Last week my students started reading an excerpt from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan titled “Two Kinds.” To help students understand the mother’s perspective (plus that of an upcoming short story), I wanted to do a Jigsaw Reading Activity that involved the students reading select articles on Chinese culture. The only problem with implementing the Jigsaw Reading Activity is that we are still under Covid protocols which means that we have a fixed seating chart, no close groupings of students, and no movement throughout the classroom. My largest dilemma was how to implement this using the technology that we have available.

In the past when I have used this reading activity, I would use my Classcraft groups, pull out my experts into groups together, and then bring them into their perspective Classcraft teams to share out what they have learned. I knew that my students needed this background, but I really did not want to assign 5 long articles for them to read when they only needed small bits of information from each.

Traditional Jigsaw Reading Activity

In a traditional Jigsaw Reading Activity, students are assigned a topic, paragraph, or article in which they are the experts. You can do this to split up longer passages and have students still learn the same material. Your experts then go back to their groups and share what they have learned. This sharing should always involve discussion of the topic and a reflection of what they have learned overall.

Using Technology

Depending on the Learning Management System that your school district uses may define how you utilize technology. We currently use Schoology which allows us to individually assign students certain items. In this instance, I was able to assign students their article, and then I was able to assign them to a Discussion Group. Students were all given the same instructions:

1. Read article
2. Focus on the role of Fathers, Mothers, Sons, and Daughters in a Chinese family
3. Find a minimum of 4 facts about those roles to share with your Discussion Group
4. Once you have your facts, go to Discussion Group, post, and ask questions.

I realize that 7th graders do not always know what types of questions to ask, so I did make sure to go into the Discussion Groups and reply/ask/clarify through modeling.

How Did It Work Out?

I must say that I felt like it was a complete disaster due to some students not posting in the Discussion Groups; however, the following day when I opened up class discussion, the results were phenomenal.

We were discussing the influences that the older traditions of Chinese culture had on the mother in the story (most of the articles used were centered on the older traditions), and I was surprised by so many hands going up to share. Many of my students who never shared out in class, even when I taught them as 6th graders, were eager to share what they had learned. Most of the discussion led them to want to know more about whether or not things had changed for children in China. This burst of inquiry was fabulous! Plus, many of my young ladies have discovered K-pop, and they made some interesting connections to the Asian culture in general.

I’m hopeful to be able to utilize technology in a similar manner in the future. I know that Covid has made teaching in the classroom, and virtually, a difficult task as we try to find ways to engage the students in learning. I’m certain that if I had to teach this virtually I would have had the same phenomenal results.

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