____Front Page

created by: Kelly Murphy

Word Wall? What’s That?

Research Shows…

How to Create a Word Wall

Types of Word Walls

Making Word Walls Work

Word Wall Activities

Wrapping It Up

Word Wall? What’s That?

Word Walls are tools that are used to teach literacy strategies __in all grades from Kindergarden to high school__. They are made up of selected words on a wall or bulletin board. Teachers use them as a basis of word identification. Teachers use them to improve spelling, reading and writing strategies, letter-sound correspondences, and more (Rycik, 2002). Word walls can also be used to teach contractions, phonograms, word endings, and homophones (Gruber, 1999).

Research Shows…

Irene Gaskin conducted research on the Benchmark Word Identification program that includes using word walls as an instructional tool. This study took place at the Benchmark School for students with severe learning disabilities. The teachers at this school used word walls as a reference tool for high-frequency words and as a technique to decode words. This study found that using word walls in such ways is successful with at-risk and delayed readers as well as students in the mainstream classroom (Gaskins, 1998).

Cunningham, Hall, and Defee conducted an eight-year qualitative study of the Four Blocks literacy program (which include guided reading, self-selected reading, shared reading, and writing) in urban and suburban schools in North and South Carolina. Each school reported gains in the control group. (Rycik, 2002). This study shows that word walls are effective while used in the Four Blocks literacy program, but it does not test the use of word walls independently.

How to Create a Word Wall

Some teachers choose to create their own word wall by writing or typing words in a large, bold font on slips of paper. The words should be displayed in place that is easily accessible to all students. Some teachers use Velcro or magnetic strips to affix the words to the display. This allows the students to be able to move the words around during word study. There are many ways the words can be organized – in alphabetical order, by word family, etc. However, some teachers may choose to purchase a commercial kit with pre-printed words to construct their word wall (Kieff, 2003).

Types of Word Walls

Many teachers like to begin the year with a word wall displaying students’ names and pictures. Some teachers also include names of school personnel, class pets, and volunteers (Kieff, 2003).

High-frequency word walls are made up of words that beginning readers will most likely encounter. Teachers often choose these words from basal readers or from the Dolch or Fry word lists.

-Word walls are often created to compliment content areas or themes. Vocabulary words are often added to content area word walls. (Rycik, 2003). -

When making a word wall with plurals it is important to show both the singular and plural forms of the word. It is beneficial to sort the words into three categories: words made plural by adding -es, -s, and –ies (Gruber, 1999).

Word walls are often created to compliment content areas or themes. Vocabulary words are often added to content area word walls. (Rycik, 2003). This is a word wall that can easliy be adapted for grade levels.

Making Word Walls Work

Pull key words from favorite rhymes, songs, chants, or stories to add to the word wall. Collaboratively work with students to gradually add words to the word wall. Allow students to nominate words to be added (Kieff, 2003). Use the words wall to help spell high-frequency words during modeled writing. This will encourage the students to do the same. Incorporate the word wall into daily wordplay activities by using the words in word sorts and word hunts. (Wagstaff, 1999).

Word Wall Activities

It’s not enough to simply have a word wall in your classroom. Teachers need to teach activities that actively engage the students. This will help ensure that the students are “soaking in” the spelling of the words (Rycik, 2003). One game that can be played is “Word Wall Bingo.” Supply students with a blank Bingo card. The students should fill in the blanks with words from the word wall. When the students are ready call out words until someone has a bingo. To play “I Spy” students select a word from the word wall and create a category clue (it comes from the –ate family), a phonemic clue (begins like lid), and a meaning clue (It’s when your not on time for school). The word is late. Ask a student to read his clue while the other students try to guess the word. Then have that student read his or her clue (Rycik, 2002).

Wrapping It Up

Word walls are wonderful instructional tools for helping students become more proficient readers and writers. When teachers use word walls during modeling they allow students to be more self-reliant. There are many types of word walls as well as activities that allow the students to learn more independently.

References

Gruber, B. (1999). Boost learning with word walls. Teaching Pre K-8. 30:1. 64-66.

Kieff, J. (2003). Classroom idea-sparkers. Childhood Education. 80:2, 841-848.

Rycik, M. (2002). How primary teachers are using word walls to teach literacy strategies. Ohio Reading Teacher. 35:2. 13-20.

Wagstaff, J. (1999). Word walls that work. Instructor. 110:5. 32-34

External Links

Word Wall \"Active-ities\" Build Vocabulary, Spelling, Writing Skills

Word Walls

Word Wall Games

Word Walls That Work

Commentary by Paul Stewart

Kelly, You have done a great job and I have a couple of suggestions to make your page better. I think you should add Tompkins. G.E. (2003) Literacy for the 21st century: teaching reading and writing in pre-kindergarten through grade 4. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Person Education, Inc., TEACHERS USE TWO TYPES OF WORD WALLS IN THEIR CLASSROOMS. ONE-WORD WALL FEATURES “IMPORTANT” WORDS FROM BOOKS CHILDREN ARE READING OR SOCIAL STUDIES AND SCIENCE THEMATIC UNITS. WORDS MAY BE WRITTEN ON A LARGE SHEET OF PAPER HANGING IN THE CLASSROOM OR ON WORD CARDS AND PLACED IN A LARGE POCKET CHART. THE SECOND TYPE OF WORD WALL DISPLAYS HIGH-FREQUENCY WORDS. RESEARCHERS HAVE IDENTIFIED THE MOST COMMONLY USED WORDS AND RECOMMEND THAT THAT ELEMENTARY STUDENTS LEARN TO SPELL 100 OF THESE WORDS BECAUSE OF THEIR USEFULNESS. Also, you could add these external links.

Word Wall \"Active-ities\" Build Vocabulary, Spelling, Writing Skills

World Wall Lists

WordWalls

World Wall Activities

Word Walls That Work

Commentary by Raiza

Kelly you did a great job describing the usefulness of word walls for vocabulary,reading, and spelling instruction. I really like the "word wall bingo". I am going to move the words from my word wall around the room to play the bingo game with my sixth grade students. One suggestion I have for you is to add pictures of different kinds of word walls. This would be great for beginning teachers who do not realize how creative a teacher can be with the development of a word wall. Also a word wall for kindergarteners would look a lot different that a word wall for middle school students. You could also emphasize how word walls can be used in any grade level or classroom. I am sure there are a lot of high school teachers who don't realize what a great tool a word wall could be for their own students. Great Job!!!

Commentary by Kathi

Kelly you did a fantastic job! I was wondering if you also use sentence walls. I read an interesting article by Carrier, K. & Tatum, A. (2006) Teaching Tips: Creating Sentence Walls to Help English Language Learners Develop Content Literacy. The Reading Teacher. I would like to put word walls and sentence walls (making adaptations for high school) with my ESE students. Good work!