Word walls that work

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Today’s classrooms contain more posted information than ever — learning goals, success criteria, classroom expectations, anchor charts, word walls… I could go on and on. Teachers are expected to cram more information to the same space year after year. How do you fit it all in?

Let’s talk about word walls. My word wall is one area that I personally felt was taking a TON of space, and I knew that I could use it more efficiently, so I’ve rounded up for you some examples of the best word walls and how you can make them work in ANY classroom!

The Traditional Word Wall

Large classroom or small, we’ve all seen the list of student names, common sight words, content vocabulary, and rule-breakers posted on a traditional word wall. When used correctly, they are an invaluable resource for our students in the primary grades and beyond.

Traditional word walls should be part of your word work instruction so that the students will actually refer to and use the words listed there. Words should be added gradually and with the help and input of your students. Words placed on the word wall should be part of your regular practice. Clapping, chanting, or guessing games like «Be a Mind Reader» or «Guess My Word» are fun ways for students to learn to read and recognize these words!

The Interactive Word Wall

Getting students physically involved with the word wall is a great way to help the learning «stick». Storing each word on a ring under the corresponding letter allows students to actually bring the word wall to them! Giving students hands-on word work activities to use with the word wall words is also a great way to help them quickly recognize and spell these words correctly.

I love this hands-on idea from Whimsy Workshop Teaching:

And my word work centers are a great way to get students’ hands on!

The Personal Word Book

Some classrooms simply don’t have the wall space for a large word wall. In cases like this, a personal word book or dictionary is a great way to give your students access to the words they need when reading and writing. You can make these resources interactive by giving students the space to add words of their own or use highlighters to direct their attention to certain words in the way you might color-code words on your wall. I personally LOVE using word books because I can more easily differentiate the words for my students’ varying needs!

The Word Family Wall

New to my classroom this year are word family lists! Closely linked to our word work lessons each week, these lists are space-saving and DIFFERENTIATED!!

Each week I introduce a word family or spelling pattern. We brainstorm words that have a particular pattern, look for additional words around the room or in our reading, then use them throughout the week during independent word work activities. What I love about this setup is that I can easily and discreetly differentiate by having my students working on different lists of words within each set.

The Rule Breaker Wall

Finally, some classrooms contain a special section of their word wall dedicated to the rule-breakers — those words that don’t follow the typical rules we teach kids about letter sounds and patterns. My coworker and friend, Christina, from Hanging Around In Primary, created this «Word Jail» that I absolutely love. She says, «I have the words in the Word Jail to help draw attention to them. We need students to learn these words by simple memorization. We spend a lot of time teaching decoding, but with Jail words, decoding is not helpful. By giving them their own special place you can easily practice them and draw students’ attention to them.» You can read more about Christina’s Word Jail HERE.

I hope that you’ve found some word wall inspiration in this post! If you have other tips for having a great word wall, please leave them in the comments. I love hearing from you!

You might also be interested in the tips and tricks for differentiating your word work that I’ve shared in this blog post:

The word wall letters in these headings can be found here:

Check out more word work ideas and resources on this Pinterest board:

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What is a Word Wall?

Word Walls are organized collections of words placed on a wall or other surface in the classroom. They are excellent tools for building word consciousness in students through increased vocabulary interaction and social learning opportunities; especially as students make connections among important concepts and big ideas. Interactive Word Walls, vocabulary notebooks, and periodic reviews are all important ways to revisit and reinforce vocabulary over time.

What does a Word Wall look like?

There are several different types of Word Walls which serve different purposes and focus on different skills. For example, it is common for primary classrooms to display high-frequency Word Walls, but it is unlikely to find such a Word Wall in a secondary classroom. 

Word Walls in classrooms take on many forms. They can be color-coded by content area on index cards that are affixed to the wall. They can be on chart paper, a display board, or a concept map. No matter the way you choose to display Word Walls, the words on the Word Wall must be large enough that they can easily be seen by all students in the room from wherever they are seated.

