Jigsaw activities have been around for decades, and are a great strategy to accelerate learning and reduce the amount of time you have to lead direct instruction as a teacher. This method is easy to learn, implement, weave with other lesson activities, and great for keeping students engaged while the teacher(s) can rotate around the classroom.
With a little bit of planning, they can free you up to work with small groups or even finish some grading while students are on task.
Here’s a quick recap of two great general structures of a jigsaw activity:
Home Groups —> Expert Groups —> Home Groups
- Take a large topic (e.g. plot summary of Romeo and Juliet) and break it into smaller chunks (e.g. act summaries).
- Divide students into 4-6 person groups labelled the “home groups”.
- Assign a different reading selection/task to each student in each home group.
- Form new “expert groups” by having students get up and connect with members of other home groups that had the same reading selection.
- Give time for the expert groups to discuss their reading selection and prepare to return to the home groups to teach their own section.
- Students return to their home groups and explain their section to the other students.
Expert Groups —> Teaching Groups —> Expert Groups
- Take a large topic (e.g. plot summary of Romeo and Juliet) and break it into smaller chunks (e.g. act summaries).
- Divide students into 4-6 person groups labelled the “expert groups”.
- Assign a reading selection/task to each expert group (e.g. Group 1 gets Act 1, etc).
- Form new “teaching groups” by having students get up and join a new group that includes one member from each expert group.
- Give time for the new groups to discuss and teach their reading selection.
- Students return to their expert groups and review what they’ve learned to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Digital Theatre+ has a number of resources that can make the planning piece really easy, so you can sort out groups and get students into a task without scouring the internet for reading selections or clips for students to study.
Here are a few ideas of how to take a large topic, break it into pieces for students to master, and then subsequently teach it to classmates:
- Act summaries of a dramatic text from any Unlocked study guide on Digital Theatre+. For example, take the Unlocked Study Guide: The Crucible and head to the Plot Summaries on page 10.
- Use the character cards from the Unlocked Study Guide for any dramatic text you are studying.
- Assign a certain key scene/speech for students to study from different production companies. For example, Act II, Scene I from Julius Caesar.
- Bonus opportunity to mix in audio productions or graphic novels instead of just the live theatrical captures!
- Assign Concise Introductions for a wide variety of core topics and practitioners, covering history, context, theory, and practice.
Other best practices for classroom management and engagement
- Set a timer on the board for each stage of the activity.
- Rotate around the room to check for understanding and classroom management.
- Have a graphic organizer ready for students to be taking notes/writing summaries.
- Assign roles within the first group such as leader, evidence finder, presenter…
- Manage the transitions of moving students from group to group by hanging signs on your ceiling/wall that have a letter and a number on them and evenly spread them out throughout your classroom e.g. 1A, 2B, 3C, etc.
- You can assign home groups to meet at the number locations and the second set of groups to meet according to the letter location
- This is also a great time to utilize a co-teacher!