Want to make your classroom more interactive, but don’t know how?
Start with Walking Tours!
Walking Tours get your students up moving around the classroom, provide them all the content on a topic in a visually appealing manner and encourage discussion of the content to help with retention and application.
Here’s the simple how-to:
- Create or purchase ready-made Walking Tour resources. Collect vibrant images, interesting quotes, thorough content, and engaging questions that will foster discussion. Place the information on printable cards that can be arranged in your classroom setting.
- Print (in color when possible) and laminate the cards for year-to-year use.
- Organize the tour in a chronological or thematic manner around your classroom. Add other media to enhance skills and learning process. Consider atlases, maps, almanacs, books, bookmarked novels, additional images, etc.
- Assign students in small groups (2-4) to travel in as they collect information from each location or time period on the tour.
- Go over the rules for your classroom regarding voice levels, walking standards, and collaboration basics!
- Provide students a graphic organizer or tour worksheets for completion and note-taking as they move around the room.
- Circulate from location to location with students. Ask additional questions or point out interesting content as you engage with groups. Clarify student confusion or answer questions as needed. DO NOT answer the student questions provided at each tour location, but direct students to the materials for consideration!
- Set a timer or use online-stopwatch.com to keep students focused and on task. Remind students of time demands as you circulate.
- Assess students as you circulate. Consider participation, skills practice, or reading for content as assessment criteria.
- Allow students time after completing all locations to answer wrap-up or comparison questions. Encourage group discussion for completion.
- Review the key content as a whole class. Discuss interesting parts of the activity and answer student questions.
- Refer back to the activity in later lessons and use activity clues in unit tests.
Allowing students to get up and move around for content-strong lessons will teach them that learning can be fun. More importantly, they will be practicing skills of reading, content collection, and analysis that are so vital for learning in the 21st century!
***My Walking Tour of the Industrial Revolution was used in this activity description. Find it and others in my TpT Store!
Be sure to see my other How-To Series topics on my blog and visit my TpT Store for engaging, content strong lessons!
Happy Touring!