Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 2; March 03

Wide-view jigsaw reading

Ages 14 and up
Levels Intermediate–Advanced
Time 40-60 minutes, depending on the length of the articles
Focus Reading for meaning, speaking/discussion
Materials Copies of two or three articles on serious issues

This activity is for students who are fairly good readers and who enjoy serious discussions. It follows the basic outline of a jigsaw reading. (This is given in the book.)

Preparation
Find two or three newspaper articles on serious issues—for instance, an article about the marked preference in some developed countries (e.g., the USA) for Caesarian births, another arguing for capital punishment, a third about how most young people—if given a choice—opt for exceedingly unnourishing food. Ideally, each article should be somewhat longer than you ordinarily ask your students to read in class.

Procedure

1. Hand out the articles and ask everyone to do the following as they read—
   • Think how they are going to explain the meaning of the headline or title to someone else.
   • Mark (e.g., circle or highlight) anything they disagree with.
   • Mark anything that they find surprising or especially interesting for any reason.
2. As students finish, ones who have read the same article sit together and—
   • discuss what the headline means
   • look at and talk about what they have each marked
   • try to help their partner(s) understand bits they are unclear about
   • call you over to resolve any remaining questions about what any part of the article means.
3. Students who have read different articles sit together and, in turn—
   • tell each other what their headline means
   • say what they have marked and why
   • talk about any relevance the article may have to the situation in their own country or to themselves personally
   • express any reaction at all that they may have had when reading the article—e.g., an opinion about the content, the author or the style; something the article reminded them of (for instance, something they heard on the radio or TV or something they know from their own experience). Stress the following—
     • You are not asking them to summarize their article.
     • As a partner is talking about her/his article, they should feel free to react to what s/he has said with questions and with comments of their own.

Following on
Call the class together. Mention one of the articles and ask if anyone has anything at all they want to say about it. Do the same for the other article(s).

Variation
Step 3: Ordinarily, students would do this step in AB pairs (if there were just two articles) or in ABC threes (if there were three articles). If you have any students who are significantly less proficient that the others, pair each of them with a more proficient student who has read the same article so that, in this step, you have some AAB or AABC groups.

Tip
The internet is a good source of articles. For instance, just go to Google and do a search on the name of a story you are interested in finding. You will doubtless find a selection of versions to choose from. Copy one and, if necessary, shorten or otherwise edit them to suit your students. For more ideas on storytelling see Once Upon a Time by John Morgan and Mario Rinvolucri (Cambridge U. Press).

Seth Lindstromberg