How to Play Jigsaw? Jigsaw is an online puzzle game. Select a difficulty level before you attempt to put together each puzzle. Zoom in on the pieces for a closer look or press the grid button to rearrange the pieces. USE THE MOUSE to look for pieces. LEFT CLICK AND DRAG to move a piece. RELEASE to drop it into a particular spot. Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy that enables each student of a 'home' group to specialize in one aspect of a topic (for example, one group studies habitats of rainforest animals, another group studies predators of rainforest animals). Students meet with members from other groups who are assigned the same aspect, and after mastering the material, return to the 'home' group and teach. Why should we play room escape games? Room escape games are a great opportunity to try your skills for concentration and focus. Learn the importance of a well-placed question and how to solve a puzzle, a mystery or even an entire room from where we need to escape.

http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-jigsaw-cooperative-learning-30599.html

Contribute to ReadWriteThink / RSS / FAQs / Site Demonstrations / Contact Us / About Us

Our lesson plans are written and reviewed by educators using current research and the best instructional practices and are aligned to state and national standards. Choose from hundreds of topics and strategies.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

Teacher Resources by Grade

Home › Professional Development › Strategy Guides

Strategy Guide

Jigsaw Text Game Wireless Room Cheating

E-mail / Share / Print This Page / Print All Materials (Note: Handouts must be printed separately)

DIGG

FACEBOOK

REDDIT

STUMBLEUPON

DEL.ICIO.US

NEWSVINE

TWITTER

Jigsaw Text Game Wireless Room Cheats

ABOUT THIS STRATEGY GUIDE

COMMENTS (1)

In this strategy guide, you will learn how to organize students and texts to allow for learning that meets the diverse needs of students but keeps student groups flexible.

The research that originally gave credibility to the jigsaw approach—creating heterogeneous groups of students, diving them into new groups to become expert on a topic, and then returning them to their home groups—touted its value as a means of creating positive interdependence in the classroom and improving students’ attitudes toward school and each other (92).

The structure it provides also lends itself naturally to differentiating instruction. Because learning experiences can be differentiated by content based on student readiness and interests, the jigsaw technique allows students to learn from text that is matched to their interests and independent reading level while also learning from their peers, who have worked with text that is appropriate for them.

Aronson, Elliot, and Shelley Patnoe. The Jigsaw Classroom: Building Cooperation in the Classroom. 2^nd ed. New York: Longman, 1997.

• As with any learning process with independence and interdependence as the goals, effective use of the jigsaw technique begins with teacher modeling. Explain to students that they will be working in different cooperative groups to learn content: a jigsaw or home group, made up of students who have read different texts, and expert group that all reads the same text.

• Then, with a piece of text appropriate for your group of students, read and think-aloud as if you are working in an expert group, focusing on thought processes such as:
  • How can I put these ideas into my own words?
  • What connections do I see between this material and things we’ve already learned, or from my own life?
  • How will I tell the members of my jigsaw, or home, group about this material?
• To prepare students for returning to their home, or jigsaw, group, demonstrate thinking they can use to monitor their performance there:
  • Is what I’m saying helping the others learn the material?
  • Are people understanding what I’m saying and making connections between their reading and mine?

• Based on your knowledge of the students in your classroom, organize a set of texts that students will read in their expert groups and report on to their home groups. You may wish to find texts that complement each other, but offer varying challenges in difficulty. It may be useful to assemble a text set that offers contrasting views on the same topic. Or, your learning goals may lead you to select text that offer information on various facets of a concept that will become clear only when students come together in their home groups after working with their expert groups (such as three books, each about one of the states of matter).

• Organize students in their home or jigsaw groups and share with them the learning goal or guiding question for the lesson. Remind them of the modeling they saw.
  
• Re-organize students into their expert groups. You may find it useful to use numbers for home groups and letters for expert groups (student 3-B for example, will read text B with a group of students and then report back to group 3, where a student has read text A, C, D, and E). Students in the expert group should read the text and make sure everyone has a strong enough understanding to share with their home groups. It may be a good idea for students to produce a written summary or short list of ideas they plan to take back.

• Throughout the jigsaw process, circulate the room and observe the groups as they read and discuss. When you notice difficulties, try to put the responsibility for finding a solution back on students to enhance the cooperative benefits of jigsawing.
  
• Reconvene the home groups and ask students to share their expertise with one another. Students should write about the way their expert knowledge was changed or enhanced by listening to their peers.

