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28 Helpful Word Wall Ideas For Your Classroom
November 28, 2023 // by Brittney Hallmark
Word walls are a wonderful addition to any classroom! This interactive tool can help young readers improve their foundational skills, as well as occupy wall space in a helpful way for students. Word walls can be used in various ways, including serving as a tool to help improve student vocabulary, reviewing high-frequency words, and building phonics word walls. Alphabetized word walls can be a huge asset to students, so check out these 28 ideas to get inspired to build your very own classroom word wall!
1. Digital word walls for older students
Digital word walls are a newer twist on the traditional idea. These are best suited for higher grades and older students. Students can create their own personalized word walls or work on a shared, virtual word wall document for the class as a whole.
Learn More: Building Book Love
2. Be creative
Be creative in terms of the display when you create this tool for students. It can be magnetic, portable, or simply stuck on a wall in a blank space. You could have more than one if you need them for different purposes.
Learn More: Strategies for Students
3. Model how to use the word wall
Words walls can be used to build grammar, literacy, and vocabulary skills. No matter what you are using them for, it is vital to model how to use them so that students will feel more comfortable when referring to the word wall.
Learn More: Stellar Teacher
4. Include visuals
This idea is especially helpful for ELL students- including visuals on a word wall is a great benefit. A class word wall paired with images, actual photos, or even student-drawn pictures could be helpful. This will help students make a stronger connection and apply shades of meaning to new words.
5. Limit how many words you add each week
One of the keys to success with having a worthwhile word wall is knowing how to introduce the right words each week. Limiting the number of words added to your classroom wall at each time is important as you don’t want to overwhelm learners with too many at once!
Learn More: Reading and Writing Haven
6. Design activities that allow students to use word walls
Basic word wall techniques, like modeling its use and designing activities to use in conjunction with it, are some of the best ideas for using your word wall. These work with everything from a kindergarten word wall to a science wall. Weekly vocabulary activities are great ideas for using word walls.
7. Portable Word Walls
Portable word walls are great for saving space but also adding benefits for students. These work well with students who have been properly trained on how to use this tool. It’s perfect for building vocabulary and academic vocabulary and using it with an interactive vocabulary notebook.
Learn More: Saddle Up for 2nd Grade
8. Use word walls when conferring with students
Word walls can be a powerful tool if used well when conferring with students in both reading and writing. Reference the word wall and show students how to use it. Be clear about its purpose and reward students when they use it independently. This is especially helpful when targeting key vocabulary.
Learn More: Edutopia
9. Let students be part of the process
Students feel more invested and engaged when they take more ownership of a specific activity. Allow students to add to the word wall in their own handwriting. You can hand out pre-printed picture word cards, and students can add the words themselves.
10. Think about including a sound wall as well
Word walls have been around forever, but sound walls are fairly new. These sound word walls are a great way to help students strengthen phonemic and phonological awareness, all while providing images to help students learn proper mouth formations.
Learn More: Mrs. Winter’s Bliss
11. Location matters
Knowing where to put your word wall is very important as well. Proper placement matters because if you want students to utilize it, students need to be able to clearly see it. It shouldn’t be too crowded and should be alphabetized for ease of reference.
Learn More: Traci Clausen
12. Even PE classes can have a word words
Any and all content can be enhanced by using a word wall, whether for social studies vocabulary or mathematical vocabulary. Even in physical education classes, teachers can help students benefit from word walls. Teaching students themes in special areas is often a great way to incorporate word walls.
Learn More: Cap’n Pete’s Power PE
13. Use with exit tickets
Especially for older students, word wall exit slips are a great tool for ending your day and exiting your class. This is a great comprehension check that can incorporate difficult vocabulary as well. This could be used in a fill-in-the-blank format for younger students as well.
Learn More: Mrs. Beers
14. Word Wall Games
Word walls can bring fun into the classroom. A friendly game of vocabulary charades or even a matching game can be a great way to use words and meaning to bridge the gap by helping students retain academic vocabulary.
15. Make them editable
It is important to remember that word walls should be flexible and editable. As younger students need to learn more words, like high-frequency words, keeping the word wall editable is important. Using Velcro or clothespins on the ribbon are easy ways to do this.
