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Jigsaw

Page history last edited by Lisa Holton 15 years, 9 months ago

Jigsaw

Contributed by Lisa Holton

 

 

 

Rationale

 

 Cooperative learning is well established as a successful strategy for student instruction when it is well planned and thoughtfully carried out. The Jigsaw and Jigsaw II strategies are cooperative learning strategies that encourage student responsibility, teamwork, and listening and questioning skills (Alvermann, 2007, p73).  When students are grouped heterogeneously and presented with motivating topics and texts, students learn more because they act as peer tutors and are actively engaged with the text (Alvermann, 2007, p72). This is a flexible strategy that can be used for nearly any topic and purpose where students are able to learn and teach each other. All content areas can benefit from a strategy like Jigsaw because it lends itself to so many variations that allow students to take advantage of each other's knowledge.

 

 

Procedure

 

 

INSTRUCTION:

1.       Divide students into groups of 5-6 (use your student knowledge to determine groups that will function well, but strive toward heterogeneous groups of mixed ability and culture)

2.       Explain that each member of the group will get a different piece to today’s lesson, like a puzzle. Each person is responsible for learning his/her part. Assign responsibilities. Tierney (2005) suggests the teacher create “Expert” sheets that list the information to be read, purpose-setting questions, and tells them which group they will work with. (This can be adapted to your class needs)

3.       Allow group members with like-responsibilities to gather and discuss their text. They should help each other to decide the most effective way to teach the rest of their groups as well as anticipate questions that they may have to answer.

4.       Return to the original 5-6 member groupings and allow students teach what they have learned.

5.       Assessment can fit your needs, but all students should be assessed on all of the content.

**Jigsaw II** (a modification)

1.       Divide students into teams of 4-6

2.       Provide one text and assign parts of that text to each student. His/her responsibility is to become an “expert” on that section and be able to instruct/teach the rest of the group that content.

3.       Students with like-sections of the text meet to discuss, as above in #3

4.       Students return to their original groups and share their ‘expert’ knowledge on the topic.

5.       Assessment is flexible depending on your purpose, but all students should be assessed on all content.

Words of caution: Keep in mind that student absences can be very detrimental to the success of this activity since students are depending on one another to learn the content. Additionally, student ability levels need to be carefully weighed so that collaborative learning does not turn into a negative or overwhelming experience. Consider pairing students as a way to keep the tempo at an appropriate level and still provide a feeling of success for all students. Also, be sure to sum up all the major points of the learning (before or after assessment is up to you) to be sure that gaps in learning are not left unattended.

 

RESOURCES

Alvermann, Donna, et. al.  (2007). Content Area Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today's Diverse Classrooms (5th ed).  Boston: Pearson.

 

Procedures Added by Others

Reading from different perspectives and jigsaw can be combined in a great activity using the book, The Pearl, by John Steinbeck in my world studies class.  Here's how:

 

A.  Students are assigned to one of five groups and asked to read the same section of the book from the perspective of different characters within the book.  For example, there is a section of the book where Kino, Juana, and the townsperople go into the city and try to sell Kino's newly discovered pearl.  Groups would be assigned one of the following characters and asked to read the section of the book from the perspective of that character.  The characters would be:  Kino, Juana, the townspeople, the pearl sellers, and the pearl manager.  Several guiding questions would be posed to students and as they read the section of the book, they would write down the answers to these questions in their notebooks.  Groups are encouraged to discuss and share their perspectives and answers to the guiding questions as they read.

 

B.  Jigsaw would ensue when the reading has been done and questions have been answered.  One person from each group would join one person from each other group, therefore creating a new group of students that all read the section of the book from a different perspective.  Students would engage in discussion about the guiding questions from the perspective of their own character.  Students would be encouraged to take notes and discuss the guiding questions with the members of their new group.

(Contributed by Joel G.)

 

 

 

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