ANDREA RUNNELS
I was like a kid on Christmas Eve last Tuesday! I could not get through Science fast enough with my first class!! I love trying creative, out-of-the-box strategies (spoiler-like my new favorite the jigsaw) with my students. Put that together with American History, and my enthusiasm was of epic proportions! If this is your first post of mine, I am a 5th grade teacher in suburban Atlanta. My grade level is departmentalized and I teach Science and Social Studies. I have a VERY strong preference towards one of those;).
We are finishing up World War I, and the students had a test Friday. I wanted to make sure I built in some time for reviewing since we covered quite a bit of content. So, I’ve been wanting to try out a strategy called “Jigsaw” all year since learning about it in my Gifted Endorsement course. After the great 5th Grade Blab Show discussion recently about student-led classrooms, I decided I had to try it out last week as the perfect review for one of my classes! Well, number one my students were SO into the activity, it stretched out 3 days. They LOVED it! So don’t plan on one 45 minute block like I originally did!
The Jigsaw Method is a baby step into student-directed learning. It works best as a review strategy at first since you are just facilitating instruction. It’s highly effective with gifted learners since it fosters collaboration and creativity! Students break into groups, which in essence are a complete puzzle. Then each “piece of the puzzle” meets with pieces of other “puzzles” to discuss ways to present the assigned content back to the original puzzle!
Step 1
I’m assuming you have tables or groups in your class. If not, cluster your kids into 5 groups. Label each “home group” with A, B, C, D, E. I referred to them as family groups. Then I explained that each kid was going to leave their family and visit a new country called 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. And then they will come back to their family and teach them what they learned!
Step 2
Within each group, assign a kid to be number 1 and then have them count off to 5. Or if you want to live dangerously let them count off themselves. I gave them a label with their number to use to mark their work space and their topic card.
Step 3
Off into their Learning Group Land, students collaborate to create an interesting way to present the content to their family. WOW!! I had props, posters, skits, poems, songs, speeches, and a reenactment of The Treaty of Versailles!! Remind them they will be the ONLY one from the Learning Group presenting to their family. One of my groups planned an elaborate skit and I had to redirect them to make sure it was a one man show instead! Then we came up with the puppet idea. I had a bazillion coffee stirrers left over from ages ago! Perfect for sticks!
Step 4
The students came back to their Home Group and taught the rest of their family the content. They did such an outstanding job!! I captured them in action on Periscope!! Each kiddo recorded what their other Home Group members shared in the WWI graphic organizer! Then they stuck it in their Interactive Notebook as yet another set of notes!
Modification Idea
I adjusted this activity for one of my classes by making it more teacher directed. I assigned a table group one of the same topics I gave my other class and let them present their content to the whole class. This kept them more on task. My higher learners were engaged and could have planned their presentations for about 3 more days than the original 3 I gave them!
Jigsaws Beyond Social Studies
I decided to create a generic version of this as well so it can be used with any subject! Even math;). Expect to walk your kiddos step by step through it the first time. I included some very specific directions with my Jigsaw products. I plan to use these as standardized test review so I am going to create them for all the content I cover. It even works for science. I took a topic that the students just needed to know the basics of and created a jigsaw. Here is how I used it for Science.
You can find the WWI version and several under SS-themed Jigsaw in my new custom category appropriately called Jigsaw Review Sheets. It made me pretty nervous to try something so different but I’m glad I did! My students were raving and I really enjoyed seeing them in a different light! Who knew I had some budding Oscar winners??
