Quadrant of Quality

Quadrant of Quality Anchor Chart from my fifth grade classroom. The activity was adapted from the sorts of visual rubrics I would use in my kindergarten classes prior to teaching fifth grade. Iliana Gutierrez (cc) 2014

Overview: Students and teacher will be able to analyze the features of what makes a compelling final product as they move through a progression of adding details, revising, and extending the arc of thought.

Quadrant One: Basic

Prepare your anchor chart by drawing out four blank quadrants on a large sheet of paper. Begin by drawing a picture of a plain house that is missing a lot of the typical features that would offer context about location, season, and other surrounding elements. After drawing the first quadrant's house (in a single color, usually black), I would often start out the activity with the following introduction:

Not too long ago, I was doodling on a sheet of paper. One of the pictures I ended up drawing was a house that looked very much like this one. Suddenly, it dawned on me that ever since kindergarten, I had been drawing my houses just like this one. Without fail, my houses had the same pointy roof, the same two windows on the side and a walkway. What I had noticed in that moment was how much was missing! So, I thought that we might be able to work together to design a new house—one that adds a bit more detail and offers more of a story about where this house is, who might be living here, and anything else we can think of. I'll get us started on a second house and we can build from there.

Quadrant Two: Basic with Basic Details

In the second quadrant, redraw the basic features of the first quadrant. Ask students what other features might be added. Include their suggestions, but be sure to draw the items as rudimentarily as possible. By looking at the image of the second quadrant in the anchor chart above, you can see that there are a few flowers, a stick figure, and a chimney with some smoke emerging (no color has been added). These features add a bit of detail, but it is usually quite evident to students that the image lacks vitality and could still be improved. 

Alright, so I've redrawn the house and, based off your suggestions, I've added a person, a few flowers, and we even have a chimney with smoke coming out of it! What do you all think? 

At this point, students usually start to get more specific about their suggestions. Some might point out that the flowers could be drawn in color, and in fact, the whole image could be drawn in color. Some might note that even if I couldn't draw people very well, I could at least try to give him some clothes!

Quadrant Three: Details and Flare

At this stage, the goal for Quadrant Three is to incorporate students' suggestions for how we can "bump up" our picture. I purposely keep the same structure of the house and I build off their suggestions by asking additional questions. Our conversation at this point looks something like this:

Me: In Quadrant Two, some of you mentioned that I could add some color to our picture, so let's redraw our beautiful flowers with some color. How about a nice tulip garden at the front of the lawn so people walking down the sidewalk can admire them? 

Student #1: And a tree! Lots of lawns have trees.  

Me: Great idea. Let's add a tree in this empty space next to the house. Are there any details we can add to the house? 

Student #2: Well, most roofs have tiles on them.

Me: That's right! And there are a few styles of tiles, aren't there? There are the brown, rough kinds, and there are even those red Spanish tiles.  Which one shall we draw on our house?

Student #2: How about the red tiles!

The dialogue proceeds as students offer suggestions to include things such as a mail slot, an address, some additional windows... I remember one particularly interesting turn occurred after one student suggested that we draw a car in the driveway:

Student #3: We should add a car!

Student #4: And that means we should add a garage!

Student #5: Does this mean that someone is at home?  

Me: That is a very good question...what do you all think? [Students nod] How should we show that someone might be at home, then? 

Student #5: We could put lights on that shine through the window...

Student #6: And someone could be looking out the window...

What had struck me was how students had reached a point of drawing inferences from the picture. Aspects of the drawing were no longer mere pictures but sources of visual information.

Quadrant Four: Above and Beyond

Quadrant Four is where real magic seems to happen. Before moving on to drawing Quadrant Four, tell students that we're going to reflect for a moment before continuing. Ask them to close their eyes. This is the point where students are encouraged to "extend the arc of thought" by contemplating all sorts of possibilities that could be explored in our drawing.

With our eyes closed, I want us all to take a moment to imagine the house we've created. We know that someone is at home, and that they have a light on...maybe they are reading a book, or finishing a puzzle. The post officer might have just dropped off some letters through the mail slot and now there's a little pile of letters on the floor.  There's smoke coming out of the chimney...can you smell that toasty smell? Now wait a minute...what might the smoke tell us? If there's smoke coming out of the chimney, what season might it be? What does this mean for the trees? Is there a big pile of dried leaves the children have been jumping in? And what about the house? Think of all the houses you've ever seen. Think of your drive to school and the sorts of houses you see on the way. Think of other countries you might have visited or seen in films and what those houses look like. Think of apartments on other planets, castles from fantasy stories, cottages from fairy tales.... 

At this point, an entirely new image is possible, for not only have we built off the possibilities of our existing image, we have also imagined new worlds. In the anchor chart above, you can see the "modern-style" beach house the students invented...the sea breeze...the porches for admiring the sunset...the children's bedrooms, and their playroom upstairs... In the anchor chart from a previous year, students envisioned a turreted mansion, a trellised entrance with wisterias in bloom, an ornate dog house, and a picket fence. What is striking from both images is not so much their difference of details, but their similarities in how such elaborate visual information seems to bring the image to life.

Reflecting on the Process

Just as important as exploring the process of drawing the four images is the element of reflecting on the process itself. The main goal of this activity is not to prescribe a standard of excellence, but rather to begin a conversation about how we can create our own personal standards of excellence. Each quadrant offers the promise of further expansion.  

What an intricate and detailed image we have created! I can just imagine swimming at the beach and taking a break to have to have a cool lemonade from the house. Now that we have finished our drawing, let's take a moment to think about how we got here. What have you all noticed about how we built our image?

Students may give a variety of responses that include adding detail, taking a moment to reflect and imagine, asking questions about what something might suggest (like a car in the driveway). The authentic inquiry of what it means to create quality work contributes to a classroom culture that values process. Furthermore, students and teacher can begin to create a communal reference point so that conversations about how to make something "better" can point to some concrete means of improvement.  The conversation can be continued over time by analyzing single works in various subjects and assessing their strengths and areas for improvement.

By going through different stages of construction, we emphasize the dynamic nature of creation. We can show that we build off our previous ideas, no matter how basic they may appear at the start. We emphasize the sorts of revisions and slow development that even our great master creators employ in their own works.  Once students are privy to the methods of process, they are equipped with the means to then deconstruct how an intricate product is achieved. 

Quadrant of Quality from another of my fifth grade classes. Iliana Gutierrez (cc) 2013

Additional Resources

Watch how second grade teacher Jenna Gampel fosters a culture where process, quality, and authentic learning come together in the video series by EL Education.

Check out EL Education's "Attributes of High Quality Work" as they highlight the "general qualities across high-quality work." Three areas—complexity, craftsmanship, and authenticity—offer a rich area for considering what makes quality work.