Regardless of the structure, all grade levels should have content area Word Walls on display. 

How are Word Walls organized? 

How many Word Walls are in a room may depend on how the content areas are organized, whether high-frequency words or retired Word Walls are utilized, or how many courses are taught by a single teacher. For example:

• Elementary classrooms may have one Word Wall for various content areas, color-coded for each subject. Additionally, there may be a high-frequency Word Wall. 
• In secondary classrooms, there may be separate Word Walls for each course, as well as specialized Word Walls, such as testing words.

How to Use a Word Wall in the Classroom? 

Word Walls can be effective learning tools, or they can be wallpaper. Even the most organized Word Walls won’t help students learn words unless they are used. The words displayed on the Word Wall should be words that you currently want your students to use and should come down and get replaced by new words when a new lesson or unit is introduced. The same is true for high-frequency Word Walls. 

Use the words on the Word Wall to create Advance Organizers (i.e. Student Learning Maps and Concept Maps) to meaningfully distinguish and highlight important vocabulary concepts (keywords), characteristics (descriptions or examples), and categories (“chunks” of learning connected to Learning Goals).

How do I retire words from the wall?

Once students are using the words appropriately, the words can come down. When words come down from the high frequency or content Word Walls, they can go to a retired Word Wall elsewhere in the room, or in an interactive vocabulary notebook. Students should use the interactive vocabulary notebooks daily for new word learning and can use them for structured review, writing, word games, and retired words. They are especially useful when learning word parts.

How do I use Word Walls during remote learning?

Virtual Word Walls apply the same characteristics as physical ones. They are most impactful when students know where to find the tool and are expected to use it for a purpose (i.e. writing, review, or as a scaffold for an assignment). Word wall ideas for remote learning are:

• Create a dedicated location in your classroom (or classroom website) to display vocabulary from the current lesson and unit. 
• The size and color of fonts and virtual backgrounds are chosen to enhance visibility, not create “visual noise” that detracts from students’ ability to locate and see displayed words. 
• Avoid busy patterns and small and light-colored fonts (i.e. yellow) to maximize displayed vocabulary. 
• Use a digital “Word Wall” explicitly during a lesson as a scaffold for the assignment and to promote wordplay during Learning Activities. 
• Provide a consistent and easily accessible “virtual” location to display current vocabulary that is used by both the teacher and students in lesson instruction.

More Word Wall Ideas for Virtual Classrooms

• Create a Concept as an editable (or fillable) PDF. 
• Try Google Jamboards, Milanote, Miro, or MindMup to virtually create and manipulate concept maps and other word clusters. 
• Dedicate a space on the main home page of your Google Classroom (or another LMS platform). Create a separate page for words as they are archived. 
• Flip your Word Wall activity to create a super-effective previewing strategy! Create an Advance Organizer for a unit (i.e. Student Learning Map) or a lesson (i.e. Concept Map) and use it to activate students’ thinking prior to the start of a lesson. 
• Use virtual games for wordplay to provide students with multiple opportunities to interact with the words, and as periodic review to improve students’ storage and retrieval of word meanings.

Interactive Word Wall Activities and Games

Primary: LINGO

• Ask students to vote for words prior to the game. Digital Adaptation: Try dotstorming for easy card voting.
• Provide students with a blank LINGO grid (may be a downloadable form or sent home as a part of a packet). 
• Students will practice writing each word anywhere they choose on the grid.
• Shuffle index cards with the words and call the words one at a time.
• Have students chant the spelling of each word and then cover it with an object. (Try Lima Beans as students may not be too tempted to eat them!). 
• The first student to have a complete row covered wins LINGO.
• Students can clear their sheets and play again.

