The four square writing method is a way for teaching writing to children in school. While primarily used to teach

persuasive writing Persuasive writing is any written communication with the intention to convince or influence readers to believe in an idea or opinion and to do an action. Many writings such as criticisms, reviews, reaction papers, editorials, proposals, advertise ...

, it has also been used to help teach

deconstruction The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...

. The method was developed by Judith S. Gould and Evan Jay Gould. It was developed initially for primary school students, but it has also been used in high school classes.

Method

The method is primarily a visual framework for assisting students with formulating ideas in an organized manner prior to writing an essay. The concept generally works as follows: # A large

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

is drawn and divided into four smaller squares of equal size. An additional

rectangle In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containi ...

is drawn in the center of the figure overlapping each of the other four squares. A total of five rectangles are thus created. # The student writes a complete topic sentence in the center rectangle. # Then, the student writes three sentences that develop the thesis of the central topic, placing one in each of the following squares: upper-left, upper-right, and lower-left. The upper-left square contains the opening supportive sentence, and the next two squares contain other supporting information. # Finally, the student writes a

summary may refer to: * Abstract (summary), shortening a passage or a write-up without changing its meaning but by using different words and sentences * Epitome, a summary or miniature form * Abridgement, the act of reducing a written work into a sho ...

sentence in the lower-right square. The summary sentence describes how the reader is intended to feel about the topic. Variations of the above rules may require more or less development in each of the rectangles, depending on the grade-level or maturity of the student.

Results

Results show a consistent increase in the ability of students to write persuasively. A study at Springview Elementary School, in Allendale Charter Township,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, noted, "significant growth was observed in the students' writings in both classes." Another study, carried out at American Senior High School in

Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

with older students, showed an increase in FCAT scores, though not as marked as the Michigan grade school students. It was noted that one teacher had remarkably more success with the program than others, and that teachers must be trained thoroughly to get best results from this method. Kingsley Elementary School in Kingsport, Tennessee also tested the four square writing method. After teaching students using the method, the students' writing scores increased by 49 percentage points in the first year. The same students used it again the next year, and their scores went up an additional nine percentage points.

Four square series

In 1999, Judith S. Gould and Evan Jay Gould wrote the first book in a series dedicated to the four square writing method. This series is published by the Teaching & Learning Company, a Lorenz Educational Press company. As of February 2014, the series includes 16 books, 2 poster papers, and a set of wall charts.

References

{{Reflist Early childhood education Infographics