Attribute Sorts
Preparation
- Identify the text that students will read or listen to.
- Identify the most important people, places, or concepts from the text, and create a graphic organizer with each of these important ideas in a different section.
- Identify a set of important attributes of each of the main ideas, and create a card for each attribute. Create enough copies of each for all the students.
Activity Steps
1
Teacher introduces general topic of presentation or reading, and distributes graphic organizers and attribute cards.
2
Students begin reading.
Students can read alone, in groups, or in pairs. This activity can also work for presentations, films, or read-alouds.
3
Students stop periodically as they work, and sort any attributes they recognize by placing the cards in the appropriate boxes of their graphic organizers.
You can circulate as students are working, and ask them about their sorting decisions, and about their emerging understanding of the different main ideas.
4
When students are done reading, they look back over all the attributes, and make sure that everything is sorted. They can refer to the text as needed to complete sorting.
Circulate as students are working, gauging their comprehension and recall, and asking them about their understanding of the ideas. Ask them questions that prompt them to think about what distinguishes each idea.