Jigsaw reading activities are a type of information gap activity. The basic idea is that short texts, or parts of a larger text on the same topic area, are distributed among small groups of students, who read before taking turns to inform the group in their own words about the key information they read, in order to complete a task.
Jigsaw readings are useful for intensive reading in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), because they entail a communicative purpose and integrate reading, listening and speaking skills practice. The fact there is a communicative purpose motivates learners to both read and listen, as students must listen for key information that only one of their classmates has, who can only share it once he or she has read and understood their text. Such activities also encourage students to negotiate meaning, which helps to build confidence and develops interactional skills. With regard to skills development, depending on the task, learners may develop the sub-skills of reading and listening for main ideas or specific information. Additionally, through jigsaw readings learners are likely to improve the speaking sub-skills of paraphrasing and summarising.
Tips:
- Choose texts on a topic you know interests your students, for example, film reviews for a group of film studies students.
- Make clear what the purpose of the activity is. For instance, in groups each student will read a different film review and tell their group about it, in order to choose the film they want to watch as part of a class project.
- Sequence the lesson with a pre-task, a main-task and a post-task. A pre-task, such as discussing pictures, can prepare the students for the main task of, for example, reading a film review and sharing it with other students, by activiating prior knowledge, as well as generating interest, while a post-task report stage provides the incentive for the pre-task and main-task, bringing the task sequence to a natural conclusion. For example, each group informs the class of their choice of film along with an explanation.
- In the pre-task, include an exercise to pre-teach key vocabulary.
- The language of the text should be graded slightly higher than the learners' actual level. Texts can be shortened and/or edited by, for example, removing some unnecessary details or reducing low-fequency vocabulary.
- During the main task, monitor groups to identify communication problems, and provide scaffolding in the form of elicitative feedback techniques. Also, especially with larger classes, encourage stronger students to help weaker learners to communicate.