Intermediate: Scrabble Scramble

• Digital Adaptation: Use Google Jamboards to create whiteboard spaces for your students. 
• Each whiteboard should have digital “Post-It” notes for each letter of the alphabet. Some letters may need to be duplicated.
• On the first whiteboard, show students a scrambled up word from the concept map or one of your vocabulary clusters.
• Give the definition of the word or create a story passage about the word. 
• Students take turns unscrambling the words, that is, moving the letters until they correctly form the word. 
• Check students’ thinking by viewing everyone’s Google Jamboard by viewing the expanded frame at the top. 
• Unscramble your word on the first whiteboard to show students the correct answer. 

Secondary: Possible Sentences

• Give students a word bank of words to choose from, and ask them to use some of the words to create possible sentences, predicting what will be learned that day. 
• The teacher displays and discusses the meanings of six new words critical to the lesson.
  • persecution / famine / scarcity / prosperity / migration / exodus
• The teacher adds four related words that are familiar to most students to the above list.
  • homelands / agriculture / survival / poverty
• Students work in collaborative pairs to look for words that are connected and create sentences before reading the text.
• Digital Adaptation: Try it with Padlet. The board can be organized as columns to cluster words and provide a place for the students to post their Possible Sentences.

Want more ideas on how to redesign your current vocabulary activities and strategies for your physical and virtual Word Walls? Join us for our upcoming Effective Vocabulary Instruction Training of Trainers Virtual Institute. Contact us today for a quote.

Do you dream of a learning resource that makes your classroom look more academic, inviting, and kid friendly, even as it helps students become more independent? A word wall could be just what you’re looking for!

[📷: Top image by missmskindergarten on Instagram.]

A word wall is just that—a wall dedicated to displaying high frequency words (these could be sight words or words that are used a lot in your class) that are important for your students to know and use. In early elementary classrooms, these are words that children are learning to read and write. In upper grade classrooms, these can be words related to concepts and topics that students are learning about. You could have a word wall about math that incorporates math definitions and symbols. Or, a science wall that, over the course of a unit, gets filled with biomes and animals that live in each. You’ll know you have a successful word wall when students use it daily to find just the right word when they’re reading or writing.

Why use a word wall?

Word walls are a staple of early elementary classrooms. They’re important for young readers because they:

• Provide a place to post high frequency words that have already been taught. Students can use the words as a reference during reading and writing, making them more independent while teaching them how to use a reference tool;
• Help students see patterns and differences in words. Having the words the, they, their, and there together on the wall helps students recognize the similarities and differences between each word; and
• Make words concrete for young learners as they find words on the word wall using their finger or a pointer.

Word walls can help upper elementary, middle, and high school students as well by:

• Reinforcing the spelling of important terms across a unit or of frequently misspelled words;
• Housing words that you want students to use more in their writing or discussion; and
• Expanding student vocabulary by helping students see how words connect, as in a word wall that displays lists of synonyms.

How do I make a good word wall?

Having a word wall is about more than printing Dolch words or a vocabulary list and posting it on your wall. Effective word walls are part of daily instruction and are a tool that students will use throughout the day. To make a word wall:

• Place the word wall in an area of the classroom that is visible and accessible and use a dark background to make the words stand out.
• Organize high frequency words in alphabetical order to support students’ knowledge of the alphabetic principle.
• Organize other words walls that display vocabulary words, synonyms, or other concepts in a way that helps students see how the words connect or in a way that makes the most sense for student use. For example, a list of science terms may be listed in alphabetical order, while words used during reading may be organized by prefix.
• 3×5 note cards are a good size to post (you’ll fit a lot on one wall, and they are big enough to be read from a distance). Use different colors to add another reference point for students. If they ask about a word, you can direct them to the “pink card under the L.” Writing words on different color cards also helps children distinguish similar words.
• This seems obvious, but write in large dark letters, again, so the words are easy to see from anywhere in the classroom.
• Insider tip: Keep the materials (3×5 note cards, black marker, tape) that you’ll use to create a word handy, so you can make and add words to the word wall during a lesson. Students may even suggest words that they want added to the wall as you teach.

