(Sorry for the lack of, well, everything. Power was nonexistant. And much to my dismay, the computer and internet just don't work without power. On to the pertinant items---)
Today in my Curriculum Design class, I was asked to present how to perform a Jigsaw activity. I felt that this would be a good topic for my blog tonight, especially as a way to target both the good and bad parts of this activity.
I have thoroughly enjoyed using Jigsaws in my classroom during the past two rotations. It allows me some time to sit back and gather myself while the students take the oppotunity to teach each other. The students are put in the position of being held responsible for their own learning. Of course, I monitor their progress and help to keep them on track, making sure they don't leave out the "big points" of the text, which can happen sometimes. (That's the problem with textbooks, but we'll leave that discussion for another day...)
Basically, a Jigsaw works like such:
1. Have the students number off, depending on how many students are in the class and how many topics you want them to cover.
I have found the groups of no more than four work best but in most of today's classrooms this is not a possibility. I have had them work in groups of up to six, but this can be too much. In cases like this, divide the class in half and then number them off. Either way, they still have to be responsible for the learning.
2. Have the students group up according to their number (eg. all ones together, all twos together, etc.)
When the students group up, take the opportunity to move students accordingly. I have more than once moved students to other groups simply because I knew that disaster was lurking around the corner with the students in that group. (Sometimes I do not know which is worse: the chatters or the nit-pickers!)
3. Give each group time to discuss the important points pertaining to their topic.
This is where the students begin to teach themselves, with the guidence of the teacher who monitors and adjusts as needed. Students should become an expert on their topic so that they could get up in front of the room and teach the entire class about that subject. No other student, except those in their group, know about this subject. This part of the activity can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes to 1-2 class periods depending on the topic, whether or not the students have had the information before, etc.
4. Once students become experts, students will now make new groups with one member from each original group.
Each group should have a 1, 2, 3, etc., depending on how many groups/students there were in the class. Students now teach each other the information that they became experts on, while the other students listen and learn about the other topics in the group.
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Positives | Negatives |
-The Teacher gets a break! -Students are held accountable for their learning -Students get to interact with each other -This activity can be tweaked to fit any type of situation in the classroom -Perfect for days when lecture was planned but many students are absent, especially since it works best with small groups -Adding visual aids can make it more hands-on and help visual learners | -Students can get off task easily if not monitored, varying largely on the age group -Students have a tendency to simply copy the notes directly from another students paper instead of really listening to what they are being taught -You can fix the above problem by skipping step 4 and just having each group present to the class (Wish I had thought of this for my 7th hour!) |
I hope this activity can be as successful in your classroom as it has been in mine. Many teachers struggle to successfully implement this activity because they do not fully understand how the activity should play out or do not know their content as well as they should. *This has happened to me.
Once you have a basic understanding of how a jigsaw works and you know that it can successfully play out in your classroom, feel free to tweak it to your liking. Some examples of how I have used it:
-Pick the headings from the textbook section you are covering and have the students make a large poster to help present to the class. (My students loved that this was available to them on the walls of the classroom on the day of the open note quiz!)
-When we talked about sharecropping, I tweaked the jigsaw layout to have students play the different roles involved with sharecropping (sharecropper, landowner, general store owner). This was my most successful activity to date!
I hope this helps someone, somewhere---
-Kalisa
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