Vocabulary Matters: Part 6: Concept Picture Sorts

Hope you had time to review what I've talked about in the first 5 posts. Last week I shared information for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction for Tier 2 words in Independent Texts for Grades 2+. Today I will focus on Concept Picture Sorts for primary grades.

Concept Picture Sort:  

• Provides primary students with the opportunity to classify and categorize new information to the word knowledge that already exists. 
• Provides a beginning for concept picture sorts during Read Alouds.
• Can be adapted to any reading program.

Here is a Lesson Plan Guide to implement the Concept Picture Sort:

Prep Time:

Divide a bulletin board into two sections.

Read the Story:

I chose the book by Eric Carle : A House for Hermit Crab ( Give a short synopsis)

Teach/Model

After reading the story , show a picture of a sea urchin and say to your students:

"In the story Hermit Crab comes upon  sea urchins  and says "How fierce you look!" 

He said that because sea urchins have sharp and prickly needles and can be wild and dangerous.

• Post the picture of the sea urchin on the left side of your bulletin  board or display.

• Then show the picture of the shark and ask: Is a shark fierce or gentle?

• Another way to do this is to this is to say to your students:  “If you think the shark is fierce show me 1 finger and if you think a shark is gentle show me 2 fingers. (I personally like to make sure that all my students understand the concept so I like to use the 1 or 2 finger method to get 100% class participation)
• Say” Yes, sharks are fierce because they are wild and dangerous too. Say, “Now I will post the picture of the shark near the picture of the sea urchin.”
• Now show your students the picture of the lamb and say "A lamb is not fierce because it isn't dangerous. We say that it is gentle.”

• Post the picture of the lamb on the right section of your bulletin board or display.
• Next show the picture of the soft towel and ask.”Is the towel fierce or gentle? 

• Yes, it is gentle and put the picture of the towel on the right section of the display.

Guided Practice:

• Now ask students what other things in the story were fierce (Electric Eels) and gentle( sea anemones, smooth pebbles) . Let students add the pictures to the display. 

Independent Practice:

• Distribute copies of old magazines and ask student to cut out pictures of 1 or 2 things that are fierce and 1 or 2 pictures of things that are gentle.
• Then after they have cut them out have them put them in 2 piles: 
  1 for things that are fierce and the other for things that are gentle.
• Ask for volunteers to add each picture to the display by asking:
• What is your picture? Is it fierce or gentle? Does it belong with the sea urchin or  the lamb?
• After answering the questions they can add their picture to the display.

I have put all of this information and all the pictures into a document which you download by clicking in the image above.

If you have missed any of the first 5 parts you can access them by clicking on each part below"

                                              Part 5

                                              Part 4

                                              Part 3

                                              Part 2

                                              Part 1
I hope you will try to use the Concept Picture Sort Strategy with a Read Aloud Book over the next week.
Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

What strategy have you found that you would try to use in your classroom?