Jigsaw Reading

(TESOL Ideas--Activities that Can Be Used with Any Reading Text)

Sample: docs, pub

This is another  oldie but a goodie.

Different teachers or different methodology textbooks often have a slightly different take on it.  (You can see the British Council's explanation HERE.)  

But one way it can be run is that students are put into different groups, and given two different reading texts (usually on the same general topic).  

Possibly they also answer comprehension questions on their text provided by the teacher--if the teacher can be bothered to make up comprehension questions for each reading--and then check their answers with their group.

Next, in their groups, students take notes on the text, and discuss with their group how best to summarize the text.  

Then, the texts are taken away.  Each student is paired up with someone from the other group.  Using their notes, or their memory, they have to summarize the text to their new partner.

Then, in open-class feedback, the teacher asks a few random students to summarize their partner's text (i.e. repeat back what their partner told them about their text.)  

Then, at the end, the students are given the text that their partner read, and they read it and compare their partner's summary with the original text.  

Another version (outlined HERE) is to take one longer text, and divide it into multiple parts.  Each group works to understand their section of the text.  Then the students are put into new groups, such that each group has one person representing each section of the text.  In their new groups, the students summarize their section of the text to their new groupmates, and together the groups are able to reconstruct the entire text.

I've posted one example above taken from Q: Skills for Success: Reading and Writing 4: Unit 1 Reading 1: We All Need a Role Model p.5-11.  

For this activity, divide students into 4 groups corresponding to the 4 sections of the text: Definition of a Role Model, Who Can Be a Role Model, What Role Modes Do, and When things go Wrong.  Each person in the group gets a copy of their section.  They read it, and discuss together what the main ideas are, and take notes.  Then, take the readings away from the students.  Students are recombined in separate groups, in which there is one person from each of the previous groups.  They have to talk together and reconstruct the main ideas from the text (taking notes on pages 3 and 4).  Then, using those notes, students attempt to answer the questions on page 5 (which corresponds to exercise F of the textbook.)