3 Benefits Of Word Walls

Word walls are effective literacy tools that should be used in all subjects and all grade levels.  A word wall displays commonly used words relative to the course content. Familiarization with seeing and hearing these words will help students become comfortable with the words’ meanings and applications.

What words belong on a word wall?

Weekly vocabulary

If you are an English Language Arts teacher, or any teacher who’s a fan of weekly vocabulary quizzes, a word wall is a great resource to have in your classroom. 

Each vocabulary word can be written on an index card and then taped to the wall.  Another option is to write each word in a list on a piece of poster paper. 

Words can be listed in whichever way you (and your students) believe is most logical.  One option is alphabetically, another is ordering by the common root word, and yet another is grouping by a common characteristic, such as words that relate to a particular topic.   

If you choose to post weekly vocabulary on a word wall, be sure to dedicate time each week to updating the wall with new vocab!

 

Unit specific language

Regardless of what subject you teach, there are terms specific to a particular unit or chapter.  Understanding these terms is vital to your students progressing through the unit. 

Dedicate a word wall to the terms that will be discovered throughout the current focus of study.

By all means, it may even be helpful to include pictures with each word to further demonstrate its purpose. 

If you’re an English teacher in a unit about poetry, create a word wall specific to those terms, as well as names of poets and their works. 

If you’re a history teacher in a unit about the civil rights movement, post terms specific to that time period, as well as people and places that had integral roles in those events.

If you’re a science teacher in a unit about biological taxonomic rank, create a word wall of the various levels of grouping and examples of each one.

If you’re a math teacher in a unit about coordinate planes, post terms relative to using coordinates, in addition to accompanying formulas. 

 

Subject terminology

Once again, no matter what content area you teach, there are words and phrases that are integral parts of the subject.  These terms will be used the entire year and beyond. 

If space allows, you can have one wall dedicated to weekly vocabulary and/or unit specific language, while another wall houses content relevant to the subject as a whole. 

For example, an English teacher may always want to display the parts of an essay, phrases used for citing text evidence, or the characteristics of each genre of literature.  Any content that your students will need to use year-round absolutely can and should be a staple in the classroom décor.    

What are the benefits a word wall?

Finally, what you’ve been waiting to find out: the benefits of a word wall.

1.   Remembering new terms!  The word wall serves as a visual aid to guide students in recalling information.  While students are working, you can prompt them to look at the wall for relevant terms. 

 

2.   Preventing spelling errors!  Of course, you’d be elated if your students mastered the spelling of every word in the English language, but that’s a tall order.  At the very least, you would like them to correctly spell the words that are at the heart of your area of study.  The presence of the word wall can help accomplish that.

 

3.   Incorporating terms in responses!  When you make a purposeful effort to present new content, you expect your students to correctly reference this material in their work.  The words on the wall will serve as reminders of the terminology to include in their answers, especially for open-ended questions and short essays, which will demonstrate learning. 

 

The beauty of word walls is that they can be used for a variety of purposes for any content.  Find what works best for you and your students.  Take notice of the connection between your students glancing at the word wall and the extent of them demonstrating their understanding.

Word walls will surely be powerful resources in your classroom!

 

What content have you included on word walls?

 

Leave a question, comment, or suggestion below, in the Comments Section!    

 

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