Jigsaw In Action

Today we finally had the chance to put the jigsaw into action and put all the pieces together! Today we met with our base groups and had the chance to teach them all about our given topic. My topic was group processing. The characteristics of group processing that I had taught to my base group included positive interdependence, individual accountability, group accountability, face to face interaction, and social skills. The interactions and relationships between teachers and students, and among students, constitute the group processing of the classroom. Group processing is extremely important because it allows students to learn more effectively if they are actively engaged. Group work is a great way to engage students and allow them to reflect on their work while building their social skills and working towards a shared group goal with their classmates. Group work allows students to build effective relationships and build off of each others ideas. It is an excellent learning strategy and should be used often and when appropriate!

I truly enjoyed today's class.I loved the structure of the jigsaw project and the way in which it was student centered and allowed us to teach one another. It was nice to have the change to interact with my classmates and learn all that I could from them. I enjoyed teaching them my own topic as well. I felt as though it was an excellent way to present such a great amount of material all at once. Today we all demonstrated student accountability, group accountability, face to face interactions, and social skills. We all demonstrated group accountability, face to face interactions, and social skills by presenting our information to our base groups. We showed individual accountability by becoming experts on our assigned topics. The one downfall to group processing and or group work is the "sink or swim" factor. If one student fails to participate or contribute to the group work the whole group will be effected. Many times during field work I observed students dazing off and not completing their assigned task. This later effected the rest of the group who worked hard to complete their tasks. The assignment must be structured so that all students work together appropriately and accordingly. One member can not succeed at the expenses of others. That is the only negative aspect of the jigsaw. Other than that I truly loved working with in my expert group and reporting back to my base group. I also enjoyed learning from my classmates! It was a great experience and should be used within all classrooms! 

Here are the Power Point links to all of the expert groups, Enjoy! 

1. Miss Maureen, Miss Marchese, Miss Bonacasa: Group Processing Jigsaw Project 
2. Mr. Kimbark, Miss Grey, Miss Popow: Social Skills & Face to Face interaction Jigsaw Project
3. Miss Perrone, Miss Perrone, Miss D'Aurio, Miss Thompson: Positive Interdependence & Individual Accountability Jigsaw Project