Learn More: Fun-A-Day!
For specific content areas, like science and math, themed word walls can be extremely beneficial. Focusing on specific content-related vocabulary will help students soak in the new definitions and help apply them to their learning, ultimately building a larger vocabulary reserve over time.
Learn More: Bright in the Middle
17. Bilingual is ok too
English Learners have shown growth in both languages when vocabulary expands. Having a bilingual word wall is a great way to help students hold on to and build up their home language while continuing to acquire their second language as well.
18. Individual word walls
Allowing students to create their own word wall booklets is a perfect way to personalize learning to meet their own needs. These booklets are a great way to help students take ownership and begin using their own awareness of their learning as they add words to their books. Use these during small groups or conferences with students.
Learn More: Mrs. Beattie’s Classroom
19. Word-family word walls
Your younger students will love these word-family word wall booklets. Portable and highly focused on phonics development, these small word-family word wall books are a great resource to use in small group reinforcement lessons.
20. The 5 W’s
A unique spin on a word wall is this 5W word wall. It focuses on teaching students words that can be used to show “who, what, where, when, and why”. These words can be helpful for writing, especially when learning sentence formation.
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21. Environmental print word wall
Building pre-literacy skills are very important for young readers. Providing environmental print is an important thing for youngsters to see and begin building pre-reading skills. Helping students understand environmental print is a key to building confidence and motivating young readers.
22. File folder word walls
Another good space saver- these file folder word walls can be picked up and used by students and then returned to their hook on the wall.
Learn More: Fabulous Fish
23. Word walls aren’t just for elementary classrooms
Remember that word walls can be for older students too. High school students may benefit because providing word walls is a benefit to all learners. Using colors and visuals will enhance learning even more for these learners.
Learn More: Maneuvering the Middle
24. All content areas can utilize word walls
As mentioned above, math and science may benefit from content word walls. Literally, all content areas can use them. Building vocabulary, showing examples or helping students with other skills like finding synonyms or antonyms are all important skills that word walls can help with.
25. Desktop word walls
Having a desktop word wall is a great benefit to students who work well independently. They can simply look down and see their most commonly used vocabulary. Students can add words to their desk plates as they need.
Learn More: My Primary Paradise
26. It can include more than pictures and words
Word walls can become whatever you want them to be. Adding pictures is a great idea, but why not take it a step further and add realia? Let students have a voice and choice in this and allow them to add things that will help them connect to content.
Learn More: MiddleWeb
27. Color code your word wall
Color coding is a great way to consolidate new learning areas in order to bind the learning to memory. Helping students form visualizations is a great idea. This helps them connect thoughts to new meanings and new words on the word wall.
Learn More: Scaffolded Math
28. Word wall space saver
If you are short on space for a word wall, try this little recipe or index card box. Easy to alphabetize and personalize for each student, this is a good idea for students to use and manage independently. They can simply add the content they need to each index card.
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Donate (opens in a new window)
A word wall is a visible display in a classroom that features a collection of words students are studying. Word walls can focus on high-frequency words, word study examples, academic language, and words that are introduced in the content areas. They can be used to support phonics, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.
Key Information
When to use this strategy, appropriate group size, what is a word wall.
A word wall is a collection of words that are displayed in large visible letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other display surface in a classroom. The word wall is designed to be an interactive tool for students and contains an array of words that can be used during writing and reading.
Key features of a word wall
Word Collection: The wall includes a selection of words that are relevant to the current curriculum, thematic unit, or the students’ grade level. These words can include high-frequency sight words, vocabulary words, or words related to a particular subject.
Organization: Words on a word wall are often organized alphabetically, categorically, or thematically. This helps students locate and reference words easily.
Visual Aids: Words are often accompanied by visual aids such as pictures or illustrations to reinforce understanding. This is particularly helpful for early learners and English language learners.
Interactive Elements: Some teachers use interactive elements on the word wall, such as movable cards or pockets, to engage students in activities like word matching, sorting, or creating sentences.
Reference Tool: The word wall serves as a reference tool to support students’ reading, writing, and spelling. It provides a visual reminder of words they have learned or are currently studying.
