Sort Them Out

Saw an activity that reminded me of a format I haven't used in quite a while.

Each team is given a big card with 7 categories on it. The categories are things like, marketing, promotion, customer service, systems and so on. Each category has a little description beside it to make it clear what the term means.

Then the teams are given a handful of cards. On each card there is a scenario that describes something an entrepreuneur somewhere in the world tried.

For example there is a short story about a woman who mailed all her customers Happy Spring Cleaning Day. There is another about how a small business fellow started a unique newsletter about where to find good thrift store buys.

The group then sorts the cards into the categories. They can discuss and debate which one goes where, and they can agree to disagree. In the sorting of the cards the task gets done: they learn or re-learn the categories and they see interesting examples of applying these ideas in the real world.

How I Would Use This

I work with a groups of school students and their teachers around this province in a great environmental action project. To help them get clear on some of the things they can do we have tried a sorting activity like this.

We had categories like: awareness, communication, reward and incentive and so on.

I think you could apply this to many learning situations. Just make sure the examples are diverse and interesting, or even spectacular. People really pick up on the unique and exciting ideas that way and feel free to try something like that themselves.