Work on walls

Work on walls (a.k.a Informal learning,Butchers paper activity) allows students to collaborate in groups and physically move around the teaching space to complete tasks and achieve the desired outcome. Any tasks where students are solving something, producing something, or where students can draw or sketch may benefit from using this approach. Some teaching spaces have whiteboards installed or located around the room, allowing students to work directly on these surfaces. However, in other spaces the impact can be achieved using large paper sheets.

Working on walls has the added benefit of allowing ideas to be effectively presented to and by the group. Groups are able to present their ideas or solutions to the class directly from the whiteboard.

Work on walls is

effective for:

best to pair with:

  • Clarifying understanding
  • Collaboration and cooperation
  • Critical thinking
  • Conceptualising systems, structures or processes
  • Brainstorming
  • Case studies
  • Concept maps
  • Interactive diagrams

Example 1

The educator assigns groups of students to each of the boards set up in the room (four or more works best), and assigns one topic/ question per board. After each group writes an answer, they rotate to the next board and write their answer below the first, and so on around the room.

Example 2

Students call out concepts and terms related to a topic about to be introduced; the group scribe writes them on the board. If possible, students group them into categories as they record the responses. This activity works to gauge pre-existing knowledge and focus attention on the subject.