ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

An adapted extract from an article in Education World, 2001:

SIXTH-GRADE teacher Ellen Berg desperately wanted to show her students the true meaning of a fairy tale, but [how to] organize an activity that would encourage them to develop their own definition of the term, willingly? The “jigsaw method” provided the backdrop for the dynamic and engaging lesson that her students still recall!

Berg began by having her students divide into five equal groups, each with one fairy tale to read: “The Ugly Duckling,” “Snow White,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” or “The Three Little Pigs.” Each was responsible for collecting information such as: Who are the characters in the story? Where does the story take place? What are the major events of the story? Are there any supernatural events? If so, what are they?

After the students read, discussed, and recorded the above information, one person from each fairy tale assembled in a new jigsaw group. Each spent three minutes to tell the other new members the story they read and researched. After that, every group created a poster and gave a presentation addressing two points: (1) What do all five stories have in common? (2) Using what you found in common, write your own definition for a fairy tale.

FIRST HEARD of the “Jigsaw Classroom” technique when somone mentioned it during a Social Psychology class. Encountered it again yesterday upon finding a ‘Group Dynamics” file at the University of Delaware PBL Clearninghouse site.

Aha! So, this is how it works. Just that the explanations are a little different. The ‘home groups’ illustrated here are equivalent to the ‘jigsaw groups’ in the story above: