Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy in which individual students become experts on subsections of a topic and teach that subsections to others.
Lesson plans and reflections
The first jigsaw lesson plan that I found was on the thirteen equatorial rainforest countries. To me this was a strong lesson plan because it clearly laid out what the students were to be doing and achieving. A weakness that I saw in this lesson plan was the lack of planning procedures and specifically that there was not a study guide to handout to the students after the "experts" gave their presentation. This lesson plan also deviated from the original jigsaw model. I thought that it followed the direct-instruction and jigsaw model throughout. Within the lesson plan there is a procedure phase, guided practice phase, independent practice phase, and a closer phase. These all follow the direct-instruction model; however the guided practice phase follows the jigsaw model perfectly. If I were to use this lesson plan in my future classroom, I would follow the jigsaw model precisely with having a short introduction to introduce the lesson for the day, and I would not do the independent practice as shown in the lesson plan.
The second jigsaw lesson plan that I found was on natural disasters. This lesson plan was very strong but at the same time it was very lengthy. If time permitted then I think that the usage of the whole lesson plan would be effective, and the added material in the lesson plan would only help the students in the long run. The lesson plan called for the students to become experts on a natural disaster whether that be be a tornado, hurricane, etc. It called for the groups to complete readings with was essentially their research. The groups had to present their information to another group and then rotate, rather than presenting the information to the entire class at one time. Again, this lesson plan did not have very clear planning procedures and it did not have a study guide to give to the students. If I were to use this, I would have a study guide made before the students gave their presentations because I feel that is an essential part of this model. |
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Reflection on in-class presentation
Elementary Jigsaw Implementation
- The elementary group did a good job of implementing their content; however, I think that a little more planning was necessary. They followed the model fairly well, but the fact that they did not have enough rings to hand out to the students was a problem. This caused the students to be disengaged from the lesson because they all wanted rings.
- The secondary group did a good job of planning and implementing the material that needed to be taught. I thought that he adjusted appropriately to the fact that half the students were out of class the day he presented. His lesson followed the lesson plan that was written and the jigsaw model as best as he could considering the circumstances.