Four Colors One Idea

Provide four (or more or less) questions that are to be assessed Each question should be open-ended and open to many possible interpretations Break the students into groups of four (or more, or less depending on the number of questions that you are assessing) Have each student in the group select a different colored pencil that they will use for each question Set up four stations in which the students will rotate through Each student will spend a couple of minutes with each question (not too few that they cannot generate a response, but not too many that they answer they question in too much detail) and they rotate to the next question Allow each student to rotate through each question several times Encourage students to build on the previous answers, elaborate them, expand on them, change them, or disagree with them, DO NOT repeat what others have written Encourage students to show their understanding in a variety of ways; pictures, text, diagrams, images, words, etc. One rule; No Talking

A collective is capable of more than the sum of its parts