Okay, my word wall is up. Now, how do I use it?

• First, don’t overdo it. Teach three to five new words each week.
• Teach children how to use the word wall. Model how to use the word wall to find and spell words during writing or how to “read around the room” using a pointer or their finger to read the words on the wall.
• Use the word wall each day. Incorporate words that are already on the wall into daily activities, like word sorts, word ladders, and word practice.
• In addition to high frequency words, add words that are content specific. The more relevant the words are to students’ experience, the more they’ll be used and the faster students will learn to read and write them. Even pulling words from the school song and incorporating those into the word wall is a great way to generate words for the wall.
• Spend a few minutes each day playing a word wall game, like bingo or charades.
• Each time a student asks about a word that is on the word wall (“How do you spell … ?”) create and use a hand signal (maybe use the American Sign Language signs for “word” and “wall”) that refers them to the word wall. After all, the whole point is that they’ll use it on their own.

I already have a word wall; how do I take it to the next level?

Once you’ve mastered the basic word wall techniques, you can take it further:

• Use Velcro or sticky tack to make the words removable so students can take the word they need to their desk for reference. Or, write the words on the back of envelopes. Put that note cards, with the word written on each, inside the envelope. Then, post the envelope and let students select a note card for reference when they need it.
• Add a new word to the wall for a period of time and have students hunt for this visiting word. Then, see if they can use the visiting word in their writing and discussion.
• Challenge students to write a story (or article) using as many words from the word wall as they can.

Get even more word wall ideas:

• How to set up your literacy space so that it focuses on literacy skills and content (word walls are one of them).
• Inspiration for word walls that are works of art.

Come and share your word wall ideas in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. 

Plus, check out vocabulary ideas that make words stick.

A word wall is not just a great primary-grade learning tool. Teachers across the grades use word walls throughout the curriculum. Many elementary and middle schools require teachers to include word walls in their classrooms; those teachers know firsthand the effectiveness of word walls. Included: Teachers from grades pre-K to 8 share their word wall successes.

Teacher Marion Dunkerley is wild about word walls. Walk into her classroom and you’re bound to see a student using a pointer or fly swatter to «read the room,» or students playing BINGO or tic-tac-toe or beanbag toss with their word wall words.

Walls covered with words are one «part of creating a print-rich environment for students,» Dunkerley told Education World. «Being exposed to that kind of an environment is a critical component of emerging literacy.»

Dunkerley has used word walls with first graders for several years. Spelling words — taken from lists of sight words students should know — were added to the word wall each week. This year, she is teaching a family literacy program for preschoolers, so she included on her word wall all her students’ names, as well as picture words they see in their world, such as McDonald’s and Albertsons (a food store in the area).

In Raymond, Maine, teacher Patricia Allen would never give up her word wall, especially since her kindergarten program at Raymond Elementary went full-day four years ago. «Having a full-day kindergarten offers time to do so much more with literacy throughout the day,» Allen told Education World. «The word wall is a great tool I would have little time to use in a half-day program. Now I can teach it and use it, and the children can really make use of it.»

Young children are very visual learners, noted Allen. «Some might be stronger visual or auditory learners, but they all are affected by what they see. Daily, they show me their excitement and curiosity about new items, pictures, or words in their learning environment.

«Seeing words on the wall helps them become excited about words and understand that words are important and can be used over and over again. The word wall helps them learn the names of letters, ABC order, and letter-sound relationships. It provides extra exposure and challenge for students who are at many different skill and interest levels.»

Throughout the day, Allen finds many uses for the word wall — starting at the beginning of the day. «At our morning meeting, we have fun finding words in our ‘morning message’ on the word wall,» she explained.

