Jigsaw Classroom

The Jigsaw Strategy is a cooperative learning technique appropriate for students between 3rd and 12th grade. This strategy is an efficient way of teaching material that also encourages listening, engagement, interaction, teaching, and cooperation by giving each member of the group an essential part to play in the academic activity. The strategy involves breaking the classroom into small groups of four to six students. Each group is responsible for a specific piece of knowledge that they will discuss with other classmates.

Benefits of the Jigsaw Strategy

* Teacher is not the sole provider of knowledge
* Efficient way to learn
* Students take ownership in the work and achievement
* Students are held accountable among their peers
* Learning revolves around interaction with peers
* Students are active participants in the learning process
* Builds interpersonal and interactive skills

Basic Jigsaw Formula

1. Teacher identifies a range of materials related to the topics addressed in the lessons. Consider the students who will be involved in this exercise, and, if necessary, try to identify selections of varying text difficulty and sophistication.

2. Teacher divides students into four to six jigsaw groups, known as the home group, and appoints one student as a leader. The group size should be dependent upon the number of selections to be assigned. The teacher divides the lesson into four to six segments. Each group member receives the task of reading one of the targeted selections. Depending on the nature of the group, the teacher may allocate the specific readings to each person, or the group itself may decide who will tackle which selection.

3. Students read the selections independently. If the materials are photocopied, encourage students to underline important information they will need to share with their group. "Sticky notes" are an option for materials that cannot be written upon. Students may also jot down notes, or follow a graphic note-taking outline provided by the teacher as a means for extracting important concepts from their passage. Students should only have access and knowledge of the text related to their specific reading or assignment.

4. All of the students in the home group are now "experts" on the assigned reading. They meet with their home group and discuss the concepts, highlights, and other information they feel is most important. This group also might also create a summary of key points, a concept map, a graphic outline, or highlighted notes which will be shared with other groups.

5. Members of the home group leave and meet with new, secondary groups. Each member of the new group has key information that no one else in the new, secondary group has. The new groups teach each other what the home group felt to be the most important and relevant information. This is where the jigsaw starts to come together. Members from the separate groups have come together to teach each other their assigned reading. Students are encouraged to "test" one another and ask questions for further clarification.

6. The final piece to the Jigsaw activity involves a return meeting of the original group. During this time, individual group members share in turn the pertinent information they learned from participating the second groups. All the information comes together. The rest of the group is accountable for learning this new information, which will be assessed during the evaluation of this unit of study.

Jigsaw Examples in the Classroom

World War Two

First, divide the class into equal groups of five. Each group will be responsible for a different task. Group One will research Hitler's rise to power. Group Two will uncover the devastation of concentration camps. Group Three will cover Britain's role in the war. Group Four will uncover the contribution of the Soviet Union to World War Two, and, finally, Group Five will research Japan's entry into the war. Collectively, the group will gather and discuss information on their task.

For phase two of Jigsaw, each group member will be reassigned to a different group with fellow students that collected information on a different task. As a new formation, they will come together to share and piece together information on World War Two. Each student will take time to share their collective data, and, as a whole, the group will discuss how each event contributed to making the war.

The Raven

First, the class will be divided into five concept groups. The concepts include alliteration, consonance, rhyme, symbolism,and repetition.

Each concept group will read the poem together and collect information regarding their concept. Three specific examples from "The Raven" must support a definition of the concept at hand.

For phase two of Jigsaw, the students will move into different groups with members who worked on different concepts of the poem. Each group member is responsible for teaching the others their definition and concept examples. Then, as a whole, the students will discuss each concept and how they relate to "The Raven," and its overall meaning.

Definition of a Fairy Tale

First, students are to be divided into equal groups of five. Each group will be assigned a specific fairy tale to read such as "The Ugly Duckling," "Snow White," "Hansel and Gretel," "Jack and the Bean Stalk," and "The Three Little Pigs."

The groups were then responsible for answering the following questions: who are the characters in the story, where does the story take place,what are the major events of the story,are there supernatural or magical events that take place, and if so, what are they?The students will then read, discuss, and record their findings.

For phase two of Jigsaw, new groups will be assigned with students who analyzed different fairy tales. Each student will have about three minutes to discuss and share the information on their fairy tale. Finally, the groups will create a poster board to share with the class that reflects on what the five fairy tales have in common, and what their personal definitions of a fairy tale are.

History of Jigsaw

Eliot Aronson began his research for the jigsaw classroom in an attempt to limit student competition and racial segregation in the classrooms of Austin, Texas. The city had been desegregated and thus arose the need for intervention within the schools. As African American, Hispanic, and white students were in the classroom together for the first time, a situation of turmoil threatened their learning environment. Aronson and a group of graduate students created the jigsaw, and in 1971 they took it into the classroom. The endeavor was successful. Less engaged students became engaged, and the children began to work together.

The experiment involved forming learning groups (jigsaw groups) where each student relied on other students in their group to acquire information necessary to succeed on an exam. The groups were racially integrated and required cooperation between members in order to achieve academic success.

When compared to traditional classrooms where students competed individually, students in the cooperative jigsaw groups demonstrated lower discrimination, fewer stereotyped attitudes, and higher academic achievement.

Resources

* [http://www.jigsaw.org/ Jigsaw.org]
* [http://www.pgcps.org/~elc/learning1.html Prince George's County Public Schools]
* [http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/cooplear.html Ed.gov]
* [http://www.weac.org/news/feb97/read.htm Wisconsin Education Association Council]
* [http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr324.shtml Education World]
* [http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/practice/itc/lessons/dnjigsaw.html Sample Lessons and Activities]
* [http://jigsaw.org/overview.htm Jigsaw Classroom]

See also

*Cooperative Learning
*Collaborative Learning

External links

* [http://www.jigsaw.org/about.htm Aronson's home page]
* [http://www.libraryinstruction.com/jigsaw.html Encouraging Community in Library Instruction: A Jigsaw Experiment in a University Library Skills Classroom]