We have all attended poster sessions at conferences or in the workplace. The presenters are passionate about their topic and so is their audience—or they wouldn't have stopped by that session! Think about the energy created as people share ideas, build on those ideas, and ask questions. Create that same kind of excitement and interest with students by assigning a gallery walk, an activity that gets students out of their chairs engaging with the course content and each other.
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First, think about the purpose and objectives of the gallery walk. Will students teach content or present research ideas to their peers? Will they explore a topic in depth, present a single argument, or engage in a discussion? A gallery walk doesn’t have to be an activity where students present a major project. A gallery walk can simply be an activity that requires students to get up and move to a different location, talk with different students to exchange ideas, and interact with course content on a personal level. And it is a great way to help students get to know each other and build class community.
Below are three suggestions for how to do a gallery walk:
Four Corners
Four corners is an example of an activity that might be done near the end of the course, or the end of a particular unit, as a way
for students to reflect on their cumulative learning. Choose four aspects of a topic that your class has focused on. Assign each of these aspects to a corner (or an area) of your room. Outline the topic and the four related aspects to the whole group and give the students some individual "think time." Students can then choose a corner to discuss and document the topic, based on what they’ve learned over the course of the class or unit.
Representatives from each corner can summarize and share what their respective groups discussed. Having groups report out serves as a formative assessment of learning by encouraging students to take the task seriously. “Assessment helps expose misconceptions and suggests concepts in need of further review. Informal evaluation is quick, simple, and does not usually count for a grade” (Francek, 2006, 31).
Example: At the end of a Women’s Studies course students are asked to debrief and reflect on how women have impacted and been impacted by political issues in America. Students can choose to go to one of the four following topics: Voting Rights, Equal Rights, Employment Rights, or Reproductive/Contraception Rights. Students can write points on large poster paper or other writable surface as they hold a discussion. If time allows, students can move to another corner. At the end of the activity, students from each group will report out.
Directions for Students:
Variation for Remote Learners: The four corners activity can also be done remotely using Zoom breakout rooms. Instructors can create four (or more) breakout rooms and allow students to self-select a breakout room. As groups discuss the topic, they can add their ideas to a shared Google Doc or Slide. When groups report out, one of the group members can share their screen to show their group’s talking points. If the class is working on a single slide show or document, the instructor can share the screen and advance the document or slides.
Sticky Note Brainstorm
Write several critical questions on large poster paper or whiteboard and space evenly around the room. Provide students with a small stack of sticky notes. Students visit each question individually and write an answer on their sticky notes and attach the sticky note around the questions. On the second rotation around the room, encourage them to respond to other students' sticky note answers with further questions or expansions on another of their own sticky notes. Encourage students to take a picture of the brainstorming charts that result for future reference.
In a large class, consider doing this in sections, as too many sticky notes begin to make the aggregate too difficult to read or respond to in a timely manner.
Variation for Remote Learners: Sticky note brainstorming can be done as an online activity using several Google Jamboards.
Round Robin
Round robin is a small group activity where students stay in their groups as they respond to various prompts. The prompts are written out and spaced out evenly around the classroom. Groups discuss a given question for 5-10 minutes while the assigned recorder takes notes on a pad of paper or other writable surface by the question. When time is up, the groups leave their notes and move to the next station, where they can add new comments to the other groups’ notes. Before everyone sits back down, students should be given time to go back around to each question station to see how the responses evolved. Students can reflect on this learning experience by an individual writing assignment or whole-class discussion. Remind students to take pictures of the completed charts with their cell phone to use as a reference for the reflection activity.
Variation for Remote Learners: A round robin activity can be done online by preparing a Google Doc for each question, and re-using Zoom breakout room assignments, giving each group the link to a different Doc each time.
Try one of these gallery walks to get students out of their seats (physically or virtually) and engaged with the course material and with each other. If you’d like to discuss how to best use such activities in your own course, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] or request a one-on-one consultation with one of the Learning and Teaching consultants.
References:
Francek, N. (2006). Promoting discussion in the science classroom using gallery walks. Journal of College Science Teaching, 36(1), 27-31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42993895
