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Wk 5 Slides, 2025, Bucket of Task-Based Language Teaching

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Copy of Wk 4 Slides, 2025, Bucket of Jigsaw and Peer Teaching

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I will be editing this with you this week before it goes to print.

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Class Reading Tiered to a lower level with Diffit

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Class Reading Tiered to a lower level with Diffit

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Wk 3 Slides, 2025, Bucket of Scaffolding

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TESOL Methods in Practice Brazilian English Teacher Training at Temple University Summer 2025 Looking for Something? Find it HERE! Course Materials: BETT Padlet Note Catcher Template Lesson Plan Template About the Instructor Temple University Portal

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So you just taught your students something new. Maybe it's a math operation, a bit of music theory, or the conjugation of an irregular verb form in Spanish. Now you're ready to get them practicing. One standard approach is to assign written exercises. Fine. That's perfectly fine. Except when it's not, because you do it every day, and students are dying to interact more, move more, talk more, do something else.

Last fall, I showed you how to take written exercises and build in more movement and interactivity with Chat Stations. Now, I offer another alternative: Reciprocal Learning, a cooperative structure that takes "working in pairs" up a notch.

It goes a little something like this:

Every pair consists of a "Student A" and a "Student B."

Each student has their own set of problems or exercises to work on. Here's the twist: Student A has the answers to Student B's problems, and Student B has the answers to Student A's problems.

Students take turns coaching each other through the problems, not giving the answers, but helping their partner reach the correct answer on their own.

This arrangement, if done right, will help students become more self-directed, increase academic gains, and improve the quality of social interactions.

Here's a quick demonstration:

Reciprocal Learning is one of twenty research-based strategies outlined in Silver, Strong, and Perini's excellent book, The Strategic Teacher: Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson ( Bookshop.org | Amazon).

The book also describes two variations on this strategy. The first is Peer Reading, where students take turns answering response questions to a long piece of text. The second is Peer Problem Solving, where each person has a single, complex problem to solve. What's cool about this variation is that all the "A"s and all the "B"s meet beforehand in a "coaches' meeting" to work through the steps of their partners' problem and strategize for the best ways to coach their partners through it.

If you like Reciprocal Learning, take a look at my overview of Concept Attainment, another strategy from this book. Although many of the techniques in the book have simple-sounding names - which makes people think they understand the strategies without really studying them - they have much more structure and complexity than their names imply. For teachers who are visual or kinesthetic learners, reading the book's description of the techniques sometimes doesn't quite get the job done, which is why I'm putting these videos together: The strategies are too good to go unused.

Try it out and let me know what you think - and as always, if you have tips to share or questions to ask, add them in the comments section so we can all learn together. ♦

Come back for more.
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How to Use the Reciprocal Learning Strategy

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This cooperative learning strategy takes the idea of "working in pairs" up a notch.

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This cooperative learning strategy has been around for decades, but how well do you really know it?
Say "Jigsaw" in some teaching circles and no one will bat an eyelash. It's one of those techniques that has been with us so long, it is no longer seen as new. When considering methods to share in my collection of instructional strategies, I ignored it for a long time because I assumed most people already knew how to use it. Still, I figured it was worth including at some point.

When I finally sat down to review the steps of Jigsaw, I came across a few surprises.

Although Jigsaw is typically presented as just one in a number of cooperative learning strategies, its origin story has little to do with academics. The strategy was developed by social psychologist Elliot Aronson in 1971 in response to the racial turmoil caused by recent school desegregation in Austin, Texas. "Long-standing suspicion, fear, and distrust between groups produced an atmosphere of turmoil and hostility," Aronson recalls on his website, The Jigsaw Classroom. "Fist-fights erupted in corridors and schoolyards across the city. The school superintendent called me in to see if we could do anything to help students get along with one another."

Rather than take a crisis management approach to the situation, which they believed would only put a band-aid on the problem, Aronson and his colleagues wanted a solution that was more organic, something built into the structure of students' everyday learning. What they came up with was Jigsaw, an instructional approach that required students to learn from each other, rather than from the teacher. Because students in a Jigsaw classroom could not succeed without one another, they had to learn to get along. "Learning from each other gradually diminishes the need to try to out-perform each other because one student's learning enhances the performance of the other students instead of inhibiting it, as is usually the case in most competitive, teacher-oriented classrooms."

For a more thorough understanding of the strategy and its history, read the Jigsaw Classroom's Jigsaw Basics white paper.

