I know, you are probably thinking, “What?!?!” but trust me, this combination of two activities really played out nicely and happened to work in both Spanish 2H and Spanish 3 on the same day. In Spanish 2H, we were reading one of the Blaine Ray novels (El viaje de su vida) and in Spanish 3, we were reading an article about the Moors in Spain.
1st, we went into one of my school’s furnished collaboration spaces. Students were allowed to create groups of their own choosing; however, in each class (based on size) I limited group sizes. For example, in my classes of 32-34, I said groups could have no more than 5 students but also no less than 4.
2nd, the groups read a specific section of the text and took notes over pertinent information, including listing out new words they figured out from said text.
3rd, one representative stayed at the table and everyone else shifted over a table. The representatives shared the information they learned while the new people took notes. Then the visiting group shared what they learned. Throughout this part of the activity, students shifted tables 5 more times and learned about all sections of the text. Representative stayed put and learned as the groups cycled through their table.
This is a useful alternative if the traditional jigsaw is too complicated. I like to mix things up, so I plan to still use both methods. Soon I am going to do a true World Cafe activity. More on that later :).
Oodles and Gobs 