This lesson plan is about the four different families of instruments and classification of instruments into these families.

Strengths of this lesson include preparing adequate and appropriate materials for a Jigsaw lesson, asking students to critically think about all four categories before splitting up into groups, and making accommodations for different learners. Weaknesses include not having these content experts share information in smaller groups, assessing only the final presentations, and not specifying the time needed to create presentations. In following the Jigsaw model, the teacher did assign experts for the first phase and the students studied their respective instrument families in depth, during the second phase. Students were able to use a variety of websites to find information. During the third phase of expert meetings, students did create presentations to share with the class. For the fourth phase of peer instruction, students presented their information to the entire class, instead of to small groups. For the final phase of review and closure, the teacher did not identify what would follow the presentations, but did include a review phase for the extension activity of creating an instrument. This lesson plan deviated from the Jigsaw model only slightly. Students were divided into expert groups, but they were not divided into small groups to share their information with their peers. Instead, the expert groups presented to the entire class. There were also no provisions for review of the topics being presented, giving students no closure or additional information about the different instrument families. For future lessons, manipulatives, such as actual instruments from each instrument family, could be brought into the classroom to give students another medium to examine and learn about their assigned topic. Students would also present to smaller groups of students, with only one expert from each family in each group, creating a better cooperative learning environment. After presenting to these small groups, the teacher would review all of the instrument families with the entire class to check for understanding.