Card Sort: Ethics Does Prison Work?

This thought provocative resource aims to help students assess whether prison sentences work by looking at the experiences in the UK. This is a controversial subject with people from all sides advocating different solutions from longer sentences to rehabilitate prisoners to alternatives sentences based in the community. This card sort can be used with a range of abilities and has never failed to get my students excited, engaged, whilst improving their understanding of this difficult topic.

The main activity involves getting students to cut out the cards in lesson, organize them into their most persuasive order under the two main headings and then sick them into their books. Once students have fed back their results to a class discussion, they can then have a go at the extended writing activity. Alternatively, they can create a key and then sort through the cards and then stick the sheet into their book or you could cut out the cards and place them into an envelope for them to sort prior to a discussion on the topic. This is a great resource that can be easily adapted to suit your classroom and expectations.

When you purchase this resource, you will be able to download 19 slide PowerPoint which is designed to help facilitate the card sort which is in a separate single page Microsoft Word document. The Word document includes a learning objective, instructions, two headings cards labeled ‘Pros / Advantages’ and ‘Cons / Disadvantages’ as well as sixteen information cards to be sorted. . The PowerPoint contains aims, objectives, information slides, templates, tasks and activities to support the card sort. These are both fully editable documents which can be customized if necessary to suit your students. I have also uploaded them as PDFs. Once students have completed the main task, they then have the option of writing the script for a speech expressing their own point of view on the subject.

The aims of this lesson / activity are:

Theme: Crime and Punishment
Know: How are people supported in prison?
Understand: What are the advantages and disadvantages or sending people to prison?
Evaluate: Does prison protect society from crime?

WILF - What am I Looking For?
Identify and describe - How are people treated in prison?
Explain - What are the advantages and disadvantages or sending people to prison?
Analyze - Does prison protect society from crime?

If you like this resource then why not check out my other resources on this topic in my TES shop. You can also follow ‘The History Academy’ on Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube and Facebook for the latest updates or even to get in touch and chat about how you have used this resource or to ask questions. We aim to produce cheap and affordable resources for either the price of a good cup of coffee or a happy meal so that you can spend more time doing the things that you want.

Anyway, have fun and stay in touch via social media for the latest updates.

Kind Regards

Roy