Grades 3 – 6 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson

Groups of students read and discuss American folklore stories, each group reading a different story. Using a jigsaw strategy, the groups compare character traits and main plot points of the stories. A diverse selection of American folk tales is used for this lesson, which is adaptable to any text set.

Grades 3 – 7 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson

Antislavery heroes are the focus of this lesson. Students research a historical figure who played a key role in the abolition of slavery, and then create a three-dimensional biographical mobile.

Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan

Students investigate the effects of word choice in Robert Frost's 'Choose Something Like a Star' to construct a more sophisticated understanding of speaker, subject, and tone.

Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson

Students research and report on instances of how copyright laws have adapted to encompass new technologies. They write articles predicting copyright issues that may arise with new and future technologies.

Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson

In this lesson, students use focused prewriting strategies to explore content and ethical issues related to a persuasive assignment.

The “Jigsaw Method” is a teaching strategy of organizing student group work that helps students collaborate and rely on one another. This teaching strategy is effective for accomplishing multiple tasks at once and for giving students a greater sense of individual responsibility.

With this simple approach to group work, each individual has something unique to contribute to their group’s outcome, in the same way each piece of a jigsaw puzzle comes together to create a completed image. No one else in the group is doing the same task, so each student experiences a higher sense of ownership and accountability to the members of their group.

Advantages of the Jigsaw Method

The jigsaw method allows the teacher to break students into groups and assignments into smaller pieces, all for accomplishing tasks with more detail and collaboration. When working independently, students are accountable strictly to themselves. The jigsaw method gives students a sense of ownership and belonging – feelings hard to experience when working alone.

In addition to having shared responsibility to the group setting, students gain the benefit of learning from those different from themselves. While individual students could be required to do the entirety of a project on their own, the fact that they have the opportunity to listen to the perspectives of others enhances the quality of their education. Jigsawing requires students to listen and learn, and the group is rewarded when each individual contributes their skills and knowledge to the whole. Not only is learning improved, but tolerance and understanding is as well. The jigsaw method could be used to improve conversations related to what makes students different from one another.

Elliot Aronson – one of the early pioneers of the jigsaw method – explains that, “In the cooperative classroom, the students achieved success as a consequence of paying attention to their peers, asking good questions, helping each other, teaching each other, and helping each other teach.” Students are not pitted against one another in competitions to earn the teacher’s limited time and attention. Instead, they are encouraged to embrace the knowledge from individuals all around them.

This method could also improve the quality of teacher instruction as well. Students are not so reliant on listening to every word the teacher says. Instead, they enjoy a higher sense of ownership themselves and a greater trust in their peers. Teachers do not have to lecture on every detail they want students to understand. Rather, teachers can put the responsibility for learning on the student, and travel through the room offering support and insights where they are needed most.

A Simple Six-Step Process

If you’re interested in running a jigsaw activity in your classroom, follow this simple six-step guide:

Step 1: Organize students into groups of 4-6.

Step 2: Divide the day’s reading or lesson into 4-6 parts, and assign one student in each group to be responsible for a different segment.

Step 3: Give students time to learn and process their assigned segment independently.

Step 4: Put students who completed the same segment together into an “expert group” to talk about and process the details of their segment.

Step 5: Have students return to their original “jigsaw” groups and take turns sharing the segments they’ve become experts on.

Step 6: Have students complete a task or a quiz that’s reliant on them having understood the material from the contributions of all their group members.

During this whole process, where’s the teacher? At first, the teacher facilitates the arranging of small groups, explaining of roles, and timing for each portion. Notice that the teacher doesn’t have to lecture or be the focal point of attention. When the students are in groups for steps 4 and 5, the teacher should walk amongst the groups and lend support or explanation where necessary. The teacher may find it valuable to appoint one student in each group as the “leader” who can manage time, make sure each student contributes their part, and ensure the group is accomplishing the goals.

Add Your Own Variation

Teachers use an infinite variety of jigsaw methods to boost learning and cooperation among their students. Reading teachers often assign each group member a different task related to a specific reading passage. Tasks might include students responsible for vocabulary, characterization, style and language, note taking, time management, and leading the group. A science lesson might benefit from students learning different attributes of a given topic, then coming together to share.

A language classroom might ask students to look up various words and phrases in the target language and teach their peers about them. A math class might ask students to solve various equations, then jigsaw together to see that each problem was done accurately.

Whatever level or subject you teach, the jigsaw method offers you a chance to neutralize the problems of competitive classroom behaviors and build a cooperative environment. Consider how you’ll use this easy technique to boost the learning, relationships, and collaboration in your classroom this year!