiences and

knowledge, learners can easily understand their meanings and their appropriate contexts. This

improves acquisition of vocabulary and foster deeper comprehension of concepts. Secondly,

connecting new words to scheme promote cognitive relationships, making it easier for learners to

retrieve and use these words in different situations. Important approaches that support these

connections encompass triggering prior knowledge through concept mapping, offering real world

analogies or examples to show word meanings, and encourage learners to make personal

relationships using approaches such as discussions or journaling.