Today is our third day working on the major concepts of the sun/Earth/moon relationships using a jigsaw lesson strategy. We are focusing on five main topics:
- The causes of day/night and years
- Seasons
- Moon phases
- Solar eclipses
- Lunar eclipses
On the first two days of our lesson, we broke into our expert groups and learned the concept that had been assigned. Each expert group also created a handout and mini-lesson/lab to teach to their eventual jigsaw groups.
Today, we broke into our jigsaw groups and began teaching each other the lessons. It was fantastic to walk around my classroom and feel like my students didn’t really need me because they were teaching each other! There were a few hiccups as a couple of students did not participate as well as others. Some chose to play with our lab materials instead of using them for learning. However, overall, I think it has been a great experience.
We have two days left. On Monday, students will complete work in their jigsaw groups. Then, we’ll have a class discussion and review what we learned.
On Tuesday, we will have a test on the material that has been learned during the jigsaw lesson. I am hoping these results are spectacular!
I really like the idea of jigsaw. I haven’t used in class AT ALL this year. Funny how when we are constantly trying to find NEW things to do in our class we forget some of the things that have been around forever that work!
Thanks for reminding us not to forget about jigsaw!
Tiffany Thompson
Asher, OK