Gallery Walk is an experiential learning activity in which students work in small groups and interact with different stations that are physically set up around the classroom, toexplore different prompts assigned to each group. Each small group co-works at their own station to  share ideas or respond to different questions, texts, documents, images, etc. Once they complete their discussion and take notes on a large piece of paper or whiteboard, then the students can physically move around the room and see the work of the other groups. After reading what the other group has written, they can as a group add to the display.

What is the activity good at accomplishing and how does it accomplish that?

Below is a list of some of the things you can accomplish with your students using this active learning technique. Before making changes to the technique, check (and add to) all that the Gallery Walk activity is contributing to your students’ learning experience and make sure you maintain those through the changes that you are making.

• Encourages students to share ideas and to be exposed to ideas of others.
• Increases motivation and engagement through utilizing the classroom space and introducing movement and activity that might be beneficial for some learners.
• Encourages students to support their ideas when working in small groups. 
• Provides the opportunity for students to analyze, and critically evaluate other students’ work.
• Helps students acquire missing information and correct inaccuracies in their concepts through small group discussion, peer feedback, and debrief of activity as a class.
• Encourages students to visually organize, display and share their learning.
• Others?

Prepare Topics in Advance: 

• Select the topics, texts, prompts, or documents the students will use during the activity.
• Ensure that each prompt is equally challenged, clear and aligns with the outcomes of the lesson.
• Decide on subheadings or questions to scaffold student reflection and discussion.
• If possible, share these prompts with students prior to the class.
• Place one prompt as well as the subheadings or questions on each sheet of large paper, and display each prompt in a different location in the classroom. 
• Make sure the prompts, subheadings and questions are written in a large font and are legible.
• Have enough space to allow groups of students to cluster around each prompt while minimizing significant crowding between groups.
• If possible, create a visual map of where these working stations are going to be and share that with students before the class.

Introduce Activity and Groups: 

• Group students into teams of three to five students, depending on the size of the class. 
• If possible, plan the groups in advance and let students know which groups they will be working with.
• Provide the students with clear oral and written instructions of the activity, that is, that they will be asked to discuss a topic and record on their sheets of paper and then visit the work of the other groups and potentially add to their peers’ work. You can have instructions on the powerpoint and distribute them in a handout.
• Have students assign a note taker.
• Tell students that they will need to record their work on the paper in a neat, easy-to-read fashion, so their classmates can read it. 
• Let them know how long they will have to discuss in their small groups and record their findings on their respective pieces of paper, and offer time warnings during the activity.
• Check for any questions or misunderstandings around the expectations of the exercise.

Group Work: 

• Instruct each group to each work at their own station and remind them of the time for this portion of the activity.
• At their first station, groups will read what is posted and one recorder should write the group’s responses, thoughts, and comments on the large paper or white board.
• For individual student accountability, you may also have the students record their own responses on a worksheet or put their initials below what they wrote. Having different colored markers for each student is also an option.
• Monitor the groups and ask if there are any questions.
• If your TAs are monitoring the group work make sure they are clear on the learning outcome(s) of the activity and know what their role is in supporting the students.
• Provide a time warning for the group work to ensure each group has enough time to record their thoughts.

Rotate: 

• Now instruct each group to move clockwise (facing their paper) to the right to another group’s poster. 
• Ask students to assign one of their group members to read the poster out loud for their whole group.
• Instruct students, orally and in writing, to read and discuss the posters as a group, and add a new point or piece of evidence or write a counterpoint that they support with evidence. Or, they may write a question they need answered to understand what the group wrote.
• Provide time cues to switch to the next group or a time warning hallway through the rotation portion of the activity.

Return to original prompt: 

• After visiting other posters instruct the groups orally and in writing to return to their original posters.
• The self assigned “reader” will read what their peers have added to their poster and as a group, they discuss and respond to the questions.

Debrief and Reflection: 

• Once students have had a chance to view a sufficient number of the texts around the room, debrief the activity as a class. Depending on the goals of the gallery walk, this debrief can take a variety of forms.
• You can have a full class discussion where each group answers questions posed by others, or defends what they wrote based on any dissenting points
• You might ask students to share a takeaway orally or post online 
• You might ask students what conclusions they can draw about a larger question from the evidence they examined.
• You might take photos of the posters (and make these available for students) or leave them up so that students can revisit them if the material is needed for future assessments.
• Make sure to build on the ideas and questions generated by students in this activity in your following activities or classes.
• You could have students use the generated ideas for a homework assignment.

Step 1: Identify essential components

Identify the components/aspects of the gallery walk activity that are essential for learners to meet the learning outcomes of the lesson.

• How does gallery walk help learners meet the learning outcomes of the lesson?

Step 2: Identify obstacles

• Which parts of these essential components/aspects are an obstacle for this learner?

Step 3: redesign to remove obstacles

• How can we redesign these essential components to remove the obstacle for the learner but still equally support them to meet the LO of the lesson?

Using activity meta objectives to redesign for temporary accommodation:

Below is an example of a redesigned Gallery Walk activity while maintaining the activity’s meta objectives. I encourage you to engage in the same process to redesign this activity for other accommodation needs. 

This redesign removes the need to move around the classroom space to engage with the activity. This change can make the activity more accessible for students with physical disabilities including mobility impairments as well as medical disabilities. Instead of walking around the space, the posters are passed among the groups.

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