Spring Survival Tip #5: Have a Gallery Walk

Have you heard of a gallery walk? That's my fifth spring survival tip! Have your students help you post information around the classroom, and then have your students rotate from one poster, chart paper, or trifold to the next. It gets them moving and keeps them engaged, so click through to learn more about it.

These last few weeks of school are brutal–for us and the students. They don’t want to be there, and we don’t want to fight for their attention.

If you’ve been following my blog for the past few weeks, you know I’ve been counting down to summer break with spring survival tips. If you haven’t, feel free to check out tips #9, #8, #7, and #6. Just click on the numbers to read what you missed.

All caught up? Good…Now you’re ready for spring survival tip #5….

Have a Gallery Walk

This is a particularly difficult time of year. Remember the first few days of school when you could talk and talk, and the students would listen? Those days are rapidly fading from my memory as the end approaches.
 
We have to keep on, though, don’t we? There’s still more to teach. So. Much. More.
 
But why force-feed the curriculum if we don’t have to? And we don’t have to…most of the time.
 
I used to think that the only way for them to “get” what they needed to know was for me to tell them. And that works sometimes. Yet, at the end of the year, I find that they just don’t listen. They may act like they do. But they don’t.
 
That’s where a gallery walk really helps. With a gallery walk, they can tell each other.
 
So try assigning students a task–it can be a well-planned-out project that they research and put onto decorated trifolds, or it can be a series of task cards, split-up, that they place the answers for around the room on chart paper. 
 
Either way–give students a task. Have them post information around the room, turn the students loose to rotate and take notes from the chart paper/ posters/trifolds. Then give them a quiz from their notes.
 
You work less-they’re engaged more. It’s a win-win.
 
At the end of the year, this is what they want, and what you need.

Be sure to check out my FREE Culture Gallery Walk HERE.
How do you keep your students engaged and yourself sane at the end of the year? Leave a comment below, and let me know!

Incorporating a gallery walk activity for secondary classrooms can significantly enhance student engagement and learning retention.

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