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Jigsaw

Materials required
Implementation procedure
Strategy in practice

None

  1. Divide the students into groups of 3, 4, or 5. Introduce these as their "home" groups.

  2. Provide a question or statement prompt to the students.

  3. Reorganize the students into "expert" groups. In each of the expert groups, students are tasked with developing a strong understanding of a certain concept assigned to them. Then, they will go back and share their understanding with their respective home groups.

  4. Allocate a certain amount of time for expert group discussion, and then prompt students to return to their home groups.

  5. Allocate time and encourage students in the home groups to share their expertise with one another.

Vikram teaches economics to sixth graders. Today’s class is about climatic changes in different parts of the world. At the beginning of the class activity, he divides the class into groups of four. Each member of the group takes on one role: a person living in Asia, Middle East, Europe, and America. He then presents the question prompt on the screen: What are the key factors that can determine trade in different parts of the world?

After five minutes of initial discussion within the home group, the students reorganize themselves into expert groups based on the regions that they have selected. These expert groups spend 10 minutes discussing the different factors that can affect trade in their region. The group ensures that all members have developed a good understanding of these factors.

 

At the end of the 15 minutes, the experts return to their home groups and each of them discusses the factors that they have concluded affect trade in their respective regions. At the end of the activity, Vikram elicits questions and thoughts from all the students and then leads the class into a more focused and comprehensive discussion touching upon all the factors that affect trade in the world.

References:

Filkins, S. Using the jigsaw cooperative learning technique. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-jigsaw-cooperative-learning-30599.html

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