Sort Card Activity
This activity helps students organize information and identify conceptual trends. This activity models a process that students can use when planning their own essays and presentations.
Preparation
- Collate 10-15 quotes from a work that contain a range of concepts or ideas.
- Place each quote on a separate notecard or print them out single sided on a page so that students can cut the quotes into strips.
- Decide if you want students to work individually, in partners, or in a small group.
Process
- Provide students with the 10-15 quotes.
- Ask students to group the quotes, putting ‘like’ ones together that seem to share a function (developing a similar idea, characterizing a person or place, establishing a particular style, etc.).
- Ask students to label each of their groups.
- Ask students to re-examine the quotes under each label and make a claim about what the author communicates or achieves with that set of evidence.
- Ask them to consider: Does the claim stand up to other evidence in the work? What evidence might you add to this pile?
- Ask each individual or group to present 1-3 of their labels and claims.
- Ask students to reflect in pairs, small groups, as a class, or in their portfolios: What did you think of this activity? How might it be useful when planning an essay or presentation?
