21 Word Wall
Brooklynn Hill
Strategy Overview
- A word wall is a big section of your classroom completely dedicated to vocabulary words as they come up throughout the year. Each new vocabulary word will get added along with an image representing the word to help students remember the meaning.
- In the article, “Using Word Walls to Develop and Maintain Academic Vocabulary” it states that word walls, “… give students constant access to the important content vocabulary for the class. Pointing out to students that key words are always available to them helps promote independence and reinforces the importance of these words in the classroom” (Filkins). Scott Filkins, the author, also states “As the collection of words grows, invite students to find new ways to arrange them—by linguistic features (same initial letter, rhymes, root families), by synonyms or antonyms, by topical relationships, and so forth” (Filkins).
- At the beginning of the school year,you will need to create a large space in your classroom that will be seen by the students throughout the entire school year. For each new unit, you will need to label a new space on the wall where you will add new vocabulary words . Once a word is added to the wall, the teacher will go over it with the students. Talk about its meaning, how it can be used, where you should use it in your own work etc.. Once a vocabulary word is added to the wall, it must stay up and visible to students for the rest of the school year. This is so students can refer back to that word even when the unit that it is used for may be concluded.
Strategy in Action
To use this strategy in the classroom, teachers are using visual learning to help students remember their vocabulary words. At the beginning of a new unit, students will be asked to learn new vocabulary words. When introducing these words, students should define the word and associate the word with something that will help them remember the definition of the word. Once students have been able to understand what that word means, it will go up on the word wall. This word will remain on the wall visibly accessible to students throughout the year to refer back to. As the unit continues, make sure that teachers refer back to the words on the wall to remind students of their vocabulary words and how they are to use them during lessons, within content, and learning to use those words in their everyday language. Once students know the words and have been using the words correctly, teachers can use the word wall to connect the old words another way besides their units. For example, do any of the words share the same beginning or ending of the words. Do they rhyme? Refer back to the wall to help students develop their understanding of the word but also their understanding of literacy skills.
References
- Filkins, S. (n.d.). Using word walls to develop and maintain academic vocabulary. Read Write Think. https://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-word-walls-develop
- Bafadal, M. F., & Humaira, H. (2019). The use of charades games in teaching vocabulary to the junior high school students. Linguistics and ELT Journal, 5(1), 14-21. https://doi.org/10.31764/leltj.v12i2.748
