WordSort is a registered Trademark of Henderson Educational Software, Inc.

All material copyright 2001 Henderson Educational Software, Inc

All rights reserved

WordSort is an educational software program based on the work of the late Dr. Edmund H. Henderson of The University of Virginia. Dr. Henderson was International Reading Association Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading in 1990, director of The McGuffey Reading Center and an authority on reading and spelling. Many of the editors of major reading and spelling series in the United States received their degrees at McGuffey. Shane Templeton, Donald Bear, Richard Gentry, Ron Cramer, Jim Beers, Jerry Zutell, Tom Gill, Darrell Morris, Mary Abouzeid, and Marcia Invernizzi all received their degrees with Dr. Henderson.

Dr. Henderson was an advocate of "Word Study" as a means of teaching reading and spelling. WordSort automates a series of Word Study lessons. It uses the task of sorting to reveal to the student the phonemic differences and similarities between groups of words, presenting a series of lessons in which they are asked to match words with a selection of example words.

We call a single WordSort lesson a "Sort" and a series of lessons a "Study". WordSort can use different Studies just as a tape recorder can use different tapes. The VowelPattern Studies, which come with WordSort, contain lessons designed to teach the various sound/pattern groups to beginning readers. There are 7 different Studies in all, containing about 350 Sorts. The words used are single syllable words of grade levels K through 4 or pictures representing words. The Sorts cover all the vowel and consonant sound/pattern groups, from beginning consonant sound Sorts using pictures, to word family (rhyming) Sorts, to within word vowel Sorts. They are suitable for students in the emergent reading stage through the transitional stage and beyond.

To learn to read and spell well, children need to be able to relate the sound and spelling patterns of new words to the sound and spelling patterns of word they already know. The ability to recognize spelling patterns instantly is the key to this ability to categorize words. In a VowelPattern Sort students are asked to sort 20 words into groups by their spelling pattern and sound. Their ability to sort quickly indicates that they are thoroughly comfortable with the patterns involved. This practice teaches them the patterns of letters used in words and helps them to use what they have learned automatically. The key goal is automaticity, or the ability to complete a task accurately and without conscious thought.

Words for the VowelPattern Studies are high frequency words commonly encountered by middle elementary school readers. WordSort is an appropriate teaching tool for any student from pre-reader through the transitional stage and beyond. It is not just for remedial students. In some Sorts words may be sorted simply by visual attention to letter patterns. For example, "late" and "name" would be in a group together, while "rain" and "train" would form another group. In later, more difficult Sorts, students cannot depend solely on sight because the spelling patterns in different groups are the same. Instead students must sort words based on their different vowel sounds. Such a Sort might include categories of words with such sound/patterns as "bead", "head", and "beard".

Equipment needed:

Windows 95 version requires Windows 95 or 98. Memory requirements are modest.

To install the WordSort when it is downloaded from the Internet:

To load the software onto the hard disk from an Installation Disk:

If you have been sent an installation disk just Insert the installation disk into your floppy drive ( A or B ). Locate the program "wssetup.exe" through the Windows "My Computer" Icon. Double-click on the program’s icon and the installation process will begin. From there follow the instructions of the installation program.

To Begin Using WordSort with your Students:

Equipment needed:

You will need one file server attached to a network of computers.

Installation:

1. First logon to or otherwise gain access to your file server. During the client installation you need write access to the directory on the server where WordSort is installed.
2. Execute the installation program "wssetupClient.exe" and follow the directions. When the installation program asks for a directory name, specify the directory on the file server where the WordSort system files are already installed. When the installation is complete you should be able to locate student files on the server through "My Computer" or the Explorer and run WordSort by double-clicking on them.

Setup For Large Numbers of Students:

All that the "Setup A Student File" process does is take one of the template ".std" files in the WordSort directory, copy it and rename it to the name that you specify. You can do this yourself manually, either in Windows or in an MsDos session (i.e. from the command line). You can even write a batch file (".bat" file) that will create a whole bunch of them at once. Below is a list of the different Studies (groups of sorting lessons) the template files that contain them.

For example, to assign the Study for the "Within Word" vowel patterns to Mary Smith you might copy the file "vpall.std" to "MarySmith_WithinWord.std" and move it to a location where Mary has write access to it. When Mary clicks the new file "MarySmith_WithinWord.std" WordSort will run and give the sorting lessons for the Within Word vowel patterns.