Why use word walls?
- They provide a visible reference for high-frequency words
- They help students see patterns and relationship in words, thus building phonics and spelling skills
- They help students learn vocabulary related to classroom reading, including content area vocabulary
- They provide reference support for children during reading and writing activities
How to use word walls
- Make words accessible by putting them where every student can see them. They should be written in large black letters using a variety of background colors to distinguish easily confused words.
- Teachers and students should work together to determine which words should go on the word wall. Try to include words that children use most commonly in their writing. Words should be added gradually — a general guideline is five words per week.
- Use the word wall daily to practice words, incorporating a variety of activities such as chanting, snapping, cheering, clapping, tracing, word guessing games as well as writing them.
- Provide enough practice so that words are read and spelled automatically and make sure that words from the wall are always spelled correctly in the children’s daily writing.
- Update the word wall periodically to reflect new words and concepts introduced during the course of instruction.
- Use content-area material from the curriculum rather than randomly selected words.
- Word walls should be referred to often so students come to understand and see their relevance.
Watch a lesson (whole class)
Watch primary students using an Interactive word wall with words related to the unit of study (both domain specific and academic vocabulary). Students manipulate the words as they discuss relationships among the words and ideas. There are many ways to use an interactive word wall; this video shows students doing concept mapping.
Watch a lesson on developing academic language (whole class)
Watch classroom virtual tour.
Students are exposed to new and interesting words and write them on a vocabulary wall. (Balanced Literacy Diet: Putting Research into Practice in the Classroom)
Collect resources
Ask students to hunt for words in their reading and writing that fit the phonic or word study pattern being studied. These words can create a word wall that illustrates examples of the different patterns studied. Students could keep a word study notebook to record the known patterns and their new understanding about words, and can play games and activities that apply their word knowledge.
- Word wall activities › (adapt for elementary school)
- More word wall activities › (opens in a new window)
- Word wall resources on Pinterest › (opens in a new window)
- Printable word wall lists by content area and vocabulary units (opens in a new window) (Teachnology)
Learn more about creating engaging word walls
- Interactive Word Walls Enliven Vocab Learning (opens in a new window) (Middle Web)
- Building a Better Word Wall (opens in a new window) (Edutopia)
Differentiate instruction
For second language learners, students of varying reading skill, and younger learners.
- Word walls are a great support for ELLs, and may be organized around a number of concepts, including the alphabet and phonetic sounds, new vocabulary words, sight words, grammar rules, conversational phrases, and writing structures. Words can also be organized by category (for example, academic words, words used often in your classroom, new words students have come across and love).
- Copying words from word walls may be difficult for some students. For these students, supply them with the words written on piece of paper. Tape the word wall paper to their desk or writing folder for easy reference.
Extend the learning
Word walls in math can provide visual cues and graphic representations of content. Consider using a math word wall that has three parts: key vocabulary, “in your own words” definitions, and a variety of ways to portray a function. For example, multiplication is portrayed by the following symbols: x, *, and ( ).
Number sense, concepts, and operations word wall The purpose of the mathematics word wall is to identify words and phrases that students need to understand and use so as to make good progress in mathematics. Mathematical language is crucial to children’s development of thinking. If students do not have the vocabulary to talk about math concepts and skills, they cannot make progress in understanding these areas of mathematical knowledge. They need to be familiar with mathematical vocabulary and mathematical terms to understand written and spoken instructions. See math word wall resources › (opens in a new window)
More ideas for word walls in math Many teachers are familiar with basic word wall strategies including the use of a flashlight (to put the light on words) and a fly swatter (to highlight words). Teachers are also familiar with tested favorites like bingo; I Have, Who Has; and Mind Reader, but they really wanted other ideas. The purpose of this post by Dr. Deborah Wahlstrom is to identify additional ways to use word walls with mathematics content. More math word wall ideas › (opens in a new window)
Using interactive word walls in science Science is a vocabulary-intense subject that is dependent on students learning new and often times difficult vocabulary to increase comprehension and help them make connections between and among concepts. When science students are given the opportunity to interact with the vocabulary, they are more likely to remember it.
