'Jigsaw Gallery Walk'

'Jigsaw gallery walk' - I write this in inverted commas because I'm not sure if a strategy like this really exists. If it does, I don't know what it's really called. Anyways, I used this strategy in the class today and felt the need to blog about it.

The students of 5K have been involved in a research project throughout this week. They were divided into groups and each group inquired into a different form of building/structure: Dams, Bridges, Sky scrapers, Tunnels and Canals. They used books and internet to gather information and then created models and posters. They also maintained a reflective journal to record their thought process. This was their formative assessment for the first line of inquiry. 

The groups were asked to share their expertise with rest of the class today. A clichéd way of doing this would have been to ask all the groups to sequentially share their work with everyone. To make the process more effective and engaging, I modified it a little bit. 

Every student in each group was given a number. The groups were regrouped in such a way that all the new groups have at least one person from the old groups (All the 1's together, 2's together and so on). All the work done by the students was displayed in the classroom and the groups were asked to go around for a gallery walk. At each station, the student who was originally involved in the project explained the facts and concepts. 

This way, each student got an opportunity to communicate their knowledge and ideas. It also made the other students comfortable about asking questions. All the students were thoroughly engaged and excited. Saving time was another big advantage! They will now update their journals and give them in for assessment. 

A copy of the assessment sheet: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18cJsiKLmNW-Bik2B_S3bMcGuhv3k-s_u126hfTWrvwA/edit