Learning and Using Categories

Students sometimes get stumped when they are asked for "factors" or "aspects" related to their discussion and writing topics. For secondary or high school students, a grasp of different categories is useful.

In this activity, students are given some cards with various headings. The students sort the cards and share their reasons for the classification. They are asked to highlight the links between the cards, while checking their understanding. More cards will be introduced for sorting. The students can change the groupings any moment, as long as they justify the changes.

The teacher will acknowledge the students' categories, while filling in the knowledge gaps and correcting any misunderstanding of concepts. Then the categories of 'political', 'social', 'economic', 'technological' and 'environmental' will be introduced. Students can reclassify their cards. Some cards might fit into more than 1 category. There is space for discussion and negotiation.

The students will use these categories to help them generate ideas in discussion and writing projects. While there are definitely other ways to organise information and knowledge, these staple categories serve as important frameworks for younger learners working on discursive and argumentative tasks.

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