What is Card Ranking Strategy?

Card ranking strategy teaches students to prioritize information presented during a lecture. The strategy facilitates and enhances the students’ ability to process, store and recall the information. It also develops critical thinking and reasoning as students are encouraged to justify their choices. This strategy can be included within the lecture to help summarize key information and as an informal assessment tool to evaluate comprehension of the subject

Modeling the Strategy:

Write down a list of ideas or facts (say events during World War 1) on post it notes and stick them on the black board. Ask the class to read them out aloud. Explain that you will now be ranking the events according to their priority or importance (i.e. the major events that lead to World War 1).Re-stick the post it’s in the particular order.  The sequence of ranking can be linearly, in hierarchy or as tiers.

It is important that you justify your choice of ranking, to help students gain an understanding of your reasoning. Once you have modeled the technique, encourage the class to suggest other ranking methods by which you can re-arrange the events.

Card Ranking Ideas:

The following are some activities that incorporate the principle of the strategy. These are best performed as pairs or in groups.

Index cards ranking: Information or facts are written on index cards and handed out to each group or pair. Students are given a time frame within which they should prioritize the cards. Each group is then instructed to present their sequence to the class with justification. Following presentation, a two to three minute discussion can be conducted in which others’ can question the group or suggest different options for ranking.

Carousel ranking: The class is divided into stations, with each group starting at a particular station. At every post there is a list of facts to be prioritized. Students are instructed to write their order on a particular paper that has demarcations on them. Once a group completes writing (drawing) their answer, they should fold the paper along the demarcation, to prevent the next group from viewing the answer. Groups are instructed to rotate around all the stations. After completion of the task, the papers are opened up to view the answers and a debriefing can be conducted.

Color ranking: Groups are presented with a paper that has columns of different colors that represent a rank or order. The list is written on the black board and groups are instructed to fill in the columns based on their priority. On completion, a discussion is initiated to encourage sharing of ideas. The same can be tried out with sticky dots of different colors. Groups can come up to the board and stick the dot on each idea while explaining their rationale.

Reverse ranking: In this activity, the facts are arranged in an improper order. Students are informed of the basis of ranking and instructed to place them in their correct order. This activity serves as a useful assessment tool.

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