Let’s get prescriptive with Sortegories™!
Unlock the future of reading success: embracing technology in the classroom
The time is now! Embrace the power of technology to elevate your students’ reading achievement through tailored practice that meets their unique skill levels. But use it wisely and make sure you understand the difference between adaptive and prescriptive reading tools. This distinction is crucial for maximizing your students’ potential. As educators and administrators delve deeper into the complexities of these technologies, it’s vital to grasp how each can impact student learning in distinct ways. Let’s explore the transformative possibilities of Sortegories, a digital reading tool that offers purposeful practice —from sound to syntax—designed to build reading skills effectively.
What is Sortegories?
Sortegories is a digital literacy practice tool designed for emergent readers in grades K-3, as well as older students who require reading intervention. This teacher-driven program offers blocked, distributed, and interleaved practice in key literacy skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics, word chaining, vocabulary building, morphology, syntax, and fluency. It utilizes decodable phrases, sentences, and nonfiction passages to promote skill development.
Sortegories follows a systematic phonics scope and sequence that facilitates intentional instructional practice from sound to syntax. The tool includes three levels of instruction, with nine activities provided for each level. These activities incorporate explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice, corrective feedback, assessment, and progress tracking.
To enhance student motivation, Sortegories allows learners to choose a virtual animal to “feed” as a reward for correct answers. Levels A and B feature rescue pets, while Level C focuses on endangered animals. Additionally, 95 Percent Group pledges to donate to animals in need based on students’ reading achievements using Sortegories.
Adaptive versus prescriptive: What is the difference?
In today’s educational landscape, technology can play a pivotal role in enhancing reading achievement by providing practice tailored to each student’s skill level.
Reading technology can be categorized into two types: adaptive and teacher-driven (also referred to as prescriptive). Each serves different purposes and has unique impacts on student learning. The complexities of these technologies underscore the importance of understanding their distinctions.
Adaptive technology utilizes algorithms to make assumptions about student performance to provide tailored instruction that adjusts in real time without input from the child’s teacher or external data sources. While adaptive technology is becoming more prevalent in classrooms, it’s essential to ask: what are the benefits, and for whom are they intended? Is this the right approach for all students? If time on task is high, but units mastered is low, there must be another way.
Prescriptive technology, on the other hand, is data-driven, teacher-centric, and technology-assisted. Reading practice occurs when assigned by the teacher after direct instruction occurs. Students can use this digital tool for repeated practice; there is no limit to how many times a student can repeat the activity.
Sortegories’ teacher-driven, prescriptive technology lends itself to diagnostic teaching and feedback, ensuring that digital practice aligns closely with classroom instruction rather than operating in isolation. This prescriptive approach driven by a diagnostic teacher is often informed by various data points, including Tier 1 instructional goals, classroom assessment data, and the results from Sortegories’ spelling inventory.
With prescriptive technology like Sortegories, students jump right into activities assigned by the teacher, allowing for accurate placement and giving educators confidence in the effectiveness of their instructional decisions. In contrast, adaptive technology places students through an initial test that determines a starting point based on correct answers on a minimal number of items administered on a single test. Adaptive assessments adjust the questions based on correct and incorrect responses, increasing chances of false positives (correct answers) and negatives (incorrect answers).
Precise diagnostic assessment tools are essential for prescriptive instruction. Diagnostic tools provide students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of skills, thus prioritizing the precision and accuracy of data analysis. Computer adaptive tools offer students fewer opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of skills and instead rely on algorithms to approximate student instructional needs. Adaptive tools thus prioritize the efficiency of data analysis over accuracy. When assessment tools lack precision, instruction cannot be truly diagnostic.
Dr. Jamey Peavler
Sortegories feedback feeds forward
Feedback varies significantly between prescriptive and adaptive technology. In the case of Sortegories, feedback feeds forward (Archer, 2023). It provides instructional feedback for both correct and incorrect answers, delivering affirmative, informative, and corrective guidance along with scaffolded support during each activity. This approach ensures that assistance is available right at the point of use.
