Educational strategies need do evolve in order to stay relevant. Over the last few years teachers at CCS have been reviewing different Learning Protocols and FLEx activities. One protocol that we enjoy using is the “Gallery Walk”.
Recently the grade 11/12 Composition 11 class was given a technical assignment in writing instructions. A gallery walk was incorporated in the learning and assessment portion of the assignment. Students’ finished assignments were hung around the room and they were given a set of learning targets with which to assess each others’ work.
The benefits of using this strategy are numerous and include :
- Students are moving! So much of the day is spent sitting at desks. With a gallery walk, students get to stretch their legs, get blood flow going and are actively engaged with the topic.
- Students learn to critique kindly yet effectively.
- Students learn to take critique constructively.
- It promotes skills like analysis, evaluation and synthesis.
- It is a great demonstration of “more heads are better than one” and that collaboration often leads to a stronger project outcome.