Gallery Walk

Engaging Strategy
An engaging strategy guides participants to explain or apply ideas, elaborate on their thought processes, listen to each other and build upon the ideas of others, and reflect on and process what they are learning.
Description

Like viewers at a gallery, individuals or small groups of participants rotate from poster to poster, stopping to view, discuss, and add ideas at each station. Participants are provided with a scaffolding protocol to categorize and make connections between the posters.

When and Why

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This brainstorming activity allows individuals and small groups to discuss a variety of topics and learn from one another in a short amount of time. It creates a structure for participants to exercise their agency in a smaller venue than the whole group. The activity lends itself to a variety of grouping strategies (language, roles, affinity, random) that encourages divergent thinking and lively discussions.

How to Facilitate

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  1. Reflect on the current context, the demographics of participants, and the purpose of this engagement. 
  2. Share an overarching question with the group, such as, “How can we make our school environment safer for students?” 
  3. Hang posters with headings that relate to the overarching question around the room. For example, for the question “How can we make our school environment safer for students?”, the headings might be “Between Classes,” “At Dismissal,” “During Lunch,”  “During Class,” etc. 
  4. Divide participants into small groups, give each group a marker, and direct each group to one of the posters. Explain the overarching question, and review each of the poster topics. 
  5. Allow each group to gather at a poster for 3 to 5 minutes to share, discuss, and write down their responses to the category. 
  6. When time is up, ask the groups to rotate clockwise so each group is in front of a new poster to continue the activity. Each group now reads the offerings of the previous authors, adding a √ to indicate agreement and using sticky notes to add clarifying questions or comments/compliments. Rotate every 3 to 5 minutes, until every group has visited every poster.
  7. Next, allow time for individuals to silently walk around the room and read the completed posters, noting ideas that they agree with or that seem like something they’d like to try.
  8. Original group revisits their feedback and can make additions to their poster.
  9. Debrief: Ask participants from each group to respond to one of the questions or comments they received and share out their favorite idea, an insight, or a proposed next step.

Modification

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  • If space is limited, the “posters” can be sheets of paper that are passed from table to table.
  • In a virtual environment, virtual whiteboards or a slide deck can be set up ahead of time for pairs or small groups to chart their notes. 

How does Gallery Walk support SEL?

Social Awareness/Belonging:
Participants are encouraged to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. Facilitators create an experience of acceptance, respect, and inclusion within a group or community.

Responsible Decision-Making/Curiosity:
Participants have an opportunity to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations. Facilitators design an activity that leads to the pursuit of knowledge and different perspectives and contributes to attention, engagement, and learning.
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