Category Sort

The LAT Category Sort object lets you enter up to 17 answers, in three categories.  Facts we will use for the Category Sort:

Animals                                                          Plants

Heterotrophic (do not make own food)       Make own food         

Mobile                                                            Do not move 

Have tissue                                                    Cell walls       

Sexually reproduce                                       Asexual reproduction           

Information source: http://www.biology4kids.com/files/invert_main.html

Start with a new, blank Notebook software file (File->Sort), then click on the Gallery Tab, click the + in front of the Lesson Activity Toolkit folder, and scroll down to the Activities folder.  Click on the Activities folder, and in the Search Results box, scroll down until you find the gold Category Sort.

Drag the Category Sort object into the Whiteboarding area.  Enter student directions or other information as you desire.  Then click on the gold Edit button on the upper left corner of the Category Sort object to enter questions and answers.  The screen shown below, appears.

Enter the two category names as we have.  The Category Sort object will immediately populate the answer pull downs (on right) with the correct answer choices.  Enter the labels (you do not need to enter all 17) then choose the pull down answers for each item.  On the right, choose the reinforcer you want to use, enter a teacher password on the upper left if you desire, then click the OK button in the upper left corner.

Running Category Sort, the student is now dragging “Mobile” to the Animals category.

When all of the items have been dragged to categories, just click on the Check button at the top of the Category Sort object to check your work.  Items marked wrong can now be dragged to the correct category, and the red X will turn into a green check.

Use category sort to review lecture points.  Just remember, you need two or three categories and up to 17 items, and just a couple minutes of advance preparation.  If you use more than 8 items, some answer buttons will be stacked on top of each other.  If the label is too long to display properly, the text will show “…” in the label button.  Just click on the label to see the full text.

When you click Reset, it re-sorts the items, so this is a good activity to play several times in class for students who need additional reinforcement.  One idea is to assign students the task of creating a Category Sort as homework, then play the student created Category Sort files in class.