Jigsaw Content Learning

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This strategy can be used as a means of learning from multiple source materials on a topic.

  1. Teacher assigns students to “home groups” of 4–5 and each student in a group selects a different topic source material (e.g., website passage, audio taped lecture, magazine article, newspaper report, video, brochure, textbook chapter).
  2. Using a double entry journal (described below), each student proceeds to read source material in home group.
    -- On the left side of the journal, students write an entry that corresponds to a main idea, detail, quote, or conclusion from the source material.
    -- On the right side of the journal, students write an entry that corresponds to their response to, question about, or evaluation of the entry on the left.
  3. Students disperse to “expert groups,” where they share their journal entries with other students who have read the same source material, and discuss responses and questions.
  4. Expert groups use a graphic organizer (e.g., web, Venn diagram, attribute chart) to summarize the material (each member will need a copy of the organizer).
  5. Students return to home groups to share, in turn, each member’s summary from their respective source material.
  6. Students in home groups note important similarities and differences between different source materials in their journals.

 

 

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