Although cooperative learning in general has been proven to have a strong positive impact on learning (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001), researchers have found that Jigsaw in particular improves students' social-emotional learning. In studies comparing Jigsaw with traditional direct instruction, students taught with the Jigsaw method demonstrated increased feelings of autonomy, competence, and intrinsic motivation (Hänze & Berger, 2007). Another study comparing Jigsaw with cooperative learning that didn't include interdependence (a hallmark of Jigsaw) found that the Jigsaw students demonstrated improved attitudes toward their peers and reduced indicators of racial prejudice (Walker & Crogan, 1998).

Many teachers are looking for ways to help students become more independent learners who also function well in groups. If done correctly, Jigsaw can fulfill all of those needs without ever losing academic rigor.

As a teacher, I never received any formal training in this strategy, and when I tried it, I found it didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped. After studying the steps again, I realized I was organizing my groups the wrong way. Plus, I never bothered to give the quiz at the end.

Anyway, here's a video overview of the steps. If you're new to the strategy, this will show you how to do it. If, like me, you've tried it without success, this may help you fine-tune:

Want these steps written down? Click here to download a free copy (will open in a new window).

I had no clue about this! Since the original Jigsaw strategy was developed, other educators have improved on it with their own variations (Coffey, n.d):

Jigsaw II has all students read all of the material, but then specialize in one area for their expert groups. Then, when quiz time comes, students' individual scores are averaged within each group to arrive at a group score, which is then compared with other groups. This encourages groups to work harder to ensure that all members learn.

Jigsaw III builds in a group review before the final quiz.

Jigsaw IV adds a few extra components to Jigsaw III: The teacher starts by introducing the material, quizzes are given to the expert groups, and a re-teaching period is built in to address material that wasn't taught well in cooperative groups.

I should mention that clear information on these three variations was very challenging to find; with that in mind, I believe there's a need for a well-written set of instructions to help teachers give each variation a try.

So how do you like them apples? Kind of makes you want to get Jiggy with it, no? (Sorry, I couldn't help it. It was sitting right there.) If you have experience with Jigsaw and have insights or tips to add, please comment below. If you have questions about implementation, let's hear those, too.

Jiggy. ♥

References:

Coffey, H. (n.d.). Jigsaw (Educator's guides: North Carolina digital history). Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-eg/4584#noteref5

Hänze, M., & Berger, R. (2007). Cooperative learning, motivational effects, and student characteristics: An experimental study comparing cooperative learning and direct instruction in 12th grade physics classes. Learning and Instruction, 17(1), 29-41. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475206001174

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Silver, H. F., Strong, R. W., & Perini, M. J. (2007). The strategic teacher: Selecting the right research-based strategy for every lesson. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Walker, I. (1998). Academic performance, prejudice, and the jigsaw classroom: New pieces to the puzzle. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 8(6), 381-393. Retrieved from http://uwf.edu/svodanov/AS/Jigsaw.pdf

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4 Things You Don't Know About the Jigsaw Method

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This cooperative learning strategy has been around for decades, but how well do you really know it?

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This reading includes notes to guide your reading and understanding. If you have a question, an idea, or a comment, feel free to use the commenting function of Google Docs!

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Use this website to make vocabulary lists, questions, and texts based on the level and age of your students.

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This Week in Philly...Teaching Materials

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Our large-screen digital timer lets you view the time from anywhere in the room—whether you mount it to a wall, set it on a table or stick it to a magnetic surface! Plus, the easy-touch buttons make it simple to start and stop the timer, adjust the volume and more! Timer measures 3 3/4″ x 7 3/4″.

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Visit the Store, Teacher Created Resources Teacher Created Resources Visit the Store

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Amazon.com: Teacher Created Resources Teal Magnetic Digital Classroom Timer (TCR21042) : Office Products

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Wayground - The world's most engaging learning platform

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https://gamma.app/docs/Engaging-ESL-Learners-The-Rude-Song-Activity-8fxge4azgjp531q

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Made with Gamma. A new medium for presenting ideas, powered by AI.

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From Lyvia Mayra

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TOEIC Listening & Reading - Apps on Google Play

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Learn TOEIC listening, speaking, vocabulary, conversation & quiz.

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This games was create to reforce the fruits vocabulary. 

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This games was create to reforce the fruits vocabulary. 

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Wordwall - Create better lessons quicker

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Match up - Drag and drop each keyword next to its definition.

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Graphic Organizers for Jigsaw and Reciprocal Learning

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Graphic Organizers for Jigsaw and Reciprocal Learning

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Laminate and reuse each time.

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BETT 2024 Final EXPO ROOM 217A Recording_Applying CLT in English Classes in Brazilian Public Schools by Ana  - Copy.mp4

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Memory Game English Classroom

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Matching pairs - Tap a pair of tiles at a time to reveal if they are a match.