Dynamic Classroom Engagement through Gallery Walks: An Exploration of 5 Effective Strategies for Language Learning

Are you tired of watching your students fall asleep during class or scrolling through their phones with little to no engagement with the lessons? Want to bring life back into your language lessons? Look no further than Gallery Walks! This strategy gets your students moving while they engage with different tasks, but the key to success lies in designing purposeful and meaningful activities.

In this post, I dive into the three pillars of effective Gallery Walks and discover how this approach can elevate your students’ comprehension, communication, and connection in the target language. In episode 21 of Growing with Proficiency – The Podcast, I give examples and more details on this strategy. Click above to listen or go HERE to also get all the links I mention. 

By considering these three pillars when designing Gallery Walk tasks, you can create engaging and effective activities for your language students. This can lead to a more dynamic and active classroom experience and help students to develop their language abilities. Have you grabbed your FREE copy of my framework that details these pillars? Click HERE to download your copy. 

3 Pillars of Effective Gallery Walks for Engagement

The first pillar of designing successful Gallery Walks is comprehensibility. This means that the content used in the task should be within the language abilities of the students. This is important because students need to be able to understand the content in order to engage with it.

The second pillar is purpose with meaning. This means that the task should have a clear and meaningful purpose for the students. When students understand the purpose of the task, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated.

The third pillar is communication. This means that the task should involve communication between the students and with the teacher. It can involve speaking, writing, or both. Communication helps build connections between students and the teacher and helps students to engage with the content in a more meaningful way.

5 Effective Ways to Use Gallery Walks for Engagement 

Now, let’s look at different types of Gallery Walks for classroom engagement. I’m sharing five types that I use with my students. You can hear me explain these in more detail in episode 21 of the podcast. 

Image Gallery Walk

With this type of Gallery Walk, students are given descriptions and must match the image with the description. You can set this up inside or outside of your classroom. I like to do this in the hallway. Usually, I use about 10 images so students aren’t bunched up together. You can use 10 different ones or 5 images and then duplicate them. 

Images provide students with a visual representation of new vocabulary words and promote language acquisition by presenting words in context. You can give students different tasks for the images. For example, you can write different descriptions and pass them out. Then, students have to match the description with an image. As students advance, they can even write their own descriptions or select an image to write about, offering additional opportunities for language development and connection-building. I talk about more tasks in the podcast, listen above. 

Questions Gallery Walk

For this type, I put up about 15 different questions around the room. Students, sometimes in pairs, go around and answer the questions. You can also challenge them by telling them to answer a certain number of questions. By asking questions, students are encouraged to engage with the text and use their critical thinking skills to find evidence to support their answers. This type of gallery walk promotes critical thinking and encourages students to make connections between the text and their own experiences. I also like to have different levels of questions so all of my students feel successful when participating. 

Conversation Gallery Walk

This type is really good for engagement. I put up topics or questions for my students and give them a certain amount of time to write their answer or what they know about the topic. Students select a picture or topic and write down their thoughts.

Then, they have 2 minutes to discuss and ask questions with a partner or in a small group. This type of Gallery Walk encourages students to use the target language to communicate their thoughts and ask questions. By engaging in these student-led conversations, students are able to build their communication skills and become more confident in using the target language. In episode 21, I talk about how I first model this type of Gallery Walk before having my students participate. Listen HERE. 

Brainstorm Gallery Walk

Brainstorm Gallery Walks are great for reviewing or finding out what students know about a topic before a unit. I usually make posters or you can use legal sized paper for this. Students write down anything they know about the specific topic or picture. This type of Gallery Walk also provides students with an opportunity to share their knowledge and use the target language to describe their thoughts. As students share their thoughts and ideas, they are able to expand their vocabulary and develop their creativity.

Presentation Gallery Walk

This is the one I used when I started doing Gallery Walks. Students work individually or in pairs on different topics related to a theme and present to a small group of their peers. I also give my students a purpose for their research. I provide more of an explanation about this HERE. 

This type of Gallery Walk provides a low-pressure environment for students to practice their presentation skills and encourages engagement between students. By presenting to a small group of peers, students are able to receive constructive feedback and improve their presentation skills while also honing their critical listening skills. A fun way to also do this is to record the presentations, then create a QR code and print them on sheets of paper to be placed in the hallway. Then, students and faculty can scan the code and watch each presentation. My students love this! I hope that you found this helpful and inspiring.

Listen to episode 21 of Growing with Proficiency – The Podcast for more tips and information on doing these Gallery Walks for higher classroom engagement. You can also find all of the podcast episodes HERE. Don’t forget to also grab your FREE copy of my framework HERE.