Many schools with networks have a directory for each student in school where the student keeps their work. It’s is easy to take a listing of such directories and turn it into a batch file that will create student files for all your students at one time. With a programmable editor it is easy to go from a directory listing like...

c:\StudentDirectories\MrsAlbertsClass\JonDavis

c:\StudentDirectories\MrsAlbertsClass\MarySmith

c:\StudentDirectories\MrsAlbertsClass\ToddSpirgin

c:\StudentDirectories\MrsAlbertsClass\AliceJones

c:\StudentDirectories\MrsWheelersClass\JohnTerry

c:\StudentDirectories\MrsWheelersClass\SeanTaylor

c:\StudentDirectories\MrsWheelersClass\KristenJones

and produce an MsDos batch file containing the commands...

copy c:\wordsort\vpall.std c:\StudentDirs\MrsAlbertsClass\JonDavis\JonDavisWithinWord.std

copy c:\wordsort\vpall.std c:\StudentDirs\MrsAlbertsClass\MarySmith\MarySmithWithinWord.std

copy c:\wordsort\vpall.std c:\StudentDirs\MrsAlbertsClass\ToddSpirgin\ToddSpirginWithinWord.std

copy c:\wordsort\vpall.std c:\StudentDirs\MrsAlbertsClass\AliceJones\AliceJonesWithinWord.std

copy c:\wordsort\vpall.std c:\StudentDirs\MrsWheelersClass\JohnTerry\JohnTerryWithinWord.std

copy c:\wordsort\vpall.std c:\StudentDirs\MrsWheelersClass\SeanTaylor\SeanTaylorWithinWord.std

copy c:\wordsort\vpall.std c:\StudentDirs\MrsWheelersClass\KrisJones\KristJonesWithinWord.std

If you are uncertain of what Studies to give to what students you can create one of each for every student, then let the teacher decide later which one(s) that they want a student to use. These files are only 216 bytes and so this approach will not eat up too much disk space and will ensure that students will be setup for the whole year. If you need further explanation of how to do this please email us.

Equipment needed:

WordSort for the Macintosh requires System 7.0 or better and a color monitor. Memory requirements are modest.

To install the WordSort when it is downloaded from the Internet:

To load the software onto the hard disk from an Installation Disk:

1. Insert the installation disk.
2. Drag the folder named "WordSort" that you will find on the disk onto any of the folders where you normally keep programs. The WordSort folder and its contents will be copied there.
3. Do not drag the WordSort folder onto the desktop. Doing so will not copy any files onto your hard drive!
4. To get a quick look at the program you can run it from the floppy disk. There is a study file called SampleStudent.Std that has already been set up. Double click on it and WordSort will run. For further instructions on using WordSort see below.

To Begin Using WordSort With Your Students:

WordSort is an educational software program that uses the task of sorting to reveal to the student the essential differences and similarities between groups of words. WordSort presents a series of lessons to the student. In each lesson the student is asked to match words with a selection of example words.

We call a single lesson a "Sort" and a series of lessons a "Study". WordSort can use different Studies just as a tape recorder can play different tapes. The VowelPattern Studies contain lessons designed to teach the various consonant and vowel sound/pattern groups to beginning readers

To learn to read and spell well, children need to be able to relate the sound and spelling patterns of new words to the sound and spelling patterns of words that they already know. The ability to recognize spelling patterns instantly is the key to this ability to categorize words. Over time, through the categorization of words, the student acquires a large, automatic sight vocabulary that allows the mind the freedom to attend to the meaning of what is being read. The categorization of words by spelling patterns and sounds is also the key to good spelling.

In a VowelPattern lesson or "Sort", students are asked to sort words into groups by their spelling pattern and sound. Their ability to sort quickly indicates that they are thoroughly comfortable with the vowel patterns involved. This practice helps them to understand the patterns of vowels used in words and then helps them to use what they have learned automatically. The key goal is automaticity, or the ability to complete a task accurately and without conscious thought.

Words for the VowelPattern Studies are high-frequency examples of the words most commonly encountered by readers throughout the elementary years and into middle school. It is important that children using the WordSort program recognize the majority of words that they are sorting. Therefore there are different versions of the Study that contain words of different difficulty. Exercise with easier words will lead to an improvement in the recognition of more difficult words.

In some Sorts in the VowelPattern Studies words may be sorted simply by visual attention to letter patterns. For example, "late" and "name" would be grouped together, while "rain" and "train" would form another group. In other, more difficult Sorts, students cannot depend solely on sight, because the spelling patterns in different groups are the same. Instead, students must sort words based on the differences in the vowel sounds. For example, such a Sort might include categories of words with such sound/patterns as "bread", "bead", "head", and "beard".

There are three main VowelPattern Studies. The first presents beginning consonant sounds using pictures. The second presents the short vowel word families. The third covers the Within Word vowel patterns.

Each VowelPattern Study is referred to by name. The table below lists the Studies in order of increasing difficulty. Each line of the table shows a Study name and shows what vowel spelling patterns it contains. Note there are also Studies that break the Within Word Study into four smaller units.

