Jigsaw discussion

ACADEMIC INSIGHT/OVERVIEW

• The activity allows students to immerse themselves in a topic and understand it well enough to communicate it to their peers. When the groups are mixed, every student gains insight into every topic. 

DISTRIBUTE WORKLOAD

• Each student is responsible for their own topic and must explain it to their peers. This distributes the curriculum and workload among the students. 

TEACHER'S PREPARATION

• Make groups of 4-6 students and assign each group a topic. Create a matrix where each row is a group that gets assigned the same topic (row groups) and each column is a group of students who each have a different topic (column groups).  

STUDENT PREPARATION

• You can ask the students to read up on their assigned topic before class.

IN ROW GROUPS

1st round:  

• Each group is assigned a topic to discuss. The group members should become experts on the topic and be able to communicate it to others in the second round.

IN COLUMN GROUPS

2nd round: 

• Students are put into new groups containing one student from each row in the matrix.

• The new groups should review the topics that each group member has worked with, such that every student is introduced to every topic.

HOW SHOULD YOU CREATE GROUPS?

• Consider whether students should work in their study groups, randomly assigned groups or groups that you create. Keep in mind that some students may be absent, so be prepared to adjust the groups as necessary.

HOW DO YOU CREATE MATRIX GROUPS?

• Ensure the column groups are made up of students from each row in the matrix. Depending on the number of students, you may need to include more than one student from each row group in the column groups.

ONLINE

• The activity can be done online, e.g. on Zoom. Put students into different break out rooms for the different phases of the activity.