ABSTRACT
Four Corners is an "oldie but goodie" for formative assessment. An important caveat here is that teachers who use prompts with concrete answers often report that rather than determining the answers on their own, students who are unsure of the answer usually "follow the crowd." This can make it hard for the teacher to know what the students really understand. The teacher can also have students work together to create a one-minute persuasive presentation to convince others to join their corners. The teacher will need to show students how to move around the room safely. It is important that in addition to noting where students choose to stand around the room, the teacher also listens to students as they provide their explanations, or for older students, read their explanations and summaries of their discussions in their corners. The teacher should use this information to reteach and remediate with either individuals or the whole class as necessary.