Sound/patterns
Study Name groups included Sub-Category Study

‘Beginning Consonants Beginning consonants, consonant
(pictures)’ blends and consonant digraphs

‘Short Vowel Word Families’ Short vowel rhyming words
Preconsonantal nasal rhymes
Easy long patterns ending in ‘e’

‘Within Word (All Patterns)’ Common short and long à ‘Easy Short and Long’
Less common short and long à ‘More Short and Long’
R-controlled à ‘R-Controlled Patterns’
Diphthongs and digraphs à ‘Digraphs and Diphthongs’

Below we describe the different VowelPattern Studies in order of increasing difficulty.

‘Beginning Consonants (pictures)’

This Study contains about 60 Sorts. It uses picture representations of common words familiar to pre-readers. It begins with Sorts of the simple beginning consonant sounds, for example a sort of words beginning with a ‘b’ sound like ‘bike’ versus words with an ‘m’ sound like ‘moon’. Later there are sorts of beginning consonant blends and consonant digraphs as in the words ‘flower’ and ‘ship’.

‘Short Vowel Word Families’

This Study contains about 90 Sorts. It starts with Sorts of simple groups of rhyming words using the easiest short vowel words. For example the student might be asked to sort words that rhyme with ‘hat’ into one group and sort words that rhyme with "cap" Into another group. Rhyming sorts for each vowel are presented in turn using words with the basic consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. Then Sorts with consonant digraphs are introduced. Next Sorts are presented with words containing a pre-consonantal nasal sound such as the words ‘bang’ and ‘stamp’. Lastly, the simple consonant-vowel-consonant-e long pattern is introduced with Sorts containing words like ‘date’ and ‘rate’ in one group and words like ‘rat’ and ‘pat’ in a second group.

‘Within Word (All Patterns)’

This Study contains about 230 Sorts. It begins with Sorts that compare and contrast short vowel patterns with easy long vowel patterns, such as long vowel patterns ending in silent ‘e’ as in the word ‘date’. Next it moves to more unusual short and long patterns such short ‘e’ sounds spelled with ‘ea’ as in ‘bread’ and long ‘e’ spelled with ‘ee’ as in ‘seed’. Next are presented the R-Controlled spelling patterns as in the words ‘herd’ and ‘fear’ and ‘tire’. Last it includes Sorts for digraph and diphthong patterns such as in the words ‘boil’ and ‘room’.

how do I know what study to assign?

Students that do not have a firm knowledge of the alphabet (do not know the letter names and the sounds they make), or cannot read and spell simple short vowel words like ‘sat’ and "let" should begin with the Study ‘ Beginning Consonants (Pictures)’.

Students who can read and spell simple one syllable words of the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern, but who cannot read fluently, should start with the ‘Short Vowel Word Families’ Study.

Students can be assigned the ‘Within Word (All Patterns)’ Study if: they can read simple long vowel patterns, can spell some long vowel words (even if by using an incorrect but still logical pattern) and they are reading simple text with some degree of fluency.

Keep in mind that the object is not merely to finish a group of Sorts. The object is to develop real efficiency at the identification, discrimination, and categorization of spelling patterns through lots of experience with them. The review and mastery of simple concepts will do more good than struggling with concepts that are too hard. Therefore, when in doubt, risk assigning the student something that is too easy. If the Sorts are easy for them they will soon catch up, and the extra practice will give them the firm foundation needed to tackle the harder Sorts that will follow. Starting students with Sorts that they can do will boast their self-confidence too.

Selecting the Correct Sorting Speed for a Student

Sorting speed is designated in words per second. A sorting speed of 0.5 means that the student must sort the words correctly at a rate of 2 seconds per word or less. The higher the number the faster the student must sort the words. WordSort will allow for speeds up to 1 word per second or as low as .05 words per second. The default speed is 0.25 words per second for pictures Sorts. For the Sorts of words the default speed is .5 words per second.

We find that regardless of the student's reading and spelling ability, younger children need more time to do the Sorts then older children. For students less then 10 years old a sorting speed of 0.5 words per second or slower is best. Those over 10 may be able to sort words somewhat faster and a speed of 0.6 –0.7 words per second might be more appropriate. Keep in mind that the best sorting speed will vary from student to student. Each student should be required to sort the words at a rate that they find challenging but not frustrating. Don’t hesitate to adjust the required speed.

Helping Students Use the Studies

Working with the VowelPattern Study should take up no more than about a quarter of the time students spend on reading and spelling. Further, it should not be used alone, but together with lots of reading for meaning at instructional level. Students will learn best with WordSort when they are fresh. Therefore, sorting sessions probably should last no more than 20 minutes for grade school children. It is important to have students say the words aloud as they sort them. Even if they can sort them correctly without saying them, saying the words will help them to associate the sound that they make with the word's vowel pattern.

Students think of WordSort as a game and will be highly motivated. Encourage them to "play" with it rather than "work" on it. They will be learning without realizing it.

