Episode 8

Part 3: What is a Jigsaw?

Steven Robinow: So for those of you unfamiliar with a jigsaw, let me take a moment to  describe it. Imagine you have a class of 16 students, and you have divided them into four groups of four. Let's label the students. At each table, you have a student labeled North, a student labeled South, a student labeled East, and West. So now, you have four tables, and at each table is a North, South, East, and West.

And let's say each group has four items to work on, Item A, Item B, Item C, and Item D. A jigsaw is a situation where you take all students that are North and put them at a table. All North students work on Item A. All South students work on Item B together. All East students together work on Item C, and all West students work together on Item D.

When the North students are done working—the South, East, and West, they're each done working on items A, B, C, or D, then they regroup in their original groups of North, South, East, and West. And those four students sitting around a table, North describes A, South describes B, East describes C, and West describes D. They then teach each other in those groups. That's a jigsaw.