Ideas for using the words on your wall are only limited by your imagination. Some examples include:
- Students categorize and sequence from largest to smallest (cell, bacteria, yeast, tissue, ribosome, organ, organism, organ system, protozoa, virus) Variation: Students are given vocabulary words, and their classmates must arrange them in the correct order and justify the placement.
- Students remove words from the wall and make connecting statements about the words. The class can then create a summarizing statement, for example: cells make up tissues, and tissues make up organs.
For more ideas like these, read the full post (opens in a new window) by Toni Enloe.
See the research that supports this strategy
Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2000). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Children’s books to use with this strategy
While you’re on the beach, you can count from 1 to 10 by feet — combining numbers of feet and then multiplying them all the way to 100, which is ten crabs … or 100 snails if you really count slowly! Colorful, bug-eyed, cartoon-like critters further enliven this jaunty approach to numbers.
One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab: A Counting by Feet Book
A clearly illustrated pair of feet is shown with the title question. On the next page, the entire animal is seen with a basic characteristic of the foot, sure to intrigue and inform.
Who Has These Feet?
Clean lines of both upper and lower case letters combine with colorful fruits and vegetables for a unique way to think about - and even eat through the alphabet.
Eating the Alphabet
How many kinds of seeds to you see? Where are they found? This handsomely illustrated book of seeds provides a poetic look at the myriad types of seeds and plants to complement a classroom study.
A Seed Is Sleepy
Terms and comparisons to describe numbers are presented in an engaging story from which word wall content could be developed and expanded.
How Much, How Many, How Far, How Heavy, How Long, How Tall Is 1000?
Basic geometry is introduced in this story about children who accompany their parents on a trip to Egypt. A word wall of geometric shapes and terms would enhance a math study.
Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry
Are animals and their familiar animal sounds really trying to say another word in English? (For example, “When a hoses says NEIGH,/does she really mean HAY?”) Word walls could be made of rhyming words (or word families) or of animal sounds in English as well as what animals say in other languages.
There are many kinds of sounds. Use this book as a jumping off point for loud sounds, onomatopoeic sounds, or use The Quiet Book (Houghton) for the opposite of loud. These books might also inspire a word wall for emotions (e.g., how does this kind of quiet/loud make you feel?).
The Loud Book
A cumulative poem (in the cadence of “The House that Jack Built”) chronicles the work and life of Mexican potter, Juan Quezada. Words could center around the culture, the potting process, or art & artists.
The Pot that Juan Built
This ‘Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science’ follows garbage from the trash bin to various places (landfills, recycling centers, etc.). Common terms are explained and made accessible to children. This title would pair well with Kate & Jim McMullan’s I Stink! (HarperCollins), a book told from the truck’s perspective.
Where Does the Garbage Go?
Homographs make sense in context. A word wall of words that are spelled alike but are pronounced differently (depending on the context in which they are used) may be developed inspired by this funny animal-filled “zoo.”
Zoola Palooza: A Book of Homographs
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Word Wall Ideas – Ready for an Interactive Classroom Word Wall Makeover?
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.
- persecution / famine / scarcity / prosperity / migration / exodus
- homelands / agriculture / survival / poverty
- Students work in collaborative pairs to look for words that are connected and create sentences before reading the text.
- Di gital 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.
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Using a word wall to support student explanations
Support student development of vocabulary related to a particular topic, and provide a reference for class discussions.
Using word walls
A word wall is an organised collection of words and images displayed in the classroom. It supports the development of vocabulary related to a particular topic and provides a reference for students. The content of the word wall can be words that students see, hear and use in their reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing. Creating a class word wall, including words from different dialects and languages, aligns to descriptions in the Australian Curriculum: English.
A word wall for a Biological sciences teaching sequence.
The purpose is for students to be exposed to a print-rich environment that supports their ;science and literacy experiences. A word wall can be used to:
- support science and literacy experiences of reading, viewing, writing and speaking
- provide support for students during literacy activities across all key learning areas
- promote independence in students as they develop their literacy skills
- provide a visual representation to help students see patterns in words and decode them
- develop a growing bank of words that students can spell, read and/or use in writing tasks
- provide ongoing support for the various levels of academic ability in the class
- teach the strategy of using word sources as a real-life strategy.