Allen’s kindergartners also keep a word wall page in their writing folders, adding to the page as the year progresses. «When we were doing our Castles and Fairytales unit, we added words such as king, queen, castle, key, and gold to our word wall. Then they copied them onto their own word wall pages,» she said.

Allen loves to watch as her students reference their personal word wall pages during writing projects or journal writing. «Last year, the children each made a collection of books by illustrating and writing about each fairytale I read aloud during story time,» she explained. «They used our classroom word wall and their word wall pages to write their sentences. They were so proud!»

Maureen Foster sees that same sense of pride in her kindergartners at Sanford Street School in Glens Falls, New York. Her students’ word wall is prominently displayed on a bulletin board that all children can see from the classroom Writing Center. Among the word wall activities her students most enjoy are Make a Word, in which they arrange letter cards in a special holder to spell word-wall words, and Rainbow Spelling, in which Foster dictates words and students write each word in a different color.

«We use word walls throughout our school,» said Larry Davis, principal of the K-6 Doctors Inlet Elementary School in Middleburg, Florida. «At the lower-grade levels, word walls display words students meet in their reading and other frequently used words. As students move up the grades, word walls begin to take on other forms and purposes.

«Fourth grade teachers use word walls for displaying words that can be substituted for more frequently used words,» said Davis. «They call them ‘million dollar words’ because they are higher-level words that mean the same thing as the simpler synonyms. Our sixth grade teachers use word walls for science, social studies, and math words.

«Space is an issue in some classrooms,» Davis added. «Some classrooms have their words on the ceiling — they have ‘word ceilings’ instead of word walls.»

Teacher Shari Medley has used word walls in fifth grade and in her current assignment as a third grade teacher at Wilson Elementary School in Neenah, Wisconsin. Her word wall is on permanent display. «My words come from our spelling curriculum, frequently misspelled words, and content area words,» explained Medley, author of How to Use Word Walls in Your Writing Classrooms.

«The word wall grows each week,» Medley noted. «By the end of the year, we should have 450 words on the wall. My students always are amazed at the end of the year to see how many words they have learned.»

The greatest benefit of the word wall that Medley observes is its convenience for students. «My students use the word wall as a huge dictionary,» she told Education World. «They always look first at the word wall when they are unsure of how to spell a word.»

At Paul R. Haas Middle School in Corpus Christi, Texas, a literacy-focused middle school, all grade 6-8 teachers in use word walls. You even can find a word wall in the gym!

«The word walls are constant learning cues for the students,» Melba Smithwick told Education World. Smithwick is Haas’s campus-based staff developer and a former math teacher at the school. «Because students build the word walls themselves, they take ownership of them and value their use.»

eachers at Haas use word walls in a wide variety of ways. «Some teachers list words on the wall in alphabetical order; others list by categories. In history class, you can list them by event. In math or science, you can list them by systems,» said Smithwick. «You can attach words to a hard wall using Velcro, to a bulletin board using push pins, or to a whiteboard using magnets.»

When Smithwick taught algebra, she constructed her word wall on a magnetic surface. She would create word cards and cards that provided a definition for each word or cards containing a fill-in-the-blank sentence that required the word. She had students move the words and sentence strips around to turn her word wall into an «interactive word wall.» Smithwick’s word wall also included math symbols that students frequently encountered in their work.

The key to success with word walls, Smithwick added, is that you need to refer to them often so students get in the habit of using the wall in their assignments.

Trisha Fogarty’s 6th grade English classroom at Southside School in Houlton, Maine, has a word wall too. «In my classroom, the word wall belongs to the students,» said Fogarty. «If I find a misspelled word in their writing, I have them add it to the wall. If I see a really powerful word, I ask them to add it. If a particular word always seems to boggle them, they are free to add it to the wall.» The kids write all the word cards themselves, which adds to their ownership of the wall, noted Fogarty.

