Taking A Gallery Walk: A Teaching Strategy

Gallery walks turn your classroom into an educational showcase!

Your cooperative small groups have worked hard, creating amazing examples of the skill that you've taught. Have you  thought of how to show the rest of the class what everyone has done? What about having a gallery walk?

What is a gallery walk?

A gallery walk is a way to showcase student work in the classroom. Student work is posted around the room so that everyone can see what has been accomplished.

How does it work?

1.  Student groups complete an activity with a presentable result (poster, diagram, diorama, storyboard, etc.) that can be understood without verbal explanation.
2. These finished exhibits are posted around the room (with adequate room between them) after all groups have finished their work.
3. Once these exhibits are posted, the teacher discusses the parameters of viewing (behavior norms: such as "no running or talking," and viewing norms: such as "see - don't touch,"
4. You establish a timeline for each stop and give an audible signal for group movement to each exhibit. 
5. Each group moves as a unit and visits each product in order. (You circulate to encourage on task performance)
6. You  may want groups to complete a review card/rubric for each product they see. 
7. Discuss the exhibits as a whole afterwards, and have groups share the highlights of what they saw.

Why should we use this strategy?

• Students take pride in producing quality work when they know it will be displayed to others.
• The exhibits provide students with ideas of how to present their own work.
• The walk gets students out of their seats, with a purpose.
• This strategy enhances the class-building environment, as students share what they can do. 

Is this something that you could use in your classroom?

  Queen Bee

Text Rendering: A Teaching Strategy

Text rendering is a great strategy for analyzing text

Here is another strategy that is useful in the classroom. This is a great strategy to use when you are trying to get students of varying abilities to read and respond to text, and also contribute to a whole class discussion. Let's learn about toolkit strategy#2: text rendering.

What Is Text Rendering?

It’s a strategy used to read and analyze any type of reading passage.

How Does It Work?


1. Students are asked to read a selected passage.

2. They think about what they have read, and then highlight a meaningful word, phrase and sentence. This strategy asks students to read, comprehend the text, evaluate what they have read and then synthesize what they have read in order to select the most meaningful bits.

3. The teacher then asks each student to share out the sentence, then the selected phrase and lastly, the word that they have chosen. The shared selections are read aloud without comments or judgment. Repeated selections are allowed.

4. The students then engage in an oral  reflection of the rendering. There is also a discussion about any selections that have been shared  by several students. Students will often see that they share similar ideas about what they’ve read. 

Students like this strategy because it is low stress, everyone participates and it doesn't spotlight students with low reading levels or ability. (Students who are problem readers will be able to just repeat a word/phrase/sentence that they've heard.) The power of this strategy is that it focuses attention on the key elements of the text. 

How do you think that you can use this strategy in your classroom?


  Queen Bee

3-2-1: A Teaching Strategy

                                       


During your career as an educator you will develop loads of activities, ideas and tips that you use throughout your practice. Here is a great activity: The 3-2-1 strategy.

What is the 3-2-1 strategy?

One of the hallmarks of a great lesson or presentation is being able to finish it with an activity that brings all of the lesson elements together. You want your audience to remember the highlights of the lesson, and leave with information that can be used in the future. The 3-2-1 strategy is great to use because it summarizes key information in a clear and concise way. I've used it with students in class, and I've used it as an evaluation tool with adults as well. Your creativity will determine how you want to present this chart - as a listed version, as a chart or as a table. Younger students can use pictures instead of words. 

How Does It Work?


Simply fill out a 3-2-1 form with information that will summarize the learning. As the name implies, the form appears in descending order, with 3 items, then 2, then 1.

Here's an example of things you could include in a generic form:

• 3 Things You Found Out
• 2 Interesting Things
• 1 Question You Still Have

When Can I Use This Strategy?

Use this strategy whenever you want to gauge learning or evaluate a process: as an exit ticket, a evaluation tool or as the introduction to a class discussion.

The labels for the 3-2-1 form  are the things you ask, and they can change according to the audience:

• In  professional development sessions:

3 things I learned from this workshop; 2 questions that I have; one "lightbulb" moment,

• In art class:

3 words that describe this picture; 2 art styles that are shown; one title I could use for this picture,

• In literacy class:

3 major characters from the story; 2 conflicts that were developed in the plot; 1 theme,

• In math class:

3 important facts in a math word problem; 2 steps that need to be used to solve the problem; 1 extraneous fact that can eliminated from the problem

• In science class:

3 states of matter; 2 types of chemical bonds; and 1 basic  building block of matter

Have fun with this new tool!

    

Queen Bee