word walls
A Definition
A word wall (alternately known as a graffiti wall) is a living, changing, interactive part of your classroom that showcases the relevant vocabulary for a unit of study. It should meet the following criteria:
A word wall is not a stagnant fixture in your room that you put up in August and leave there until May. It should change to reflect your changing unit and your students' changing content needs. Because of this, it should be fairly simple to put up and take down--thumb tacks, tape, staples, etc.
Put your word wall in a place where you will remember to reference it, and where your students will be able to easily pull information from it. Putting your word wall in that damp, dark corner in the back where the spiders live doesn't do anyone any good, except perhaps the spiders. Consider using the strip of wall just under the ceiling, or the windows, or the space around your SmartBoard as a canvas.
Just like it's not very effective to give students a list of 30 words and tell them to learn them, it's not terribly effective to slap those same words up on the wall for the students to stare at. Your word wall doesn't just have to be a big list of words. It can incorporate definitions, synonyms, antonyms, pictures, example sentences, and all kinds of other things to help your kids make connections to the words they need to know. This is a major component of making it visually impactful. If kids are going to learn from it, they have to want to see it, and an interesting concept map or a picture is more interesting and helpful than just a word.
If you read that last piece and started to panic, stop. Breathe. The creation of the word wall does not fall on you alone. It's time to put those kids to work. On the following pages, you will see three options for not only getting your kids interacting with vocabulary in meaningful ways, but also creating the easily changeable, highly visible, multi-dimensional, visually impactful pieces of work that will make up your word wall.
Before you move on, please take a moment to scroll through some of the word wall examples below. Note not only what teachers have done to make their word walls visually appealing, but also what materials they have used to make them interactive learning tools as well--string, cartons, library envelopes, etc.
- Easily changeable
- Highly visible
- Multi-dimensional/functional
- Visually impactful
- Student-created
A word wall is not a stagnant fixture in your room that you put up in August and leave there until May. It should change to reflect your changing unit and your students' changing content needs. Because of this, it should be fairly simple to put up and take down--thumb tacks, tape, staples, etc.
Put your word wall in a place where you will remember to reference it, and where your students will be able to easily pull information from it. Putting your word wall in that damp, dark corner in the back where the spiders live doesn't do anyone any good, except perhaps the spiders. Consider using the strip of wall just under the ceiling, or the windows, or the space around your SmartBoard as a canvas.
Just like it's not very effective to give students a list of 30 words and tell them to learn them, it's not terribly effective to slap those same words up on the wall for the students to stare at. Your word wall doesn't just have to be a big list of words. It can incorporate definitions, synonyms, antonyms, pictures, example sentences, and all kinds of other things to help your kids make connections to the words they need to know. This is a major component of making it visually impactful. If kids are going to learn from it, they have to want to see it, and an interesting concept map or a picture is more interesting and helpful than just a word.
If you read that last piece and started to panic, stop. Breathe. The creation of the word wall does not fall on you alone. It's time to put those kids to work. On the following pages, you will see three options for not only getting your kids interacting with vocabulary in meaningful ways, but also creating the easily changeable, highly visible, multi-dimensional, visually impactful pieces of work that will make up your word wall.
Before you move on, please take a moment to scroll through some of the word wall examples below. Note not only what teachers have done to make their word walls visually appealing, but also what materials they have used to make them interactive learning tools as well--string, cartons, library envelopes, etc.