Jigsaw Classroom

Jigsaw is particularly useful for students who have problems gathering or organizing information on their own. When students in the expert groups feel that they have thoroughly learned their portion of the material, they plan a few strategies and perhaps even create materials for teaching it to their original base group. Students then return to their original base groups and each student teaches his or her material to the others. In this way, all students in the classroom learn all of the material. Adaptations that can be made to Jigsaw include the following:

• Have students break out into expert groups with a partner (be sure to adjust the number of expert groups accordingly).
• Give all or some of the students the materials necessary to present their ideas to the base group.
• Allow students to present their learnings in a variety of ways (e.g., role plays, drawings, gestures).

Games

Using games is another way teachers can involve all learners, teach new skills, and give students opportunities to participate in a variety of ways. Games tend to be fun and nonthreatening. When teachers use games, they provide students with opportunities to treat each other in prosocial, desirable ways. Although teachers in the elementary classroom often use games, educators in secondary school classrooms often abandon these approaches in place of more didactic and traditional strategies. Secondary teachers may be apprehensive about using games because they believe that this type of activity will squander important classroom time and diminish curriculum and instruction. In contrast, the creative and effective use of games can boost the participation and interest of students, help teachers make curriculum relevant and more comprehensible, and make abstract concepts concrete. All of the games outlined here are appropriate for students of any age.

Walk It to Know It

Walk It to Know It is a useful tool for enhancing understanding for students who are visual and kinesthetic learners. To prepare for this game, teachers or students design flow charts on paper and then transfer each square to a separate piece of poster board or butcher paper. Then the squares are laid out on the classroom floor and all students walk through the sequence. Teachers might have students explain each step as they walk over it or simply have them read the information on the board or paper aloud. Students might trod over the charts one time or move through them several times over the period of a week or month. Teachers might make charts to teach any number of concepts including the scientific method, steps to solving a binomial equation, or the parts of a business plan. Students also can walk through a timeline or a sequence of events chain.

Adaptations to Walk It to Know It include the following:

• Ask students to chant the words on each square as they step on them. This will help some learners retain the information more effectively.
• Show students to add movements to each square so they are not only "traveling" through the content but acting it out as well.
• Let students hop through the sequence. Adding this extra bit of movement can give some students an opportunity to release energy in a constructive way.

Match Game

Match Game allows students to teach each other. To play, the teacher distributes a card to each student. The teacher needs two groups of cards (A and B); each card in one group (A) must have a matching card in the other group (B). For instance, the teacher might create one group of questions (A) and one group of answers (B); one group of words (A) and one group of definitions (B); or one group of incomplete sentences (A) and one group of words that complete the sentences (B).

Each student is given one index card and told to walk around the room, talking to other students and comparing cards. Students are directed to help each other find their matches.

Adaptations to Match Game include the following:

• Have some students participate in creating the cards; this will be especially rewarding for a student who has particular expertise on a subject.
• Encourage students to support each other during the game; remind them that they can help classmates find matches.
• Add pictures or icons to the cards if some students learn better this way.

The Company You Keep

The Company You Keep, a fast-paced and entertaining game, is appropriate as an ice breaker, an introduction to new material, or a review. To prepare for this activity, the teacher makes a list of categories helpful for teaching or reviewing certain content. Each category should include at least two options so that in choosing to affiliate themselves with certain choices, students can form themselves in subgroups.

The Company You Keep is ideal for the diverse classroom in that it offers movement and action for students who need to get away from their desks. It gives quiet students structured opportunities to interact and social students time to talk with their classmates. Social skills also can be taught during this activity.

Adaptations to The Company You Keep include the following:

• Give students different roles during the activity; some might lead the activity while others walk around facilitating the forming of groups.
• Write the prompts on the board so that students can hear and see choices.
• Ask students to sit down together or to link arms once groups have formed so that all students can clearly see where the different groups are.

What Is It?

What Is It? is a game for injecting laughter into a lesson and for encouraging students to take small risks in front of the group. This game begins with the teacher placing an object in front of the room and asking the group, “What is it?” He or she then encourages students to come forward and transform the object into something related to class content. One student can approach at a time and act out a short scene.

Adaptations to What Is It? include the following:

• Give some students time to rehearse their “transformations.”
• Invite students to come to act out their scenes in pairs or in small groups.
• Show the object and have students brainstorm ideas for transforming the object on paper before attempting to act out a scene.

Human Treasure Hunt

Human Treasure Hunt requires every student to gather information by interacting with several different classmates. Each student receives a worksheet with a list of prompts (e.g., “Find a person who knows how to draw the carbon cycle and ask him or her to demonstrate this skill for you”). The objective is for students to find an answer to every prompt on their form.

Adaptations to Human Treasure Hunt include the following:

• Allow students to travel.
• Have a few students serve as “hunt helpers”—their job is to walk around and offer assistance to students who are struggling to complete their forms.
• Let students generate their own items. If a peer cannot answer a question verbally, his or her classmate can invent one that can be answered with a gesture, for example.

Service Learning

Service learning blends thoughtfully planned service or volunteer work with critical reflection and opportunities to meet educational goals. Having students collect canned goods for the local food pantry is not service learning, it is a nice deed. If, however, students engage in projects with tangible outcomes, make decisions, speak and be heard, inspire and create change, and achieve recognition, that would qualify as service learning. Service learning opportunities allow students to participate in projects, make decisions, and discuss how grassroots work can affect a community. These projects can motivate students to learn new skills that may be relevant to their lives.