Jigsaw

Jigsaw = CRT, SEL, Learning

For those who have been in education for a significant period of time, we’re aware of educational fads. Some lack scientific merit or are at best badly misconstrued--multiple intelligences, zero tolerance, tracking and whole language. Unfortunately, employing some of these fads actually harms children, especially those who are most vulnerable. Conversely, there are other times that we’re too slow to act; I would include addressing racial disparities and meeting the needs of special education students as two examples.

Sometimes it’s the tried and true approaches that, when used correctly, are what’s best for students. Examples include summarization (.79 effect size according to John Hattie), phonics (.70), classroom discussion (.82) and the Jigsaw Method (1.20).

Jigsaw is a multi-step process that was invented by Elliot Aronson and his graduate students at the University of Texas-Austin in 1971 not as an instructional strategy but as

a matter of absolute necessity to help diffuse an explosive situation. The city’s schools had recently been desegregated, and because Austin had always been racially segregated, white youngsters, Africa-American youngsters, and Hispanic youngsters found themselves in the same classrooms for the first time.

Within a few weeks, long-standing suspicion, fear, and district between groups produced an atmosphere of turmoil and hostility. Fist-fights erupted in corridors and schoolyards across the city. The school superintendent called me in to see if we could do anything to help students get along with one another. After observing what was going on in classrooms for a few days, my students and I concluded that inter-group hostility was being fueled by the competitive environment of the classroom.

In the almost half-century since its inception, Jigsaw has proven to be robust at addressing social-emotional needs (reducing absenteeism, improving intrinsic motivation, improving attitudes towards peers) and improving learning outcomes.


Like all assignments and instructional strategies, Jigsaw has times when it works best with clearly defined learning intentions. It tends to work best when students are to analyze evidence, apply reasoning and build on prior knowledge, while knowing every single detail of the reading is not vital.

Step 1: Divide and Conquer

  1. Divide students into groups of 4-6, ideally with the same number of students in each Jigsaw team.
  2. Divide the content into the same number. If you have groups of 4, you will have 4 chunks of material.
  3. Assign one chunk of content to each person in each Jigsaw group so that each group has one person responsible for the one part of the content.
  4. Explain to each chunked group what they are responsible for learning.

Step 2: Expert Groups

  1. Understanding what they are reading for (the learning intention), students read their article individually.
  2. After each student has read the article independently, they meet in their expert groups. Expert groups are all the other students who have been assigned the same section of reading. So all students who were assigned the 2nd part, will meet with the other students who read the 2nd part.
  3. In their expert groups, students compare their ideas and work together to prepare a presentation to give to their original Jigsaw team. Students should be checking themselves and their expert group members against the learning intention, clearing up any misconceptions, and ensuring all members understand and are ready to return to their Jigsaw teams.
  4. At this stage, it may be helpful as the teacher to provide discussion questions or prompts to students

Step 3: Jigsaw Teams

  1. Students return from their expert groups to their original Jigsaw teams.
  2. Each student presents their information while their teammates listen, take notes and ask clarifying questions.
  3. Rotate through all members of the team.
  4. In this stage, students should discuss how the interrelation of the various chunks, achieving an understanding how how their passage fits into the whole text.

Step 4: Assessment

  1. Assess ALL members of the team being sure to include questions from all the chunks.

Tips

  • Each student only needs to have access to their chunked segment.
  • This is a part-to-whole instructional strategy. It is beneficial for students to have an understanding of the big picture and necessary background knowledge prior to the Jigsaw.
  • Jigsaw helps students understand complex texts and can improve student comprehension.
  • It can easily be adapted for students who are less ready. Frequently, portions of the reading may be easier to comprehend, enabling you to group students this way. Scaffolds can also easily be used (graphic organizer, reading prompts, text to speech availability) and students will learn from their expert groups.
  • If students cannot be divided evenly, have one or two groups double-up. For example, if you have 4 groups of 4 and group 5 has 5 students, have 2 students in group 5 double-up. This is also another way to support a struggling learner.

Jigsaw is a highly structured process with interdependent tasks that requires students to be active readers and participants in their learning and the learning of their peers.

Connecting with Students (2.5)

There were some great suggestions from our November asynchronous faculty meeting where we asked, “What strategy or activity have you used to connect with your students or have them connect with each other?” Here’s a pdf of your answers. And several have asked to continue the conversation, so here’s a Jamboard to further the conversation and continue our learning.

And here’s an article that came out in early December: What has actually worked for building student relationships this year

Tasks/Important Information

To help us better plan for instruction and student/staff safety, we are asking for all teachers to complete this form. This will help us determine teacher availability, room usage, etc. We are not using this form for any other purposes.

Separately, ADA and non-ADA requests regarding return to work must be made by December 17. Please see this Compass article.

Staff party on December 17 (see Cass’s email)

End of Semester Actions and Dates and Exam and Other Information

ACPS Stage 4 Instructional Planning Guide

Notes from department liaison meeting

https://bit.ly/WAHSannounce To request an announcement, calendar event, etc. 

 

https://bit.ly/TWCStuRec Together We Care Student Recognition

Birthdays

December 20: Darren Maynard

December 23: Dawn Tinder

December 29: Jason Lee

January 1:Caroline Bertrand 

January 2: Anna Green

January 3: Taylor Holder

Worth Your Time

10 most significant education studies of 2020

Podcast: Colors: a dialogue of race in America



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