How to Host a Gallery Walk for Social Studies
Gallery Walks are a great way to get students out of their seats and moving around. This is definitely a benefit to all age groups. I found that my 7th graders preferred this over doing a regular worksheet any day. The thing is…it’s basically the same thing as a worksheet. It’s just not quite as boring.
Options
If you’re doing the Gallery Walk as an analysis activity, you have a couple of options. Stay tuned to the end of the blog post, and I’ll give you tips on how to do a Gallery Walk with a worksheet!
Option 1: Folded (information is hidden at first-glance)
One option is to have the image printed on a page that’s folded in half. The image is displayed, but students can lift up to see information about the image. This allows students to analyze the image first, make predictions or draw conclusions, before learning the details. This option is my preference.
Option 2: Unfolded (information is visible)
Another option is to simply have the images/documents posted with details displayed with it. While this does not allow for predictions about the source, it does provide immediate context, which might be necessary depending on the lesson.
Choosing your images
When choosing the images for your Gallery, make sure you’re thinking about your Learning Targets. Each image needs to have a purpose. It might take some time for you to come up with images that serve a purpose, but it’ll be worth it!
I recommend thinking about what you want students to take away from looking at or analyzing this particular image. If you’re not sure, then it’s probably not the right image.
Thinking about these things in advance will also help you to lead your lesson and guide students in their own analysis.
Creating Prompts
Don’t create prompts that must go in a specific order
My first tip in creating your prompts is to make it so that students do NOT have to go in order. It’ll be easier if students can move freely from one gallery image to another in any order. Some students may take a while to analyze and need more time than others. You don’t want frustrated middle schoolers who are waiting on one student to finish, so they can get there.
2. Use Gallery Id Numbers
Using Gallery Id Numbers will keep you organized. Since they’re not necessarily going in order, using the phrase “Id Number 1” instead of “number 1” might keep the confusion to a minimum. Students will match the Gallery Id Number on the image to the Id number on their prompt sheet
3. Use Open-Ended Prompts
If you’re hosting this Gallery Walk for a primary or secondary source analysis or for the purpose of drawing conclusions, use open-ended questions. Avoid using multiple choice prompts.
The fun part of a Gallery Walk is to have students analyze and make predictions based on the image and their observations. Use guiding information if needed, but keep the prompts open.
Tips for Implementation
I recommend having either enough prompts for students to be able to spread out or provide duplicates. You want to avoid having more than two students at a gallery image at one time. This is mostly for classroom management. It’s easier to manage if students aren’t bunched up together, so make that an expectation upfront.
To make this most effective, be sure to model with your students before sending them off into the hallway with their clipboards. If your students are new to making observations and predictions, talk them through an example or two.
Bonus: How to do this with a worksheet
Remember in the opening of this post, I mentioned that this can be done with a worksheet? You can totally use these concepts but with worksheet questions instead of images. It’ll take a little bit of prep on your part, but I promise, it’s easy.
Take the worksheet you want to base this on (can be multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, constructed, etc.).
Type the prompts on separate pages (one per page) and give them a Gallery Id number
Tape up around the room/hallway.
Have students number a sheet of paper with the Gallery Id Numbers (so they’re in order)
Go! Students move around the room and answer the questions on their paper.