What is a gallery walk? How can I use a gallery walk in my Spanish class? Why should I use a gallery walk in my Spanish class? If you’re wondering about any of these questions- keep reading!
What is a gallery walk?
In a traditional classroom, a gallery walk is an activity that many teachers use to get their students out of their seats and engaging with material or other students. Think of it as a fluid stations activity.
You can set up different questions, prompts, or projects for your students to “visit”. This can be done in groups or individually.
I love utilizing gallery walks when students have completed a project. It allows students to have more authentic and informal conversations with their classmates about projects that they just completed.
In times of COVID, when we have more restrictions, it may not be possible to get students up and moving physically. A virtual gallery walk is a great option because your students can engage with each other’s material without having to physically move. This is something that I have used a few times this year and it has worked really well!
How can I use a gallery walk in my Spanish Class?
1. After your students complete a project.
Do you know those projects that seem so great in theory but in reality are a real pain to sit through? A virtual gallery walk avoids this.
Once your students complete a project, you can have them share the links to their project and allow other students to “visit” their virtual projects.
Depending on the size of your class and how long your periods/blocks are you may change the following to best suit your needs.
How to hold a virtual gallery walk with a project:
- Assign your project
- Have students record their project using Loom (free for teachers and students!)
- Create a Google Doc with your students’ names
- Give Students editing access
- Students copy/paste their project link
- Give students a place to record key info- I use a Google Form that they must complete and submit at the end of the period. I ask a few questions related to the project that they viewed and I quickly scan to see that they listened.
One more great thing I absolutely love about Loom– it allows the viewer to react to the video using emojis. This is a fun way for students to engage with each other’s videos. They can also leave comments of questions or reactions that they have.
2. To promote collaboration:
In a normal classroom setting, students could approach a question or prompt with their classmates, then collaboratively answer or share their thoughts. The next group that arrived at the question or prompt would read the previous group’s answer and add on their thoughts or questions.
How can this be replicated in a virtual or hybrid classroom? Breakout Rooms.
Assign Breakout Rooms of 3-4 students. Have your prompts reading in separate google docs. Make sure the Doc is shareable and editable by students.
Assign each breakout room a google doc by simply sharing the “share link” in the breakout room chat. Students can collaboratively look at the doc and add their answers or questions in the Google Doc.
Once the determined time is up, you can share another prompt with them for them to work on. They can first see how another group reacted and then add their thoughts in the Google Doc.
This is a great way to promote collaboration but in a controlled way. It will take some juggling of the prompts on your part so I suggest that you create a Google Doc, number your prompts and have the shareable links all in one place- this will help cut down on the chaos.
Additionally, you can give your students a Google Doc that is numbered and has all of the shareable links in one place however, many times students will jump around or move ahead and not spend enough intentional time on one prompt. If your class is not too impulsive, then this will work for you and will definitely cut down on your end of the work during the gallery walk.
Most importantly:
Give your students something to do as they complete the gallery walk. Will they be adding to a Google Doc? Will they be answering questions in a Google Form? Outline clear expectations and share these with your students. This will cut down on any distraction and confusion.
If you’re looking for more ways to engage your students in your virtual classroom, try a Super Easy Digital Escape Room- read more about that here.