Students sometimes may not ask for help when they are stuck on a certain Sort. If you think a student is having trouble, select "Display and Print Records" from the WordSort main menu to see how they are doing. The report will show you whether the student is having trouble sorting the words accurately or fast enough and will show exactly how each word was Sorted. You may then want to print cards for the words in the Sort and work with the student one-on-one.

Futher reading on word study

Every Sort in these Studies has a unique name. This name will appear at the top of the computer screen as the student is sorting and will appear on Help screens and reports and on printed cards. The teacher does not need to know how to decipher the names of the Sorts in order for students to use WordSort. However, understanding Sort names will make the reports that WordSort can generate more informative.

The names describe the content of the Sort. Each name indicates the number of categories in the Sort, and it indicates the sound and spelling pattern of the words in each category. A Help screen containing a full explanation of the current Sort is available from within the sorting program. This screen will tell you more about the categories in the Sort.

Each category in a Sort is represented in the Sort's name by one or more capital letters, followed by one or more lower case letters enclosed in parentheses. The capital letters represent the vowel sound of the words in the category. For example "SA" stands for short "a" vowel sounds, "LRA" for long r-controlled "a" vowel sounds. These abbreviations are listed and explained later in this section. The lower case letters in parentheses represent the spelling pattern of the words in the category. For example "ea" stands for words with a vowel pattern of "ea".

Some examples will help you understand the names and the useful information that they contain.

Sample Names

Consider the following Sort name from the VowelPattern Studies.

The first part of this name is SA(a). The SA indicates that the Sort contains a category with short "a" vowel sound words. The (a) indicates that these words are spelled with the vowel pattern "a". The second part of the name is LA(a i). Not all Sort names have two parts. The fact that this one does means that it contains two different categories of words. The LA indicates that the Sort contains a category with long "a" vowel sound words. The (a i) indicates that these words are spelled with the vowel pattern "ai" .

Some Sorts contain more than one category with the same vowel sound. In the names of these Sorts, the vowel sound is only specified once and all the vowel pattern categories that have this vowel sound are enclosed in a single set of parentheses that follow, the different vowel patterns being separated by commas.

For example, consider the Sort name

The set of capital letters SWR indicates that the Sort contains words with an "r-controlled-schwa" vowel sound. The three sets of letters inside the parentheses show that the Sort uses three different categories of spelling pattern, all of which make this sound. In the first category are words where the vowel sound is spelled with an "e r" pattern. The second are words with an "i r" pattern. The third are words with a "u r" pattern.

In some Sorts a single category is made up of words with different spelling patterns but having the same vowel sound. In the names of these Sorts the different vowel patterns that are included in the same category are enclosed in the parentheses and are separated with a plus sign (+).

For example, consider the Sort name

This indicates a Sort of two categories. The first category has words with the long "a" sound. The second category has words with the short "e" sound. The words in the first category have their long "a" vowel sound spelled with either an "ai" as in the word "wait" or an "ea" as in the word "great". The words in the second category have their short "e" vowel sound spelled with an "ea" pattern as in the word "dead".

The name of a Sort does not describe the order in which the VowelPattern groups appear on the screen during a sort. Vowel sound and vowel pattern abbreviations appear in the Sort name in alphabetic order.

Sort Name Conventions

The vowel sound abbreviations, their meanings, and illustrative words are as follows:

D G A Digraph "a" ball
D G O Digraph "o" book
D P A Diphthong "a" tale
D P I Diphthong "I" dial
D P O Diphthong "o" boil
G L O Diphthong Glide "o" bounce
D P U Diphthong "u" cool

L A Long "a" date
L E Long "e" beet
L I Long "I" kite
L O Long "o" slow
L U Long "u" cute

L R A Long r-controlled "a" rare
L R E Long r-controlled "e" dear
L R I Long r-controlled "I" fire
L R O Long r-controlled "o" for
L R U Long r-controlled "u" cure

S A Short "a" fat
S E Short "e" bet
S I Short "I" sit
S O Short "o" hot
S U Short "u" cut
S R A Short r-controlled "a" bar
S W Schwa love
S W R Schwa r-controlled her

The spelling patterns that appear in VowelPattern Sort names identify the way that the vowel sound is spelled. These provide the pertinent pattern without using abbreviations. However, there is one important convention contained in these names. When the letter "c" appears in a spelling, it means "consonant" rather than the letter "c" itself. The pattern "cc" refers to a double-consonant, not the letter "c" twice.

Examples of the pattern identifiers that contain "c" in this special way, and illustrative words, are:

ace "a" consonant "e" fate

a l c "al" consonant walk

a w c "aw" consonant hawk

i c c "i" double-consonant list

ice "I" consonant "e" rice

o c c "o" double-consonant lost

o c e "o" consonant "e" hose

u c e "u" consonant "e" flute