Card Sort

The Card Sort strategy is an interactive, hands-on learning activity that helps students engage with concepts by categorizing, comparing, and connecting information. In this activity, students are given a set of cards containing terms, definitions, examples, problems, or images. Working individually or in small groups, they sort the cards into categories based on relationships or characteristics. This strategy promotes critical thinking, collaboration, and conceptual understanding by requiring students to justify their reasoning and discuss their choices. Card Sorts can be used at different points in a lesson—for example, as an introductory activity to activate prior knowledge, a practice activity to reinforce new learning, or a formative assessment to check for understanding. Teachers can design Card Sorts for a variety of subjects—such as sorting math problems by operation type, classifying organisms in science, matching vocabulary to definitions in language arts, or organizing historical events by time period in social studies. Overall, the Card Sort strategy transforms passive review into active learning, deepens comprehension through discussion, and provides teachers with insight into student thinking.