Four Corners: Who's Correct

For this weeks post I wanted to post something that could be used as an informal assessment. Through my research I came a cross a book called A to Z engaging math activities. The author of this book is The Routty Math Teacher. Many of her resources are on Teachers pay Teachers and Pinterest. The specific activity I wanted to highlight is Four Corners: Who's correct?

How it works:

1. Choose a problem centered around skill on which you are currently working
2. Show four different solutions to the problem, each labeled with a fictitious student's name, one for each corner of the room
3. Ask students to complete the problem individually\
4. Once all students have completed the problem, have them go to the corner of the room for the student whose response they believe to be correct and most closely matches he solution they believe to be correct and most closely matched the solution the have
5. After all of the students are in place, in turn, ask each corner to justify why their fictitious student's response is correct

As students listen to the justifications, they should be able to determine the correct response, if not, have the groups discuss why they believe the other responses to be incorrect until a class consensus can be reached. 

Example: 

Three students are working on this problem after school at the YMCA:

6+3[(4+5)-1]+(12/2)

Each student recorded a different answer for the first step. Who is correct?

Marco: 9 [(4+5)-1]+(12/6)

Domonique: 6+3 [(4+5)-1]+(2)

Alex: 6+3[9-1]+(12/6)

Sharon: 6+[(12+5)-1]+(12/6)

Reflection:

This would be an activity I would use for one of my small groups. It would be fun the hear the students attempt to justify there answers and reasons. I am big on engaging students on math in as many different ways as possible. I believe getting students to really analyze questions in this matter, will engage them and push them to really think about the steps needed to solve the problem. Another thing I love about this activity is that it can be used in any grade. It aligns with math practice 3(MP.3) which is to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.