Learning Technique: Pile sorting

• History
• Lower Secondary (Key Stage 3)
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)

Instructions

This is a learning technique in which students familiarize themselves with a new subject based on a set of concepts, practice their knowledge for an exam, or establish connections between the concepts. This teaching method is an extended version of "mixed up piles," hence the name "extended mixed piles." In pairs or groups of three, students take turns selecting a card and indicate which of the three columns it belongs to. They then explain their choice to each other.

Extended mixed piles can be used for every subject. Whether it's in physics, where students categorize a set of cards about electricity, or in a modern foreign language class, where students have to match translated sentences or words to the foreign language. It can also be used for a subject like history, as shown in the example.

As mentioned above, this teaching method can be used in all stages of the lesson, and you can also apply it during an exam, with or without an additional open question.

Pile sorting

Learning Technique

WW 1

Both

WW 2

Tank

Poison Gas

Trenches

Machine Gun

Blitz

V2

Winston Churchill

Adolf Hitler

Aardappeloproer

1917

Enkele Amsterdamse vrouwen zagen dat er een schip vol aardappelen in een van de grachten lag. Ze gingen erop af en plunderden het schip: hun schorten vol aardappelen. De dag erna waren er meer plunderaars. Pas nadat zes mensen door het leger werden doodgeschoten, keerde de rust terug