Building Classroom Organization With Popsicle Sticks

Debbie Willingham
Jan 19, 2009

Most teachers like the idea of having students become the "experts" on a topic and then share their knowledge using the jigsaw strategy. But, many hesitate to try it because it does require some organization up front in order for it to work well. Since classroom management is always an issue, one easy way to organize a jigsaw activity is to use popsicle sticks (actually the craft sticks you can buy in bulk at any hobby store).

The premise of the jigsaw strategy is that students are arranged in "home groups" where they begin and end the activity. Within the group each student is assigned a specific task or topic to research. They meet with students from other groups with the same topic to learn about it. Then, they return to the "home group" to share what they learned and complete the assignment together. Usually this involves having every student complete some kind of graphic organizer that will compile the information from each student. This makes every student accountable for a part of the whole assignment, but no one has to do all the work themselves. The organizer is then used either to complete a group or individual assignment that pulls all the information together and applies it in some way.

The teacher must first determine the number of individual topics that students will be researching and assign that number of students to each group. If, for example, students will be learning about five important events that led to the Russian Revolution, five students are assigned to each group, and each is assigned a different event to research. The popsicle sticks can be used for both grouping students into "home groups" and for individually assigning roles within each group. The teacher would number each stick 1-5 in red, black, green, blue, and purple (or whatever color markers are available!). Each student would draw a stick, with the color representing their "home group" and the number representing one of the events. (The teacher could have the numbers and their designated events listed on the board so students would know their topic. This way the sticks can be used again; or the teacher could just write the topics instead of numbers on the sticks.) The expert groups for each topic would get together at a designated location in some part of the room (another organizational tip-plan ahead of time where each group will work).

Students need to know that they have a limited amount of time to find their information, and resources (books, articles, encyclopedias, specific internet sites, etc.) must be available for each expert group to use. The teacher could rotate among groups, monitoring to see that students are on task and are getting the appropriate information on their topic. Since each student has a popsicle stick with their assignment it is also easy to monitor that everyone is where they are supposed to be working. At the end of the designated time, the teacher would tell students to go back to their "home groups" and each share their new expertise, with all students recording important information on each topic. The teacher should let students know up front that they will have to later use all the information in some way, so the responsibility for writing the information down and staying on task falls back on them, which is where it should be.

The reason popsicle sticks are so helpful in organizing students for a jigsaw activity is that they automatically set up both groupings of students ("home" and "expert" groups), with each student having their assigned roles in writing right in front of them. That eliminates excuses about forgetting what they were to do or where they were to be working. It makes the organization of the assignment more manageable for the teacher, as well, so they do not have to try and remember how they grouped students.

Popsicle sticks can be used in a variety of other ways as well. Simply putting each student's name on a stick, putting them in a jar, and drawing randomly to call on students is successfully used by many teachers. Sticks can also be numbered 1 and 2 in different colors to pair students to work together, letting them draw a stick and find their partner. Teachers need to find as many time-saving and practical strategies as possible to make life easier, and building their organizational skills using craft sticks is one of those easy tricks.