The Four Corners Strategy – Model Teaching

Cortez Deacetis

To Employ the 4 Corners Tactic in your classroom:

  1. Prepare a question with four doable proper respond to options that align with the lesson articles or the target of the check out for knowing exercise. Attempt to structure your issues so that they can elicit an open up-ended response, and where a lot more than one remedy option could be appropriate, based on the justification and rationale provided by the pupil.
  2. Display the problem on the projector display screen or read through the problem aloud.
  3. Inform learners of 4 locations in the classroom, 1 that signifies each remedy option. Students ought to transfer to the area in the area that represents their choice.
  4. Encourage 100% participation and remind learners to make their possess selection and not be dependent on what other college students decide on.
  5. Pick out at the very least one particular student from each and every respond to selection to protect their reply verbally, or let teams to talk about the explanation for their option.
  6. When achievable, inspire added discourse and discussion amongst groups to help deepen comprehending of the concept.

Closed Responses

Shut responses could be utilised for Four Corners when the instructor provides queries with only one accurate reply however, this tactic is generally not used for Four Corners.

A greater selection for shut responses would be the Pupil Response Method.

Even so, if you pick to put into action closed responses inside the 4 Corners Strategy, this is what it could appear like:

A third-grade math trainer displays a polygon with the length of every facet labeled and asks learners to determine the perimeter. She gives 4 solution selections, and pupils stand in the corner representing the letter of their option.

Assessment: She can use a knowledge tracker to promptly mark if learners overlook an respond to to figure out their all round accuracy amount following all of the questions have been answered. Even so, you are not possible to get precise facts from a shut question due to the fact if a scholar chooses a completely wrong remedy and sees that most pupils are standing at one more reply choice, they could be more likely to stick to their friends to that reaction.


Open Responses

Open up responses are the usual reaction format for Four Corners, assuming the problem posed could be answered properly by any or most of the four selections specified. The trainer can then tally student responses and demand students from just about every aspect of the argument to justify their responses with evidence or regulations connected to the day’s content material.

Instance: A trainer shows the subsequent figures and asks college students to stand in the corner of the quantity that does not belong.

9 16 25 43

In this particular set of sequences, learners will need to have to determine out how those quantities are related- and there could be extra than a single response. For instance, a single scholar could possibly say that 16 does not belong due to the fact the other figures are all odd. Another scholar, nonetheless, might say that 43 does not belong for the reason that the other numbers could be reduced by its square root. This process allowed for the trainer to support students in practising math analysis in diverse ways and assessment vital principles important for deeper significant wondering.

Assessment: After college students make their remedy option, the instructor can have them full an exit ticket describing their reasoning for their selection or engage in a group discussion. She can then type the pupils into two groups primarily based on their exit tickets: capable to defend sufficiently and not ready to defend.

The Four Corners Approach can also be vital in job-centered pursuits, functions where analysis is crucial, or when you need to practice justifying a response.

Think about a science course that has finished a lab activity and has drawn conclusions. Relying on how college students structured their experiments, different groups could arrive to unique conclusions that they can defend employing knowledge from their experiments.

Take into account analyzing a piece of poetry, a intricate quick story, or chapter. If the examination is advanced, or if the dilemma posed could elicit much more than a person response, pupils will be equipped to independent into two or more corners of the place and then prompt a further discussion and debate on each sides of the argument. For case in point: “Do you think the character was justified in her actions towards her father?”

In artwork, the trainer could display the names of four renowned artists and inquire students to decide on the most significant artist for a certain style, prompting college students to guide a debate on their desired artists and rationale for their worth in the art world.


Very best Utilised When

This approach is most efficient when students need to have to exhibit their reasoning or justification techniques. It will work greatest when the 4 respond to selections could be viewed as appropriate, based on how you review the concern. It lets pupils to get the job done on their conversation skills and will help them see distinct viewpoints they may possibly not have thought of in advance of.

Whilst the Four Corners System is not explicitly essential for these types of justification activities, it offers a new way for learners to interact with the information and allows to have interaction them in a more genuine dialogue. It can be bundled as part of your diversified solutions to verify for knowing in your classroom and included as an extra worthwhile action for your class.

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