Theme Sort

Directions

1. Make sure you have a large surface or wall available.
2. Give participants 2 minutes to address a prompt and ask that participants add one note or idea per sticky note.
   1. The facilitator will give them a prompt of some kind, maybe they are identifying concepts that they are struggling with, maybe they are furthering their learning, maybe they are identifying ways to engage with a certain population in a professional field, the possibilities are endless.
3. When time is up, participants take turns placing their sticky notes on the large surface or wall, reading them aloud as they do so.
4. As the sticky notes are shared, participants place them on a wall or in the center of a table and group them according to theme.
   1. Participants should ask themselves the following:
      1. Is this related to a previous note? If so, place it near the existing note.
      2. If it is the same, place it behind or on top of the existing note.
      3. If not, begin a new grouping.
   2. When all the notes have been read and clustered, write a title for that grouping. These are your themes.
5. Once the groupings are established and titled, participants will look back to review any remaining outliers to determine if they belong in any of the smaller groups or if they should remain apart.
6. When it makes sense, the group can then look at the themes and determine which is the most important to the group.
7. Repeat the steps as necessary.

  Note: In a virtual space? No worries. Use a virtual whiteboard, slides, or a simple shared document to facilitate and gather ideas.

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