Teaching English by the BBC: Jigsaw Reading

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Activity Description

In this activity, students participate in a jigsaw reading to practice their speaking and summarizing skills. Jigsaw reading is very useful when working with short authentic texts such as newspaper articles and can be done using two separate stories or one story split in two.

Jigsaw reading is a great way to introduce speaking into a reading lesson. It provides a real opportunity for genuine communication. In real life, we may tell people about a news article we have read, so this is a classroom activity that is fairly authentic.

Preparation

1. Locate one or two news stories to use for the activity, depending on which version of the activity you want to do.
2. If you have two news stories that share a theme - for example two separate stories on crime - prepare comprehension questions for each story. If you have only one story, prepare comprehension questions for each half of the story. Make copies of the questions for students.

How-To

1. Two separate stories:
   • Give one half of the class (Group A) one story, and the other half (Group B) the other. The students read their article, answer the questions and check understanding.
   • Students then pair up with someone from the other group and tell them about their story, and listen to the other one.
   • To help students remember their story you may get them to take notes. Alternatively, the students can keep the article with them to refer to. Be careful though, as some students may try to simply read the article aloud, or give it to their partner to read.
2. One story split in two:
   • Some stories can be clearly divided in two. Follow the same procedure as above, but giving each group only one half of the story.
   • When the students are recounting their half of the article, make sure that the student with the opening half goes first.
   • Once the students have orally exchanged stories, they should then read the other person's article.
   • As a refinement, you can give student B questions to quiz student A about their article.

Teacher Tips

• Find printable news stories at Fox [www], CNN [www], and others.

More Ways

• If you need news stories at a lower reading level, try the California Distance Learning Project [www]. The stories are not current, but are still useful on a variety of topics.
• Breaking News English [www] is another good site to get news stories from.
• Newsela is another good site to get stories along with paired readings.

Program Areas

• ESL: English as a Second Language

Levels

• Beginning High
• Intermediate Low
• Intermediate High
• Advanced

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