It is very important for teachers to address a variety of different learning styles, including the kinesthetic learning style in which learning takes place by the student actually carrying out a physical activity, rather than listening to a lecture or merely watching a demonstration.

Unfortunately, all too often, the kinesthetic learning style is overlooked in our schools. However, kinesthetic learning activities are a great way to spark student interest early in a unit or can even be used as a unit assessment or culminating activity at the end of a unit. One of my favorite kinesthetic learning activities is called the Gallery Walk.

In a gallery walk students create and collect a range of visual material about a single subject that is to be displayed in the classroom in a gallery style. Students will then walk around the “gallery” examining the various material and comment on the teacher created prompts that are posted at each station.

The materials for the gallery walk can be anything related to the subject, including books, photographs, web sites, music, quotes, maps, poems, graphs, charts, paintings, cartoons, newspaper articles, video etc. These materials can be created by the students or not. Students can be given class time to brainstorm ideas, research, and create, as well time at home to collect the materials. Once all the materials are collected and delivered to the teacher, the teacher will display the materials around the classroom grouped in general themes. Next, the teacher will post prompts and/or questions at each station for the students to answer or comment about as they walk around the classroom.

Gallery walks can be as short as 10-15 minutes in an attempt to spark student interest at the beginning of a unit. Or, gallery walks can span several class periods. They can be done with the students working as individuals or can used more as cooperative learning lessons by having students work in groups. If the teacher allows students to work in groups then roles can be assigned such as a note taker, recorder, and presenter. This gives each student in each group a specific task. At the end of the gallery walk, each group can have their presenter give a quick oral presentation to the class.

A gallery walk addresses the kinesthetic learning style in way that is flexible enough for teachers to implement in a variety ways, it has students actively involved in their learning, and is one of many kinesthetic learning activities that students will truly enjoy.

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In today’s world it is even more important than ever for teachers to create critical thinking lesson plans that challenge students to think for themselves. One of my favorite critical thinking lesson plans is called the Four-Corners Debate. In this critical thinking activity, students organize their point of view on a particular controversial statement into one of four categories: strongly agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, or strongly disagree.

Here are the steps:

1. Post signs in the corners of the classroom designating each corner into four categories (strongly agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, strongly disagree.)

2. Present a controversial statement to the class based on the content of your unit. For example, after completing a unit on World War II, a teacher may make the following statement: President Truman was justified in using the atomic bomb to end World War II.

3. Provide students a few minutes to write down their position and explanation on a piece of paper. This will prevent students from simply following their friends during the next step.

4. Students then move to the corners that most closely correspond with their opinion.

5. Once students are in their corners, allow the groups time discuss their position and the reasons for their responses. Teachers may wish to assign roles prior to this step such as a note taker, discussion leader, time keeper, presenter etc.

6. At the end of the discussion time, have one student from each group present their group’s position

7. While each group is presenting make sure to have students complete a graphic organizer or chart explaining each position.

8. Once all groups have shared, allow students to change their position by having each student write a final position statement that incorporates the points brought up in the Four-Corners Debate.

These types of critical thinking lesson plans not only address higher order thinking skills, but they are also easy to implement. Furthermore, these critical thinking lesson plans work as a great way to spark student motivation to learn.

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Try a Book Pass.

A book pass provides students with the opportunity to briefly examine a significant number of books.

Simply split students into small groups and provide each group with a variety of books on a given topic. Give students three minutes to examine their particular piece of reading and have them complete a 3-column note chart (Title/Author/Comment).

After their 3 minutes is up have the students “pass” their books to the person sitting next to them. Repeat the process until all the books in the groups have been examined.

This is a great way to spark student interest in reading and introduce new units as well.

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