Picking Corners

Our class had spent the previous four weeks exploring whether Lincoln was most responsible for freeing enslaved people, or whether enslaved people had freed themselves. We’d started a “four-corners” activity. I’d labeled each of the four corners of the room, “Strongly agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly Disagree.” I had then projected a statement onto the board, “It was NOT Lincoln, enslaved people freed themselves.”All 23 students in the class moved to the “Strongly Disagree” corner of the room. In other words, they all agreed that Lincoln freed the slaves. 

I had anticipated that some would agree and some would disagree with the statement, since the sources we’d explored in previous weeks presented both perspectives. When I saw everyone in one corner, I was shocked—I couldn’t believe that all of my students believed the same thing. This had never happened. I was questioning whether or not they truly understood the argument and the implications of the corner that they picked. But, I was very curious to hear their reasoning. I thought that maybe I could bring different perspectives into the discussion so that students could develop more nuanced understandings of the question. At the same time, I did not want to make students feel that I was trying to convince them to go to a different corner with my personal opinions.