Tell Me About Word Walls...

     What is a word wall you ask? A word wall is a place in the classroom where students display meanings of words that are important to them and use pictures as well. Think of it as a reference sheet, only for children...and building phonics and spelling skills. This can help students when it comes to reading and writing. Word walls can be really fun and helpful with students. It makes words accessible especially since you are putting them in a space where students can see them. It can also build a relationship even more with your students since you as a class are working together to find places these words should go on the word wall. Having a word wall in your classroom can help increase students vocabulary just by seeing different words in that spot all the time. It is also important to switch up your word walls, based on what you are learning that unit. I would use it for when I am starting a brand new unit, I could show students the words we will be using throughout this lesson. It not only can help students learning vocabulary but, it can help students across all their grades as students and readers. Some students are visual learners and this could be something good for a visual learner to see these words as they are being taught. This can help grow their knowledge on these words by seeing the word wall. It can build confidence as well. One thing I truly like about the word wall is it can get students attention and keep them engaged, while learning skills. There are many examples of word walls to be used in the classroom. I have seen some where teachers make the look of their word walls the same as the unit they are learning these words from. For example if they are doing a unit on Earth, moon, and stars, they could make that wall look like the planet, or something along those lines...then have the alphabet big letters with the words from that unit under it. I also think word walls help students recognize letters, especially the younger grades. Something else that can be used as a word wall would be something called "star words" (weareteachers.com) it is simply a wall or section with star cut outs with the word on it. This would be used instead of the letters of the alphabet, or could be used along with it. This example of a word wall could catch the students eyes because of the colorful stars, or just stars in general. You could also have students write the words on the stars to make it more interesting and fun for students, also an engaging way. Using anything with colors or themes can really get students attention and want to check out the word wall. Word walls with pictures of the words next to it could also be a way to show the words, this way it is not only for learning vocabulary but also learning what each vocab word is. Personally, I like the idea of students writing their own words in under the alphabet letter, this can really show the students how fun learning words can be. Putting students names on the word wall can be fun too, for lower elementary. If you want to get really into ELA with your students, I saw on We Are Teachers website an example and they not only had them in alphabet but had what they were by it, noun, adjectives, etc. I actually really like this because it teaches the students more for most the year, instead of the students just learning that certain unit for a shorter period of time, this tests their knowledge more. I think it is important to have word walls, like I had mentioned earlier, some students are very visual learners and seeing the words and letter and sometimes drawings can help with learning the words on the word wall better. Having students pick out a place on the wall would be a perfect way for interaction as well. I really like the idea of word walls, you can always have more than one as well. One could possibly be just pictures and the other could be just words. There are many ideas of a word wall and that makes it possible to do in any classroom. 

https://www.weareteachers.com/word-wall-ideas/ 

https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/word_walls