On the other hand, adaptive technology typically offers minimal instructional feedback. When students answer correctly, they receive a new question at a slightly higher level. Conversely, incorrect answers are followed by a question at a lower level, which may not be related to the originally missed skill. Additionally, incorrect answers may vanish before students have a chance to process the correct responses, which reduces opportunities for teachers to engage with students at critical moments of misunderstanding.
Sortegories is integrated, not isolated
As a prescriptive technology, Sortegories is integrated with classroom instruction, allowing for a cohesive learning experience, while adaptive technology operates in parallel. Sortegories follows the “I do, we do, you do” instructional model, facilitating the gradual release of responsibility to students as they become ready for independent learning. This approach incorporates scaffolding to enhance success and minimize feelings of failure and frustration.
In contrast, adaptive technology relies on algorithms that adjust a student’s placement within the program based solely on correct and incorrect responses. While this method may benefit students performing above grade level, it poses challenges for at-risk students. Without adult intervention to teach missed skills, these students can become stuck in a cycle of repeatedly encountering failed skills, hindering their progress in the program. This “wait-to-fail, then intervene” approach is counterproductive, as it can negatively impact self-esteem, prolong time spent on technology without improving reading achievement, and lead to off-task behavior. Adaptive technology can unintentionally reward increased screen time, overlooking the importance of accuracy and actual reading progress.
Celebrations from the Field
Weston County School District, Wyoming
A literacy coordinator of Weston County School District highlights the success of the literacy tool Sortegories, especially among first graders and older students struggling with reading. Notably, students showed measurable progress on Nonsense Word Fluency assessments after beginning Sortegories, with one student improving from zero correct words to 19 in four months.
We have seen tremendous success with Sortegories this year and are now expanding its use to students who would benefit from enrichment. This prescriptive technology has been particularly impactful for our first graders as well as for our older students who have historically struggled to make adequate growth in reading, leading to notable growth in their literacy skills. Many of our students are excited and engaged with Sortegories, making it a valuable tool in our instruction. I first discovered Sortegories when using it with my own child and was immediately struck by its potential to be a game-changer for many students!
Dr. Erin Pzinski
The graph tracks results of a 1st grader’s progress monitoring with Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) which gauges their understanding of the alphabetic principle by eliminating vocabulary and sight word influences. The implementation line shows when they began using Sortegories five times a week with adult assistance. Before Sortegories, progress was stagnant. By February, the student improved from zero correct words to 19 in just four months, effectively closing the gap.
Ben Franklin Elementary, Indiana Area School District, Indiana, PA
Ben Franklin Elementary in the Indiana Area School District serves grades K-3, with 56% economically disadvantaged students, and 60% of 2nd grade at or above benchmark. Sortegories was added to 2nd grade last year. In the 2024-2025 school year, Sortegories is used in grades 2 and 3 with 15 minutes of daily Sortegories practice with optional practice during morning arrival.
Dr. Kelly Urbani, principal at Ben Franklin Elementary in Pennsylvania, reports that since implementing Sortegories, third graders have demonstrated consistent improvement in their reading skills as evidenced by Acadience progress monitoring. All assessed students, particularly those struggling, have shown meaningful gains in phonics, decoding, and reading comprehension, reinforcing the effectiveness of the intervention.
In addition to phonics and decoding, eight third grade Sortegories students were also monitored with the Acadience MAZE subtest for reading comprehension. The mid-year benchmark is 11, and all students have improved, with one making a notable jump from 7 to 25. Even those initially below benchmark have shown meaningful progress, demonstrating the effectiveness of the interventions and targeted support.
