Manage Students & Sessions
Use the instructor workspace to open a session, view the class code, monitor participants, remove a student, or delete a test session.
After the workspace opens: sign in with your instructor password, then expand Manage Students & Sessions at the top of the page.
Before class, open the C3 Workspace and sign in as the instructor to create or reopen the session, copy the invite link, monitor participants, and manage the class.
Purpose of the activity
The jigsaw is designed so candidates experience what it means to use disciplinary concepts and tools rather than simply hear about them. Each expert group becomes responsible for one disciplinary lens. Members read and discuss discipline-specific articles, decide what those readings reveal about the discipline, apply the ideas to the land-use case, and then teach that thinking to a home group.
Suggested class flow
Launch the compelling question and assign expert groups.
Expert groups read, discuss, synthesize, and apply their discipline.
Home-group jigsaw shares, about two minutes per expert.
Home groups integrate the lenses and draft provisional thinking.
Whole-class debrief.
Adjust the reading time depending on how much of each article you assign. The website is designed to capture the group discussion, not replace it.
Before class
- Create or reopen the PHP class session and provide students the class code.
- Confirm each candidate knows the assigned discipline, expert team, and home group.
- Decide whether each expert group will read every linked article or whether members will divide longer readings and teach one another.
- Tell each group to choose one recorder. The recorder types the group's shared thinking. Everyone else should be reading, explaining, questioning, and helping decide what is entered.
- Open the land-use map and compelling question for the whole class before students enter the workspace.
What happens in the expert groups
Step 1: Understand the disciplinary lens
Candidates identify the tools and habits of mind used by their discipline. Push them beyond labels. If a group writes “maps” for Geography, ask what geographers actually do with maps. If History writes “primary sources,” ask what historians do with them.
Step 2: Read and discuss the discipline-specific articles
The workspace now provides a separate response area for Reading 1, Reading 2, and a third or additional resource. For each reading, groups capture the important idea, the disciplinary skill it emphasizes, and how that idea could matter for the land-use inquiry.
Step 3: Synthesize the readings
Groups identify two or three ideas that matter most across the readings. They should decide what their home group needs to understand about the discipline, not produce an article-by-article report.
Step 4: Apply the disciplinary lens to the land-use case
Groups return to the 20-acre parcel and explain what their discipline makes them notice. They also identify the additional evidence or information their discipline would want before supporting a recommendation.
Step 5: Prepare the home-group share
Every expert should be able to teach the same four-part message:
- What our discipline pays attention to.
- What we learned from the readings.
- What that makes us notice about the land-use case.
- What we still need to know.
What each expert should bring back
“Our geography readings showed us that spatial thinking means examining relationships among places, not just locating them. When we applied that to the parcel, we noticed the school, creek, roads, homes, and access points create different advantages and constraints. We still need traffic and environmental information before recommending a use.”
A weak share only names a tool: “Geographers use maps.” A strong share explains what the tool helps a learner notice, connects it to the assigned readings, and applies it to the land-use case.
Home-group process
When experts return, choose one home-group recorder. Each expert has about two minutes to teach the four-part message. The recorder captures the disciplinary contribution while the other members listen for what that discipline notices that the others might miss.
The home group then uses the workspace to compare the four perspectives, identify connections and tensions, draft a provisional response to the compelling question, and identify evidence still needed. The goal is integration, not four disconnected summaries.
Whole-class debrief
Bring groups back together before moving on. Useful prompts include:
- Which disciplinary lens changed your thinking the most?
- What did one discipline notice that another might have missed?
- Where did two disciplines reinforce one another?
- Where did the lenses create tension or different priorities?
- What claims are groups tempted to make before they have enough evidence?
- What additional evidence does the class now realize it needs?
- What does this activity suggest about teaching elementary social studies as connected disciplines?
What the website saves
The PHP workspace stores the expert-group notes and home-group synthesis within the class session. The expert notes become the shared record of the reading discussion and disciplinary application. The home-group record captures how the four lenses were integrated. Students should not treat the text boxes as individual worksheets. One recorder captures the group's decisions while the discussion remains the central activity.