Teaching Strategies

Teaching Strategy: Combining Word Sorts with Story Impressions

Open and closed word sorts are often used to introduce, or review with, students to specific vocabulary, word features, or concepts. Story impressions are used to help students predict, and thus better comprehend, new stories. By viewing key words from the story in their order of appearance and then guessing what the story will be about, students use the key words to write their story predictions.

If teachers wish to combine these two valuable reading methods, here is one way to do so using the story Babushka Babayaga by Patricia Polacco.

After students have sorted the above words into any categories they are able to identify, next show the students the following graphic organizer and instruct them to write a prediction of what the story will be about by using the words in the same order they appear in the list.

STORY IMPRESSIONS
Babushka Baba Yaga By Patricia Polacco

Story Chain	Story Guess
creature
loneliness
grandchildren
clothesline
village
little house
love
happy
legend
hateful
note
wolves
snatched
tears
celebration

Ask students to share their predictions, and then read the story aloud. As you read the story, allow students opportunities to comment on how the events compare and contrast to their predictions.