Gallery Walk - Stat Style

Remember that blizzard that hit the midwest two weeks ago today? Yeah, well, yesterday (Feb 14th) was the first day I had seen my students since Jan 31st. In AP, time is a very precious thing because we have a lot to cover and every day is really special to us. Thankfully I was a bit ahead before the storm AND the AP exam was moved to the 2nd week of testing this year, so I'm not frantic - yet! I was in the middle of teaching confidence intervals for proportions when the storm hit and I really feared that the cobwebs would take awhile to clear in order to get us back on track. Yesterday I did the half sheet review and it went very smoothly. The kiddos settled back into the routine like no time had passed at all! Since for each halfsheet, they have to come up for me to check it, I was able to clarify thinking and remind them of details quickly and more effectively than I could have through lecture. However, I knew I needed more practice on confidence intervals before the chapter quiz, and then a brainstorm hit - GALLERY WALK! :)

The idea behind a Gallery Walk is pretty simple and I had used it before in workshops, but never with my students. I didn't know how well it would work at all, but I really liked it! Last night, I took a worksheet with 7 confidence interval problems and printed it. Today, I cut those problems apart and posted the problem and a piece of chart paper around my room. When the students got to class, they worked on their warmup in their groups while I went around and gave each group a different colored marker. Then we got started. Each group went to a piece of chart paper and read the prompt. Then as a group, they decided what the parameter of interest was and wrote that down. When all of the groups were done, we rotated clockwise to the next chart paper station. The group then read the new prompt and the previous group's work. With a new group member as the writer, they corrected the previous group's work and then continued the problem by checking the conditions needed for a confidence interval. Again, when all groups were done, we rotated clockwise again. Repeat with a new group member as the writer, read the prompt, check the two previous groups' work, then continue the problem with the name of the procedure and the calculations of the interval. Again, when done, rotate to new station, marker goes to a new writer, read the prompt, correct the previous groups' work, and write a conclusion for the problem. Finally, the writing is all done. They rotate once more to read and check the previous work. Now comes the self-checking part. Each group rotates back through the posters they had written on to see what errors had been caught by someone else. Here is a completed poster:

So how did it go? I think today's activity was a success. For the most part, the kids did really well working together and moving about. When I read over their work, rarely was there an error, so I was glad to see that. I have pretty much taught this chapter with no direct instruction, so I am eager to see how they do on Thursday's quiz. Overall, I would deem this a success and will try it again when we do hypothesis testing... which reminds me, I need more chart paper :)

Til next time.... :)