Marcia Norris uses a word wall in her intervention classes at Suwannee Middle School in Live Oak, Florida. Norris reports that her school has been a participating Florida Reading Initiative school for 3 years and that teachers there have seen definite growth in test scores by using such strategies as word walls. Norris’s word wall includes many words her students must use and spell correctly in their written work — words such as there/their/they’re, hole/whole, and piece/peace. «My students keep a mini word wall in their folders that matches exactly the word wall in the classroom,» said Norris. «As we add a word to the wall, they add it to their mini word wall. So when they ask, ‘Does spelling count?’ I always say ‘It definitely does if it’s on your word wall.'»

«It’s no longer enough for classroom walls to be attractive,» says Dr. Darla Shaw, coordinator of the graduate reading program at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut, and a frequent workshop presenter on such topics as word walls. «A working word wall may be only an inanimate object, but if properly developed, it can bring real life to a [classroom].»

For teachers who have not used a word wall before, Shaw has some «words» of advice:

• Word walls should be student generated, not commercially prepared.
• New information should be added on a regular — even daily — basis.
• Content-area material from the curriculum rather than randomly selected words should be utilized.
• Word walls should be referred to often so students come to understand and see their relevance.
• Word walls are a group effort; allow students to make suggestions for content.

«Children who learn in a classroom with a working word wall have a distinct advantage over students who don’t have such a resource in their room,» said Shaw.

A MiddleWeb Blog

One might say that vocabulary is the currency of the classroom. And wouldn’t you agree that we want our kids to be RICH with vocabulary?

If kids don’t know lots of words, if they don’t understand the words, and if they can’t use the words, then those words are of no value to them.

Instead, they are deprived. Undernourished. The words we use with students must be accessible, valuable, and usable. Think of them as nutrients, vital to their learning muscles.

So how do we create classrooms that build and strengthen students’ vocabulary? Classrooms where student vocabulary is thriving?

One of best techniques I’ve come across in my years in education is the interactive word wall. You might recall the traditional type of word wall. You know, the teacher-created, alphabetic, random word wall. That is not what I’m referring to here.

The interactive word wall is very different. Here’s why.

Interactive word walls across the curriculum

I was first formally introduced to interactive word walls by Dr. Julie Jackson, an Associate Professor of Science Education at Texas State University, who has done research and implemented interactive word walls in many Texas schools.

Her discoveries about interactive word walls have been published in multiple journals. And she is amazing! Her work is primarily with science studies; however, her word-wall strategies can be applied in any content area.

An interactive word wall is basically a large graphic organizer displaying critical vocabulary on the wall. It is thematic or unit-based and includes pictures or graphics related to the words. The benefits of an interactive word wall are outstanding for all students, not just language learners!

Picturing words to boost retention

Since the interactive word wall is structured in the form of a graphic organizer, students are able to grasp and organize information easily. Words become related to one another and connections are built.

In a typical static word wall, the only organization is that the wall is in alphabetical order. Under each letter the teacher places random words that start with that particular letter. For example, under the letter A, words like airplane, ambulance, art, angel, always, anytime, etc. could be listed. These words have no relationship to one another. And only students who can already read the words truly have access to them.

An interactive word wall includes visuals, graphics, or realia (real objects) with each word. Students are able to connect words with their meanings very quickly. For language learners, the benefits are obvious! If the interactive word wall is about Energy and one the words on it is light bulb, a visual is the quickest way to demonstrate the meaning. Instantly a language learner identifies what that word means and sees the word daily inside the classroom environment.

Students do the work!

It has often been said that “those who do the work, do the learning.” Absolutely! That’s another reason why the interactive word wall benefits all students. Students are the ones doing the work.

The teacher creates the overall outline of the graphic organizer and the headings. Then while the teaching, learning, reading and exploring happen, students interact with the wall. They write the words that go in the categories and they add pictures for the words. If needed, the teacher is there to guide them.

Kids get so excited about seeing these walls come alive and grow as their own knowledge grows! I’ve seen kids bring words and pictures from home and put them on the wall. Essentially, they’ve given themselves homework, but it’s self-motivated!

