We worked on a jigsaw reading today designed to provide students with techniques to decrease the likelihood that students will procrastinate.

Students first read an introduction about procrastination that led them to several epiphanies:

• Procrastination is not necessarily the result of laziness. Procrastinators often end up working much harder just before deadlines than they would have if they hadn't put things off.
• Procrastination can be a defense mechanism: if someone doesn't do as well as they'd hoped, they can blame it on their lack of time rather than ability.
• Some people say they procrastinate because they’re lazy or work better under pressure. But if you always delay and never plan ahead, you can’t really know if that’s true.

Afterward, students looked at various examples of how to avoid procrastinating. Each group read about and summarized their tip. Seventh graders completed the jigsaw portion of the activity while sixth-grade students will complete it tomorrow.

About the featured image: this is the view from our classroom just before the students arrive.