• Focus a discussion on a big idea, ethics, a moral dilemma, and such
• Sequence a series of events, a process, a timeline, and more by interpreting a point of view
• For younger students, simple sequencing and ordering will work

You’ve Got the Idea AND the Rank & Reason Tool to Build It! 

Writing a Rank & Reason discussion lesson is quite easy once you have the idea. The tool is intuitive and a basic Rank & Reason discussion can be set up in 5-10 minutes. Of course, your first one may take longer as you learn the tool and exactly which pieces you want to use.  

Writing a Great Rank & Reason Discussion Question

The best Rank & Reason discussion questions are open to interpretation and do not typically have a “right” answer. It is best to ask subjective questions using instructions like “rank the most influential” or “rank the least impact” and “rank from most to least significant” to develop rich discussions.

To create your Rank & Reason discussion lesson, follow these simple steps:

• Go to My Lessons.
• Click Create a Lesson.
• Select Rank & Reason from the Lesson Classification drop-down menu.
• Name your Rank & Reason.
• Click Create.
• Select Step 1 Rank & Reason in the Table of Contents on the right.
• Enter a driving question.
• Enter background information and ranking instructions.
• Click Add choice to add additional items.
• Click on the gear and select Show Teacher Guidance to leave any notes for yourself.
• Click on the gear and select Students Can Compare to allow students to compare their ranking with their classmates.

Note: Your Rank & Reason discussion lesson will continue to live in your account and can be shared with your students, but it will not be public. Please do let us know if you’ve written a lesson you’d like to share with other teachers!