Sortegories provides a structured, prescriptive approach to literacy that not only benefits students but also serves as an educative tool for teachers. Unlike adaptive programs, which adjust based on student responses but offer little instructional insight, Sortegories follows a clear, research-based progression in phonics, morphology, and syntax. These areas—particularly morphology and syntax—are often underemphasized in elementary instruction, yet they are critical for developing strong readers and writers! By explicitly teaching word structure and sentence formation, Sortegories helps students deepen their language comprehension while empowering teachers with the knowledge and tools to provide targeted, meaningful instruction beyond surface-level decoding skills.
Dr. Kelly Urbani
What does research say about technology use for reading achievement?
At a recent Plain Talk About Literacy and Learning® conference, Dr. Rebecca Silverman presented her meta-analysis on the effectiveness and efficacy of educational technology, including introducing a checklist for evaluating educational technology programs to ensure they have the highest impact on student growth. This checklist included features that may diminish a program’s effectiveness and critical questions to consider when selecting technology to support literacy in the classroom (Silverman et al., 2024).
Silverman makes these recommendations for effective and ineffective technology and key questions for evaluation:
What makes effective technology?
- a systematic scope and sequence
- explicit instruction with modeling and guided practice
- corrective feedback
- assessment and progress tracking
- opportunities for student choice to enhance motivation and engagement
What makes programs less effective?
- Too much gamification (time off task)
- Too much distracting content
- Less than optimal differentiation
- Misalignment with the ELA curriculum or other intervention
What questions can educators and administrators ask when evaluating and choosing digital reading practice?
- Are the features aligned with the science of reading?
- For decoding, does the program have a systematic scope and sequence?
- Does it use explicit instruction including modeling, guided practice, and corrective feedback?
- Does it provide practice with comprehension strategies?
- Does the program support differentiated instruction?
Why choose Sortegories?
Sortegories is aligned with the science of reading and the science of learning as evidenced by its ESSA Level 4 rating, Digital Promise Certification and 2024 EdTech Cool Tool Finalist award. Sortegories has a systematic phonics scope and sequence that is reinforced with interleaved vocabulary, morphology, syntax and comprehension practice. Each activity begins with explicit instructions and an example. Teachers can assist with guided practice by following the “I do, we do, you do” instructional sequence found in the Getting Started Guide. Instructional and corrective feedback are included for correct and incorrect answers to increase repetitions and improve mastery. Differentiated instruction can be provided by the teacher as well as within the program by clicking the instructional help in the right corner of the screen at point of use. Teachers love Sortegories because students practice independently while teachers work with other students. Students love Sortegories because they receive ribbons according to their mastery level and get to feed a pet or endangered animal of their choice which is converted by the publisher to donations to animals in need.
Why the sense of urgency?
The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has unveiled a critical decline in student reading proficiency, underscoring an urgent need for immediate educational intervention. Nationally, average reading scores for both fourth and eighth graders have decreased by two points since 2022, continuing a downward trend that predates the COVID-19 pandemic making it even more imperative to integrate effective reading practices into our classrooms.
To address these challenges, the implementation of prescriptive educational software presents a promising solution. Sortegories empowers educators to be diagnostic teachers who make informed decisions that enhance instructional strategies. By analyzing individual student data, prescriptive tools can pinpoint specific learning gaps and recommend personalized learning pathways that align with Tier 1 ELA instruction. This approach not only improves overall academic outcomes but also helps prevent student failure.
About the author
Sheryl Ferlito, EdS
Co-author of Sortegories
Product Manager at 95 Percent Group
Sheryl is the current product manager for Sortegories™ by 95 Percent Group and is a former educator and special education administrator specializing in K-12 literacy. She co-authored Sortegories, the digital literacy practice tool that accelerates student skills from sound to syntax. Sheryl was also a contributing writer for LANGUAGE! 3rd Edition with Nancy Chapel Eberhardt, and contributing developer for LANGUAGE! Live with Dr. Louisa Cook Moats.
Sheryl, a first-generation college graduate, understands the challenges of generational poverty. She is dedicated to helping children like herself become successful, literate adults, regardless of their circumstances.
