You have a lot of material to cover. But your students’ brains are winding down for the end of the day (or month, or school year), and you’re wondering how to engage them in a lesson that’s going to require authentic thinking and learning. Gallery walks are the perfect tool you need to engage middle school students. This instructional strategy includes socialization, movement, and a variety of cognitive skills! What more do you need to hear? Okay, I’ll tell you a little bit more.

Real quick, though…what is a gallery walk? This instructional strategy includes several images or texts (usually excerpts) placed around a classroom. In small groups, or at their own individual pace, students visit each part of the “gallery” and respond to the image or text. You can have preprepared questions or ask students to respond organically. Students can either respond in a graphic organizer or notebook, but a great collaborative option is to have students place post-it notes with their thoughts around the image. That way, other students can add on to the thinking of another.

As promised, here are the 5 reasons gallery walks are right for your middle school classroom!

Gallery Walks are perfect for middle school students’ social development.

Middle school students want to talk to their friends ALL. DAY. LONG. Gallery walks can provide that outlet for them. Talking with classmates helps students process new knowledge more effectively. Students also have an opportunity to practice using academic language. For example, if a prompt says “Analyze the population pattern in this graph,” students may first discuss the question itself to ensure they are responding correctly to the task.

Gallery walks help students move during the school day.

One of the major criticisms of traditional schools is that students sit at desks all day, and they rarely are provided breaks. My own middle school had no recess and no other form of a brain break, so my students sometimes sat at desks from 8:20-4 every single day. It’s time to change that!

Not only is movement throughout the day better for students’ health, but it’s also better for their learning! “Movement enhances the development of the neural connections in the brain, which enhances the child’s ability to learn.”* Movement also reduces behavior issues in the classroom. Students feel refreshed, and they often engage more in the learning process.

Gallery walks can be used with a variety of subjects.

Social studies runs the gamut with overlapping subjects. Economics includes computation and statistics. Geography includes spatial understanding. Government requires hierarchical thinking. And history asks students to utilize their bank of knowledge and place it in its correct context in order to analyze documents and events! Whew! Social studies teachers and students really do all the things.

Gallery walks can be organized in a way to utilize a variety of cognitive skills.

Because of the nature of gallery walks, students can practice different cognitive skills. Here are few quick ideas for each major social studies subject:

Economics: decipher and analyze population charts, looking for trends; brainstorm ideas for an entrepreneurial venture; evaluate a given budget and plan for a future expense; determine how various transportation systems work together to move goods

Geography: analyze the development of a business sector and its choices for location; identify the ways physical features of a region affect population patterns; explain the political organization of a region (i.e. counties, states, nations)

Government: demonstrate knowledge of the hierarchical structure of local or federal government; explain important governmental processes like the legislative process or the judicial process; formulate ideas for bills

History: identify important people and events of a given period; explain the significance of historical moments; compare historical figures and their influences; analyze primary source documents like letters, historical maps, or laws

You can pull any of the above to mix-and-match, creating a quality gallery walk that both engages your students and requires them to use a variety of cognitive skills.

Gallery walks are for the teacher who needs to be flexible.

Copier jammed? That’s okay. Internet out? We can work around that. Because a gallery walk doesn’t require each student to have his/her own copy of the learning materials, you only need anywhere from 4-10 sheets of paper to set up the gallery walk!

What kind of technology is available for your classroom? Can you access 5 tablets? Or can you reserve a computer lab? Do students have their own devices? You only need a handful of devices, carefully spread out around the classroom, to utilize this instructional strategy.

Are you still teaching virtually? Or do you want to use this activity asynchronously? Read this quick how-to article for virtual gallery walk implementation!

I used this Reconstruction Era Gallery Walk activity in my classroom, and my students loved it! So now it’s up in my TPT store for everyone to use!

So are you convinced? How can you use gallery walks in your next lesson? Tell me in the comments below!