A gallery walk is an amazing activity that focuses on interpersonal communication. It gets students out of desks and actively moving around the classroom. A gallery walk involves students in language development, communication, and active participation.
Gallery walks have many uses. It is a flexible activity that can be altered and tweaked to use in a variety of ways. You can even do it digitally if you teach online! Gallery walks can be used for 15 minutes or can be a week-long activity. You decide how you want to use it.
How to set up a gallery walk
In a gallery walk small groups of students or partners rotate around the room to answer questions posted on charts arranged around the classroom or to discuss what they see. After three to five minutes at a station, students rotate to the next question or topic. Basically, the teacher puts students in groups and they rotate every few minutes to complete the task the teacher has assigned. Alternatively, students can free-flow through the material.
Now that you know why you should use a gallery walk, here are ways you can use it in your language classroom today.
Icebreaker
Students can create an introduction video of themselves. Task students with creating an infographic about themselves then place a QR code or short URL on the poster of their video. Allow students to wander through the room to learn about each other. Additionally, you can give students a stack of Post-it notes to leave a message to their classmates.
Art
This might be the most obvious idea for a gallery walk since the idea of the gallery walk comes from observing art in a gallery. Hang authentic artwork up around the room and let students observe it. Give them worksheets to write their observations on. Then pair students up and let them look at the images together and discuss what they see and feel about the artwork.
Here is an already made gallery walk for you to try!
You can also use student-created artwork for this.
Videos
Hang video QR codes around the room of signed facts or news reports. Let small groups view together and discuss what they understood and what they think about the information.
Student Reports
If students have a project you have them working on like a presentation, movie, or music video, try using a gallery walk as a way to view the work. This keeps students from spacing out or being disruptive (due to boredom) watching all of the presentations live in class.
Stories
Use a gallery walk after a story. If you are using a signed story, movie talk, picture talk, or a story you are telling in class you can incorporate a gallery walk after. It makes for the perfect post-viewing activity. Assign a student a section of the story. It can be alone, in groups, or with partners. Students will illustrate that part of the story. Hang the images around the room. Students will walk from image to image retelling each other that part of the story.
Need a variation? If it is a nice day, send students outside with some chalk to draw the picture.
Questions
Students can answer questions about a topic, culture study, or story. The teacher will provide the worksheet and students will circulate and discuss the questions and come up with the correct answers together.
Gallery walks are awesome and versatile. They are a no-tech way to get students to communicate in the target language. How do you use them in your classroom?
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