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High Impact Strategy:

Inquiry Based Gallery Walk

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Unit: Human Impact on Climate

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Essential Questions for Human Impact on Climate Unit

What is climate change, and what causes it?
How are humans impacted by climate change? (What drives policy?)
What are the current policies around climate change? (What is the policy?)
What can we do about climate change? (How might we respond to policy?)

[5 minutes]

Provide the context for the high impact strategies participants will be learning by giving an overview of the unit in which the strategies appear: Human Impact on Climate. This interdisciplinary unit of study was designed for ELA and ELD classes that are taught in two separate periods and interrelated. That is, EL students are in an ELA class with both EL and English-proficient students where they are provided with ELA with integrated ELD and are also in a designated ELD class that amplifies what they are learning about in their ELA class.

This unit was adapted from an Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum with ELD (ERWC-ELD) unit, which is a project of the California State University Office of the Chancellor. It’s a free curriculum, after required training, and not from a for-profit publisher.

The unit is designed to engage students in deep analytical conversations about human impact on climate in our global society and pose legislative solutions for the issue in the form of a written argument. Throughout the module students build understanding about the effects humans have on climate through reading closely, analyzing and discussing texts on the topic of climate change, and writing to learn. Students are introduced to rhetorical concepts as they engage in different analysis tasks to discuss the purpose, structure, and linguistic features of these texts.

At the beginning of the unit, students build knowledge about climate change and its effects on our planet through close reading, discussion, and responding tasks, while they engage in language analysis tasks of science. Then they engage in exploring the role and perspective different participants have in the global discussion on climate change to build awareness of how rhetorical appeals work in the argument. Following this, they put that understanding into practice by constructing an argument in the form of a letter to a legislator or elected official, explaining the extent to which they support or disagree with the policy and or offer recommendations about climate change policy.

The culminating task takes the form of an argumentative letter to an elected official (at any level of government), expressing favor of or opposition to a particular legislative policy, which includes an explanation about the causes of climate change and its effects on a specific aspect of the environment related to the policy, and reasons and evidence for why the particular legislative action would benefit or harm constituents. The culminating task asks students to draw from their learning about climate change and climate change policies to respond to a policy about climate change or propose a climate change policy. The culminating task for designated ELD will be for students to argue their policy positions or present their proposals in the form of a five to seven-minute town hall speech.

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High Impact Strategy:�Gallery Walk

Overview:

Imagine you are in an art gallery.
Use your background knowledge and prior experiences to analyze a series of photos about climate change.
In triads, observe, question, and make inferences about the photos.

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Gallery Walk: Prepare

Step 1: Make sure you have your note catcher and know where to find the photos.
Step 2: Meet with your triad and introduce yourselves.
Step 3: View image closely without talking.
Step 4: Describe what you see, in any language/format you feel comfortable

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Students will view closely silently first.

After viewing silently, students talk to partner with any language needed to make meaning.

How would you describe the picture?

Source: Washington Post “New Yorkers wade through waist-deep floods to reach their trains as storms pummel the city” 9 July 2021

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Gallery Walk: Triad Discussion

Step 5: In your triad, discuss what you see in the picture using phrases such as:

I see….
I notice….
I wonder…
I suspect…

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Source: Washington Post “New Yorkers wade through waist-deep floods to reach their trains as storms pummel the city” 9 July 2021

Verbally describe the photograph

I see….

I notice….

I wonder…

On your own vocabulary:

Illustrates

Detect

Observe

vocabulary specific to your unit

How are humans impacted by climate change?

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Cause and Effect

How are humans impacted by climate change?

Some effects I see are…

I suspect some impacts are_____.

_____ has been impacted by_____, thus_____

On your own:

As a result

Consequently

Has been caused by

How are humans impacted by climate change?

Source: Washington Post “New Yorkers wade through waist-deep floods to reach their trains as storms pummel the city” 9 July 2021

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Gallery Walk: Triad Discussion

Step 6: Each person takes notes on their note taker.
Step 7: Rotate to the next poster at the 3-minute signal and repeat steps 4 and 5.

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Gallery Walk - Practice

With your partners, complete one picture of the gallery walk on “Climate Change” – start with the picture on the slide number that matches your room number

Take a few notes on your note-catcher

Be mindful of time, you have 7 minutes

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Gallery Walk: Key Take-aways & Connections

Scaffold and customized prompts for Language Proficiency Levels

Provide time to process

identify commonalities

use background knowledge in analyses

[3 minutes]

Explain the key take-aways on the slide for each phase of the gallery walk activity. Point out that these take-aways focus on the teacher and student moves that promote meaningful interaction with texts and topics and simultaneously develop content knowledge, disciplinary language, and collaboration skills. Ask participants if they noticed any other take-aways in terms of teacher or student moves.

Preparation

Teacher Moves: Provide an overview of the activity; explain the steps of the protocol. Scaffold and customized prompts for Language Proficiency Levels

Student Moves: Listen carefully; prepare materials.

Triad Analysis

Teacher Moves: Monitor discussions to provide in-the-moment scaffolding, as needed.

Student Moves: Observe carefully; use background knowledge in analyses; discuss observations in triads; listen carefully to others; take notes on key ideas.

Table Team Discussion

Teacher Moves: Provide time to process; structure discussions with guiding questions and turn taking; facilitate whole group debrief.

Student Moves: Discuss observations with table teams; identify commonalities; synthesize observations and find big ideas.

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Gallery Walk – Benefits for Multilingual Learners

Engages Students
Sparks curiosity/inquiry
Structured protocol to promote equity of voice – yet informal discussion
Relevant images
Listen to peers
Synthesize ideas verbally with peer

[3 minutes]

This approach engages students with a new topic by surfacing their background knowledge and having them begin to become curious about it.

The small group, informal discussion format with a structured protocol promotes equitable and respectful discussions where ML students have a safe space to share their knowledge, interpretations, and questions.

The use of relevant or enticing images, graphs, or photos encourages students to express their ideas because they are interested in talking about the content in them.

Listening to peers who may be more advanced in either content knowledge or language proficiency provides valuable exposure to new vocabulary used authentically and new content understandings explored meaningfully.

Discussing commonalities and synthesizing ideas verbally with peers (rather than alone in writing) provides an opportunity for students to simultaneously expand their growing understanding of the new topic and extend their discussion skills.

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Gallery Walk – Benefits for Multilingual Learners

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Gallery Walk – Benefits for Multilingual Learners

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Gallery Walk: Metacognition Moment

How is this an example of Asset- Based Pedagogy?
How might you make this gallery walk MORE Critically Conscious?

Be mindful of time, you have 10 minutes