Jigsaw is a team structure that an informal structure that can be used to teach content and can be utilised as a cross session structure. It is seen by some as the showcase structure of what Cooperative Learning can do. Essentially each student in a team is assigned an inquiry question to research and answer based on the overall topic. The student meets with other team's students with the same question to collaborate and then return to their own team to report back.
Jigsaw
(Teams Structure)
STEP BY STEP - Jigsaw
(Team Structure)
(1) The class is given a content topic that can be broken into subtopics.
(2) Every student in a team is given one of four inquiry questions based on the subtopic.
(3) The student meets with the other team students with the same inquiry question to research, discuss and record content about
their question.
(4) After a specificied time ranging from 10 minutes to mulitple lessons, students return to their own teams.
(5) Each student teaches his/her team what they have learnt and each team member records the information and asks questions
where appropriate.
(6) Optionally, the team can synthesise the information into a single report.
Life of a music artist
Making paper planes
African animals
Cohesion
Famous mathematicians
Finding volume of shapes
Math
Famous poets
Traits of writing
Spelling strategies
Story Starter types
Comprehension strategies
Literacy
Science
Types of elements
Planets
Hints for Effective Jigsaws
Make sure you discuss why the students are doing the Jigsaw structure (ie to learn to investigate a topic and present oyur findings to a team for integration into a project).
Aways introduce the Jigsaw structure with a fun topic that has no"wrong" answers so that sutdents understand how it works without feeling threatened.
You should always start with content - what you want to teach - and then choose your structure. If Jigsaw doesn't fit your content, find another structure.