Jigsaw

Procedure

A jigsaw has 4 main parts:

1. Individual Research

2. Expert Groups

3. Synthesis Groups

4. Assessment

1. Decide upon the content to teach.  Best to choose content that can be broken up into 4 to 6 parts, where each part is mostly independent of the other parts.  For example, in a history course, you could break your 4 parts up into 4 decades of the time period you are studying.  Or you could select 4 famous decision makers.  The most common number is 4, because many teachers prefer groups of 4.

2. The number of parts should be the same as the number of students in each group.

3. Group students into groups of 4-6

4. Either assign, or have students choose each part/topic.  For example, student 1 might study on the 1920’s, student 2 studies the 1930’s, and so on.

5. Phase 1: Individual Research:  Each student studies his/her part.  They can do so with the internet, or resources you have curated.  They typically take notes.

6. Phase 2: Expert groups.  Rearrange the classroom, so that all the students who were studying the same topic are in a large group.   If you have 4 topics, you will have 4 large groups.  In this group, all the individuals must agree on the most important facts and features of their topic, and they must decide how to teach the topic to others.

7. Phase 3:  Synthesis Groups.   Once they are done in expert groups, students go back to their original group.  Each student then teaches the rest of the group about their topic.

8. Phase 4: Assessment.  Every student gets some kind assessment that addresses all topics.  This can be a quiz, or a simple writing exercise.