Superlative Gallery Walk [Lesson Plan]

By Yoshika Wason

Through a combination of movement and interesting questions, this lesson will wake up sleepy students and also keep energetic students engaged.

Title: Superlative Gallery Walk

Time: About 50 minutes

Level: High School, Middle School

Description:

This lesson has students answer questions about their classmates using the following superlatives: most, best, -est, and most likely to. For example, students will answer questions like who is the best dancer? and who is the most fashionable? The “gallery walk” format of the lesson has students circulate around the perimeter of the classroom, modeling the way visitors at a museum circulate when looking at art pieces in a gallery.

A visual representation of a gallery walk from Mud and Ink Teaching

Tips:

• Check in with your JTE before trying this lesson. While the possibility is very low, some students can use the opportunity to answer questions about their classmates to bully others. For this reason, scan all answers before announcing them to the whole class. Know your class well before trying this lesson.
• The best time to do this lesson is at the end of the semester or school year.
• During the gallery walk, make sure students are circulating and not bottle-necking in certain areas. If this is a problem, time their stay at each question.

Adapting the gallery walk for other lessons:

• On each piece of paper, write a short grammar, spelling, or vocabulary question. Students answer the questions on a separate answer sheet as they circulate throughout the room.
• Have students react to questions, quotes, statistics, and graphs surrounding a chosen topic. Encourage students to write a short response to each piece of information directly on the gallery walk paper. Other students can then read and reply to their classmate’s responses in addition to the original piece of information.
• If you have a lesson where students read a passage from a textbook or worksheet and answer reading comprehension questions about it, you can easily adapt it into a gallery walk by dividing each paragraph and question into stations.
• For a lesson on adjectives, bring in realia that students have to describe like stuffed animals, coins, and cooking utensils. Set each object at a station lining the perimeter of the room. Students write down their description for each object as they circulate throughout the room.

Files:

Superlative Gallery Walk Lesson Plan & Materials

Sources:

• Gallery walk diagram from Mud and Ink Teaching 
• Museum photo from Unsplash