Four-Two-One

Purpose:  : To engage students in reflecting, evaluating, and integrating their own learning into prior knowledge.

Description: Four-Two-One uses learning partners or small teams to foster in-depth reflection and integration of significant information.

Procedure: 

  1. Ask students to individually generate four words that capture the most important aspects of the learning experience.
  2. Share, with learning partners or in small teams, their four words and compile a list of the words they have in common. From this list, determine two words that they agree capture the most important aspects.
  3. Determine the 1 word or big idea that best represents the most important learning of the experience.
  4. Share the various lists generated by their group in order for the whole class to make as many learning connections as possible.

Hint: As a variation of this activity, have the students to generate phrases or sentences instead of words.

Rogers, S., Ludington, J., & Graham, S. (1999). Motivation and learning: A teacher's guide to building excitement for learning and igniting the drive for quality. Evergreen, CO: Peak Learning Systems.

FourTwoOne Activity Sheet 

 

from Instructional Strategies for Engaging Learners
Guilford County Schools TF, 2002

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