During the process, the teacher can model how to use the word wall for listening, speaking, reading and writing. Here’s how:

T: reads the title Forms of Energy. “I can say this in a complete sentence. Listen and then repeat after me. There are many forms of energy.”

S: “There are many forms of energy.”

T: “Look at the headings. Heat, sound, and light. I can say this in a sentence too. Listen and repeat. Heat, sound and light are three forms of energy.”

S: repeat

T: “Now look under the heat column. Pick an example. Use this sentence frame to talk with your partner about heat energy. I claim that ______is a form of heat energy because….” (Sentence frame was posted on the wall for students to refer to as they spoke.)

S: Use the sentence frame to talk with their partner.

Setting the stage for writing

The interactive word wall provides students with the academic vocabulary that we want them to use when they are speaking and writing about the topic. The sentence frames provide the language structure.

When we put this vocabulary in their mouths before they write, they are more capable of developing higher quality writing. Imagine what the writing will look like if they have a chance to talk first and have the wall to refer to during writing.

When the wall is pretty much complete, we can teach students to use it to form a piece of writing. Just like we taught them to talk using complete sentence with each piece of the wall, now we model how to write that way.

Some students will need more scaffolding than others. Language learners at various levels will have different needs. Some will benefit from example writing pieces or mentor texts. Others will need paragraph frames to help with language structures and propel their writing.

Another technique to support writers is to chunk the writing. Start with modeling how to write the introduction. Then let them try. Always refer back to the interactive word wall. This is their word bank.

A method to include all students

This type of word wall is accessible to all students. That’s the beauty of it. It’s not just good for some of the kids. It’s not just valuable and readable to the kids who can already read in English or who are reading on grade level. Every student can access it because of the visuals, graphics, and realia.

Teachers ask what to do with the interactive word wall once the unit is over. I’ve come across many options, and you just have to figure out what works best for you. Some teachers layer their interactive word walls over one another. Some hang theirs on clothing hangers and on a rack, so students can access them if needed. Others take a picture of their wall and keep an album of all the interactive word walls in one spot for students to look at if needed.

As middle grade teachers we have to remember that word walls are not just for primary grades. In fact, as the vocabulary gets more difficult, word walls should become more sophisticated and used in every classroom all the way up to twelfth grade.

Adapting to messy, student-created walls

Interactive word walls are messy. But learning is messy too. They are student created. So don’t expect them to be cookie cutter and perfect. They won’t look like you spent all night preparing them. We have to get over that. Trust me, I used to be that teacher who prepared the entire word wall for the class. I did all the work. I did all the writing, cutting, and putting the words up. I learned a lot. I also learned that the kids needed to be doing the work.

Now, you may be that teacher who is saying to yourself, “But I love my traditional word wall. I’ve done it for years and I think it works for my kids.” I know. Change is difficult. I used to think the same thing about my beautiful word wall UNTIL I witnessed the power of the interactive word wall.

Realizing that my traditional word wall was not emphasizing and connecting the vocabulary from the state standards that my students really needed was a big eye opener too. My students needed higher levels of academic vocabulary in order to make adequate progress in reading and writing. The old word wall just wasn’t cutting it.

Our classroom walls are massively valuable to us. We know that what we put on them needs to be important. Being selective is key. Interactive word walls definitely give you the biggest bang for your buck!

Resources I recommend for learning more about interactive word walls:

Step by Step video on How to Create an Interactive Word Wall

The Science Toolkit

The Science Toolkit Facebook Page

Interactive Word Walls

The Best Ideas on How to Use Classroom Walls by Larry Ferlazzo

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Also see Tan Huynh’s 2020 article:
How to Teach Content Vocabulary to Our ELs

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Image credit: The photos above are from 6th Grade classrooms. Used with permission from Dr. Julie Jackson.