Time To Reflect!

I thoroughly enjoyed this jigsaw activity on Native Americans.  I am very glad that I learned this technique and look forward to using it in my classroom!  Before taking this class, I had never even heard of this technique.  When using this strategy in my classroom, I will divide my students into groups of five or six.  They will each be assigned a different task or topic based on what we are learning about.  Each student does research on their topic and then presents the information to their group.  I love the fact that before the information is presented to their group members, each student meets with his/her fellow “experts” from the different groups that were assigned the same topic.  This ensures that the information is accurate, but I think that this also gives the experts additional knowledge and understanding of their topic.  This part of the activity allows them to rehearse with the other experts and hear how others phrase information.  Once the experts have conferred, the original group members come back together to teach and be taught.  Each student in the group has a chance to educate the entire group on his/her specialty.   Jigsaw is an efficient way for students to learn material.  This activity also encourages listening and engagement between group members.  Each student is viewed as an integral part of the group with unique and important information for all members.  This teaches students that they are working together to accomplish a common goal.  This also teaches camaraderie because no student can succeed completely unless everyone works together as a team.  This leads to students valuing each other as integral members of the class.

This activity increased my knowledge about teaching social studies because this gave me another strategy to use with my students to engage them in the learning process.  Students must be active in their learning, and this activity gives them each a unique and important role.  Each group member is an exclusive member and piece of the puzzle.  I also love this because it gives each member an equally important role.  This takes away some of the social boundaries that students can have with each other.

I also learned more about the different ways of teaching.  Corey was a member of my group and he used inquiry as part of his presentation.  I thought this was a great way to get students to develop a deeper understanding of the information they are learning about.  This was like incorporating two teaching styles into one!  We used cooperative learning to complete the assignment.  Then, when it was time to present the assignment, we received an inquiry based lesson which deepened our thinking and understanding of the information we were learning about.  Way to go!  When I hear information and then am immediately asked to reflect on that information that gives me a greater understanding of the information as well as the ability to make connections with the topic.  Having students find and create pictures of the information will make the learning process fun and really come alive for my students.  I know that looking at the different pictures from the Muscogee’s gave me an even deeper understanding of my tribe.  I tend to be more of a visual learner, so these types of activities increase my knowledge and comprehension level. 

I learned a great deal about the different tribes in this assignment.  When I first saw the 5 tribes in the jigsaw activity, I had only heard of one of the tribes.  After doing research on my tribe and also hearing about the other tribes from my group, I definitely have a better understanding of the similarities and differences with each tribe.  I mainly did my research online for the Muscogee Native Americans.  I found it very intriguing that my tribe assimilated so well with the Europeans.  Some tribes were not so willing, but marriages were actually very common between the Europeans and members of the Muscogee Native American tribe.  I thought this was fascinating!

This exercise increased my pedagogical knowledge because it made me very aware that teaching not only involves teaching my students content, but I must be able to translate that information into an understandable form for my students.  This exercise taught me a great deal about understanding the connections between teaching and learning. Effectively teaching students requires creativity that takes present knowledge and moves that knowledge into more sophisticated and in-depth abilities.  As a teacher, I must use a variety of instructional strategies and resources to match my student’s skills.  An effective teacher gives each student different ways of exploring important ideas, skills, and concepts.  I understand that my role as a teacher will always be changing.  Sometimes I may be a facilitator, other times a coach.  This exercise highlights for me that as a teacher, I must teach using a variety of different ways to make learning fun and exciting for my students. 

Overall, jigsaw was an excellent activity to participate in to learn about Native Americans.  I know that the purpose was not necessarily to increase our knowledge about Native Americans, but I see how well I learned about the different tribes so I know that this works!  I found this activity to be a fun way to encourage all students to be active participants in the learning process.  Thank you for introducing me to jigsaw!