A Cooperative Learning Instructional Strategy

Poster by Anna Ward

Four Corners is a cooperative learning strategy well-suited for introducing

a new topic of study or new chapter of
text. It encourages students to work together to develop ideas and answer
teacher-selected questions. Four Corners
can be used to help students express
opinions or generate ideas about a given
topic.

What is it?

Directions
1. Write a question, idea, topic, or opinion on chart paper
2. Create a chart paper question or topic for
each corner of the classroom
3. Divide the students into four groups, giving
each group a different colored marker
4. Each group start in a different corner, having
a designated recorder writing their ideas
about the topic on the chart paper
5. Have groups rotate clockwise, reading the
responses and adding their own ideas to the
chart paper
6. The activity should take 2-4 minutes
(Bilingual and Compensatory Education Resource Team, 2002)

Why Four Corners is Great

In addition to introducing new topics, Four Corners can also be

used as an activity to gauge students feelings or opinions about a
topic. The corners would be labeled agree, strongly agree, disagree,
and strongly disagree. The teacher will read a statement aloud, and
students will move to the corner that best represents their opinion
(AEA, 2007)
Four Corners is an instructional
strategy recommended for the SIOP
model of instruction; this is a strategy
approved to use with ELL students to
make content comprehensible (Bilingual
and Compensatory Education Resource
Team, 2002)

This strategy allows for collaboration

and interaction between students

Four Corners also allows the teacher to learn more about his/her students

This is a quick activity that could be

extended according to the needs of a
particular class

Teachers can adapt this for any subject; it is most commonly used for
articulating opinions and teaching vocabulary

Class discussion as well as instruction can stem from Four Corners

References
Bilingual and Compensatory Education Resource Team. (2002, January 1). Making content comprehensible for english language learners-SIOP
model sheltered instruction- for academic achievement. Retrieved November 19, 2014, from https://www.scribd.com/doc/22730539/SIOPModel-Making-Content-Comprehensible-Complete-Document
Area Education Agency. (2007)Procedure for four corners. (2007). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from https://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/system/
assets/uploads/files/739/4corners_t.pdf