This lesson plan uses a jigsaw activity with Twitter to teach high school students about the Amazon rainforest. Students are divided into groups, each assigned a section of a textbook chapter to read. They summarize their section in a tweet of 140 characters or less. The tweets are displayed and discussed as a class. Students then create posters summarizing their section with key details. Through viewing each other's posters and commenting on them via tweets, students teach and learn from each other about the different topics. They assess proposed solutions to issues in the rainforest and provide feedback via tweets. The goal is for students to interact, learn from peers, and scaffold each other's understanding using social media and cooperative learning strategies inspired by Vygotsky

1. Kevin McManamon
Etech 504-4172 Spring 2011
Dr. Ching
Twitter Jigsaw activity
Context:
High school social studies class, freshman. One teacher Internet connected computer with
projector, five student Internet connected computers available.
Unit of study:
Latin America (culture, geography, current events).
Learning objectives:
The student will be able to:
● Identify the resources and unique biosphere present in the Amazon rainforest.
● Explain the uses and claims of the Amazon rainforest by competing groups:
○ Native Indigenous people, rubber tappers, loggers, cattle ranchers, farmers,
environmental groups, and settlers.
● Explain the environmental impact each of the above groups has on the Amazon
rainforest.
● Be able to formulate a possible solution to the competing claims over the Amazon
rainforest.
● Formulate a 140 character or less summary of an assigned section of a textbook chapter
on the Amazon rainforest.
● Create a summary poster of the assigned section of the textbook chapter on the Amazon
rainforest that has the following- key terms, places, dates, people, 3 quotations from the
chapter and a representative symbol.
Materials needed:
● Class set of Geography Alive! textbooks, using Chapter 12 Land Use Conflict in the
Amazon Rainforest.
● Teacher created Twitter account.
● Internet connected computer and projector.
● Student mobile phones and student created Twitter accounts.
● Butcher paper, markers, tape.
Lesson progression:
1. Create small cooperative groups (approximately 3 to each group). Structure the groups
with multiple levels of readers (strong-medium-weaker).
2. Assign each group a specific section of the chapter to read. Each group will have a
different section assigned to them.
3. Create/agree upon a hashtag identifier for the class to use on Twitter (eg. #gp1-
represents “Global Perspectives Period 1”).

2. 4. After each group has read their assigned section, have them send in a group tweet with
a summary of what they have read. Tweets are limited to 140 characters or less, this
forces them to collaborate, edit, revise and condense before tweeting. Stronger readers/
writers can help weaker group members.
5. Log in to teacher twitter account, project on screen and search for class specific
hashtag.
6. Debrief/review chapter as a class. Ask each group to explain/defend their summative
tweet.
7. Have each group then create a poster from their section of the chapter that has:
a. Key terms, dates, names, places, three selected direct quotations from the
reading they deem vital to understanding the section, and a symbol or drawing
that represents the main idea of the section.
8. Class engages in a “Gallery Walk activity”- circulate around to view other’s posters.
While at each station, they then send in three tweets:
a. a comment on the poster they are viewing.
b. something they learned from each poster.
c. something they would like to know more about the content presented on each
poster.
*** Block class/ extension activity or homework:
● Assign groups to research more about their selected topic or find answers to the
questions asked by peers. Find a web link, embed it into a Tweet.
Assessment:
Cooperative groups will propose a solution to for the competing groups involved in the Amazon
rainforest. Make a 3 minute presentation to the class. Other groups tweet their reaction,
assessment and feedback of the proposal.
Hashtag searches can be used for class review and Internet based study guide.
Justification for activity and theory:
This lesson takes the classic “jigsaw” activity and adds the microblogging activity of Twitter to
it. The jigsaw activity is a constructivist activity in which students are responsible for learning
content and then teaching it to others. Vygotsky’ sociocultural ideas were predicated upon
interaction between peers and between students and adults responsible for their education. The
initial tweet of the section summary achieves this goal. Having each group defend or explain
their tweet allows for elaboration on their part, clarification points made by the teacher when
necessary and follow up questions asked by their peers. This forum allows the teacher to act as
a clearinghouse (assessing informally the zone of proximal development) and scaffold content
for the class as a whole or selected groups.

3. The summative posters create an artifact that other groups can interact with and learn from. The
tweets they send out when viewing the other posters gives feedback to the group that created
it. The cultural use of language, tweet-slang, emoticons and symbols is another aspect of the
socio-cultural learning that takes place between peers as identified by Vygotsky. They alert the
teacher to content the viewing group self reports as having “learned.” Finally, the “what I’d like to
know more about” tweet provides a future task for the group that created the poster in order to
provide an answer to the question posed by the visiting group. This is a type of peer generated
scaffolding.
Hart, D. (2006). Geography alive! regions and people.. Palo Alto, Calif.: Teachers' Curriculum
Institute.
Jaramillo, J. A. (1996). Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and contributions to the development of
constructivist curricula. Education, 117(1), 133-140.