If you've read my blog or bought any of my writing products from TpT, then you know that I am a huge fan of the Read-Around-Group. I love when kids read each other's writing and learn from each other. I always find that the whole revising/editing process is much more effective after kids have read their peers' papers and can use them as mentor pieces to improve their own writing.
But, just like ANYTHING in the classroom, no matter how effective, at some point, the kids (and you!) need a change and it's fun to shake things up! So, for this writing unit, I decided to forgo the Read-Around-Groups and replace it with a Gallery Walk.
The Gallery Walk isn't something new... folks have been using them for years in the classroom! A quick Google search will show you all kinds of ways that you can implement them in any subject.
Let me tell you how I made the Gallery Walk work in my classroom this week:
1.) Set up the room.
On each desk, I placed a rough draft (this is the 2nd draft of this paper that we've done and, like with Read-Around-Groups, kids didn't put their name on the top - just their birth date). I also put out a number card, a "nuggets of genius" paper, and a votive candle. I turned down the lights, put on some fun jazz music, and put our roaring fire video from YouTube up on the big screen.
2.) Give directions.
When the kids came in, I gave each of them a number and they had to go find the seat with that number card. After they all sat down, I explained that they will have three minutes to read the paper at that desk and leave the author a note about one of the nuggets of genius* they found in their piece.
3.) The Walk.
Every three minutes, the timer sounded and the kids got up and moved to the next desk. We continued this until the end of class. Each kid was able to read about 12-15 papers, and each writer got a note of 12-15 things their peers thought they did well.
4.) Debrief and Revise.
The next day, we talked about some of the good writing that we saw during our Gallery Walk and made a list of it on the board. Then, I set the kids off to work on their 3rd and final draft, encouraging them to include some of that "good stuff" in their own writing.
After all was said and done, I have to say that I liked this method a lot! The kids loved reading about their "nuggets of genius" and I was pleased to see how thoughtful some of the students were about what they observed. I'm thinking that I'll definitely use this method again - maybe even alternating between Read-Around-Groups and Gallery Walks for each paper we write.
Ever use a Gallery Walk? How do you make them work? I'd love to hear from you!
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*This year, I stopped marking all the stuff the kids did WRONG in their paper and replaced it with marking all the things they did RIGHT! What I found was that there were just SO.MANY.THINGS I could find that they did wrong... from incorrect punctuation, to forgetting capital letters, to using the "u" instead of "you," and so on! It was daunting for me and overwhelming for them to get a paper back full of corrections. Now, I focus on all the stuff they did RIGHT - their "nuggets of genius." I encourage them to look all the stuff they can do and keep on doing more of it each time! I am not sure if it's really made great improvements in the quality of their work (but I never found that "correcting" all their mistakes made a big difference either), but their attitudes about writing are a million times better (as is my attitude about grading their writing!) and for me that is the biggest hurdle to overcome!
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