Jigsaw Group Activity

Description

Verb

Explain

Place in the Hybrid Sequence

  • Prepare for Class
  • ✔️In-Class
  • After Class

Template

Demo of jigsaw. First, form focus group. Then, form different task groups

  1. Round 1: Students join groups and focus on a section of a text to discuss. For example, each separate group can focus on:
    1. Separate steps of a procedure from a handout.
    2. Different steps in the scientific method in a lab report.
    3. Different articles from a group of articles.
  2. Round 2: Students join a second different group (with no members of their first group) so that students bring their previous focus to a common task or problem.
  3. All students in the class reconvene for review and remaining questions.

Example

Based on a course on Japanese History. Example from Harvard University’s The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.

  1. Round 1: Students join groups based on “one issue that Tokugawa world is facing and offer recommendations.” Example groups can be (i) moral issues, (ii) foreign threats, and (iii) famine/equality.
  2. Round 2: Students from each of these group join a second different group to consolidate their three ideas into a coherent recommendation.
  3. Round 3: Each group presents their recommendation to the instructor who plays the role of the shogun. Groups can debate their plans in the shogun’s presence.

References

Active Learning in Hybrid and Physically Distanced Classrooms. (n.d.). Vanderbilt University. Retrieved November 27, 2023, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2020/06/active-learning-in-hybrid-and-socially-distanced-classrooms/

Let’s Try to Stop the Tokugawa Shogunate from Collapsing: Role Playing Historical Decisions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2023, from https://ablconnect.harvard.edu/book/let%E2%80%99s-try-stop-tokugawa-shogunate-collapsing-role-playing-historical-decisions

Jigsaw Activities. (n.d.). The Bell Foundation. Retrieved November 27, 2023, from https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/eal-programme/guidance/effective-teaching-of-eal-learners/great-ideas/jigsaw-activities/

Center for Teaching Vanderbilt University. (2019). Jigsaw [Photo]. https://www.flickr.com/photos/vandycft/32869991478/

Jigsaw. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2023, from https://ablconnect.harvard.edu/jigsaw-description

Silberman, M. L. (1996). Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject (1st edition). Prentice Hall.