I really enjoyed the jigsaw activity. It allows students to learn a variety of information through other mediums than PowerPoint. Students are given the opportunity to master the primary source they are given and then relay and teach the information back to their group. Along the lines of what Dr. Stohr said about her son and his hatred during social studies, that was exactly me in middle and high school. I do not remember any fun activity we did in class. I only remember PowerPoints including dates, names, and places. I think it is important to point out that activities like the jigsaw activity or even read aloud picture books should be utilized in middle school and even high school. High school students would be able to glean ample amounts of information from these activities that go beyond reading their textbook and regurgitating that information on a monthly test. I am excited to use activities like the jigsaw in my future classrooms to turn around the stigma of education being boring and not worth students’ time. My question is how often should you implement the jigsaw activity in your classroom? I understand that it takes ample time to organize so is it something you do once each unit?
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Hi Sophia,
I would like to respond to your question: “My question is how often should you implement the jigsaw activity in your classroom? I understand that it takes ample time to organize so is it something you do once each unit?” Ideally, you could implement one time per nine weeks. After students learn the process during the first nine weeks they will become experts at the process by the end of the year. Also setting the expectation early on that they will have to do this activity one time per nine week will prepare them. It is important to note however, that the teacher should really take time to prepare an interesting and meaningful jigsaw activity so that all students are interested and excited to share out what they learn.
Thank you for your reflection. Lynne
I think Lynne is right. In using the jigsaw strategy you are asking students to become experts and teach each other. That means that students must be reliable and depend on one another. I think using this strategy once a marking period is reasonable.
I am also glad that you recognize that some of the strategies we have modeled in class should also be used at the middle and high school level. These students deserve to be engaged just as much as our elementary students.