Pedagogical Approaches With Canvas

Gallery Walk

How to Use Gallery Walk
Impact on Learning
Assessment Strategies
Gallery Walk in Canvas
Relevant Technologies
Things to Consider
Bibliography

Gallery walk is an active teaching strategy that gets students out of their seats and moving around the classroom to different learning stations that display artifacts related to the class activities. A gallery walk is a good way to assess what students have learned about the content being taught. The artifacts of a gallery walk can be anything from open-ended questions about the content being taught, to photographs related to the content, or even to demonstrations or finished projects. Often students work through a gallery walk in pairs or small groups. Each group visits each display station, taking notes on what they learn, then talking afterward to reflect upon their learning.

Gallery walks can be designed as a virtual digital activity for online learning. “Instead of displaying artifacts on poster board, paper, or canvas, students in an online environment can first create a digital learning artifact such as an infographic, slideshow movie, or web flyer and then post a link…” (Fegely & Cherner, 2022).

How to Use Gallery Walk

The following are some of the ways this teaching approach is used to engage students.

Current events: Students working in groups can follow a topic in current events, then organize a gallery walk to inform their peers about topics in the news and decide how to take action. Resources might include photographs, maps, infographics, articles, editorial cartoons, essays, videos, and whatever else they can find to immerse others in the topic.

Literature: To build background for assigned readings for the unit, have students complete a gallery walk with primary sources. Sources can include poetry, images, and quotes from historical figures.

Science: Students can gain experience with synthesizing variables involved in soil formation for different environments by studying climate, vegetation, parent material, topography, and time and how each contributes to soil properties. Students rotate through different stations, each has different images of soil from five different locations, showing both a surface view depicting land use as well as a soil profile. At each station, students make notes regarding their observations of the variables listed.

Step-by-step directions on how to create a gallery walk activity are available from SERC.

Impact on Learning

According to “Why Use Gallery Walk?” by SERC (2023a), this strategy can impact instruction through:

  • dedicating time for students to practice discussing, debating, organizing, and writing about the topic rather than just hearing ideas presented by the instructor
  • promoting the use of higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and synthesis
  • emphasizing the collaborative, constructive nature of knowledge
  • encouraging alternative approaches to problems, as students are exposed to a variety of perspectives posted at different discussion “stations”
  • reassuring students that their voices, ideas, and experiences are valued
  • providing an opportunity to gauge prior knowledge, skills, and misconceptions
  • promoting team building, fostering debate, and encouraging consensus as students work together to accurately represent group members’ ideas at different gallery walk “stations”
  • encouraging movement around the classroom as groups move from “station” to “station”

Assessment Strategies

Gallery walks can be assessed either informally or formally. A simple informal assessment might include a brief discussion about the process while more formal evaluations may involve oral or written presentations.

Exit tickets can also be used for assessment. Instructors can distribute exit tickets or reflection sheets at the end of the gallery walk. The exit ticket asks students to summarize their key takeaways, pose questions, or share their thoughts on what they learned. This provides an opportunity for individual reflection.

Rubrics can be used as a form of formal evaluation. Rubrics for oral reports, group work, and written reports all have evaluation criteria that can be useful for assessing the success of a gallery walk. Examples of rubrics for gallery walks are available at SERC.

Gallery Walk in Canvas

In Canvas, VoiceThread can be used to create and conduct an online digital gallery walk. VoiceThread is an online communication and presentation tool that can be used to easily share images, videos, voice comments, documents, and written comments. Penn State provides students and faculty access and support to using VoiceThread.

Relevant Technologies

Online digital gallery walk: To conduct a gallery walk online, use Sites at Penn State to create a course wiki with a page for each gallery walk exercise. Students are assigned to groups for each problem or project. They then create the content for each station in digital format. The students can visit and view the answers or projects posted for each of the virtual stations and they can continue to add content, edit, and correct any of the problems they worked on.

QR codes: Create QR codes that link to short passages of text, images, datasets, video clips, or audio clips related to the topic you are teaching. Tape the QR codes up around the room. Provide students with a graphic organizer, guided notes sheet, or reflection sheet to complete as they scan the QR codes and examine each resource.

VoiceThread: This is an online communication and presentation tool that can be used to easily share images, videos, voice comments, documents, and written comments. Penn State provides students and faculty access and support to using VoiceThread.

Things to Consider

For successful implementation of the gallery walk, you should consider the following strategies:

  • Divide participants into groups.
  • Assign each group a specific segment of the topic being covered.
  • Be clear that each person must understand the text and images on the poster to present the information effectively.
  • Allow time for the groups to help one another focus on key components to be shared at each station.
  • Use whatever space you have available around the room or in the hallway.
  • Give specific directions at which station each group will start and what the rotation will look like.
  • Identify a speaker for each station.

Plan a short activity to debrief after all groups have visited each station.

Bibliography

Cabal, C. (2021, February 4). Digital gallery walks with QR codes for creative writing. Blog De Cristina. https://www.cristinacabal.com/?p=14406

Fegely, A., & Cherner, T. (2022, June 24). Digitalizing gallery walks: A method for student-centered feedback and engagement. Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida. https://topr.online.ucf.edu/digitalizing-gallery-walks-a-method-for-student-centered-feedback-and-engagement/

Francek, M. (2006). Promoting discussion in the science classroom using gallery walks. Journal of College Science Teaching, 36(1), 27–31. https://my.nsta.org/click?file=jcst0609_27.pdf

Gonchar, M. (2014, October 7). 50 ways to teach with current events. The Learning Network, The New York Times. https://archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/50-ways-to-teach-current-events/?_r=0

Hogan, J. (n.d.). Gallery walks. Missouri S&T. https://sites.google.com/a/mst.edu/certi/flc-active-learning/gallerywalks

Noah, T. (2022, August 18). 8 ways to use QR codes in the classroom. Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. https://citl.news.niu.edu/2022/08/18/8-ways-to-use-qr-codes-in-the-classroom/

Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College. (2023a, October 18). Why use gallery walk? Starting Point – Teaching Entry Level Geoscience. https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/gallerywalk/why.html

Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College. (2023b, November 6). What is gallery walk? Starting Point – Teaching Entry Level Geoscience. https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/gallerywalk/what.html

Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College. (2024, January 9). Assessing gallery walk. Starting Point – Teaching Entry Level Geoscience. https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/gallerywalk/assessment.html

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