Organisation
Position the word wall so that students have easy access to the words. They need to be able to see, remove and return word cards to the wall. A classroom could have one main word wall and two or three smaller ones, each with a different focus, for example, high frequency words.
Choose robust material for the word cards. Write or type words on cardboard and perhaps laminate them. Consider covering the wall with felt-type material and backing each word card with a self-adhesive dot to make it easy for students to remove and replace word cards.
Word walls do not need to be confined to a wall. Use a portable wall, display screen, shower curtain or window curtain. Also, consider creating word cards in shapes that align with the themes or sub- concepts within the unit.
Organise the words on the wall in a particular way; alphabetically, or in word groups or groups suggested by the unit topic, for example, words for a life cycles unit might be organised under headings, such as ‘Plant life cycle’ and ‘Animal life cycle’, words for a geology unit might be organised under headings such as ‘landscapes’, ‘soil’, ‘rock cycle’
Invite students to contribute words from different languages to the word wall. Group words about the same thing, for example, different names of the same piece of clothing on the word wall so that students can make the connections. Identify the different languages used, for example, by using different-coloured cards or pens to record the words.
Implementation
- Limit the number of words to those needed to support the science and literacy experiences in the classroom.
- Add words gradually, and include images where possible, such as drawings, diagrams, photographs, or artefacts. Increase the number of words on the word wall as students are introduced to the scientific vocabulary of the unit.
- Consider putting a date on words to track the class’ use of the term at a particular point of science inquiry.
- Encourage students to interact with the word wall. Practise using the words with students by reading them and playing word games. Refer to the words during science and literacy experiences and direct students to the wall when they need a word for writing. Encourage students to use the word wall to spell words correctly.
Use the word wall with the whole class, small groups and individual students during literacy experiences. Organise multi-level activities to cater for the individual needs of students.
A word wall for the Year 3 Biological sciences.
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Video transcript text
The Digital Teacher
Offers teachers a quick and easy way to extend and consolidate vocabulary with fun practice.
Wordwall takes vocabulary games and reviews into the digital world, and is easy to use for teachers and learners. If you are looking to add a new digital tool to your teaching, this is a very good place to start.
User experience.
This is the perfect tool to look at if you are short of time, even if you are not very confident with technology. You just need a computer or tablet connected to the internet, and after setting up an account (no problem), you can quickly start creating interactive activities or printable worksheets. The concept is simple: use the templates to create well-known activity types such as multiple choice, grouping or matching, or more complex games and quizzes.
You can use a limited number of templates for free, and because Wordwall is web-based, with a good connection you can create activities quickly and easily in a matter of minutes. Once you have created an activity, it is shareable in different ways.
Language level and skills.
Wordwall is particularly useful for mixed-level classes, where you can assign fast finishers an activity which they can easily access online, even from their phone. It can also create a dynamic way to have class competitions.
For any level of learner, Wordwall has potential to be used for self-study, as you decide which content to use in the activities. You can set tasks for groups or individual learners by giving them an access code (although remember there is nothing to stop someone else doing the activity for them!). You could even get your learners to use Wordwall to create activities for their classmates.
Language learning content.
Most activities are based on ‘items’. These are best understood as words or phrases which you want to revise. You provide this content, although you can also use items or activities which other users have made.
For example, you could create a set of items which are colours, and another set which are shapes. These items can be made into an interactive grouping activity, where students drag them into the right place, or they could be turned into multiple-choice questions. They can also be made into games suited to younger, primary-aged learners, such as ‘whack-a-mole’.
If you build up a large bank of items for each group of vocabulary, you can then, in one click, create an online activity of your choice to revise them. You can also, if you prefer, create a printable worksheet.
Tracking learning.
If you like, you can track your students’ scores when they do an activity by using the ‘assignment’ feature. You share the link to the activity and it tracks the scores of each individual in one place. The number of assignments you can set is limited according to your price plan. Although this probably works best if you can track regularly, even with the basic (free) plan you can use this feature a few times a month.
The multi-player game feature allows you to host a real-time quiz for students, who can join using their own web-enabled device.
Social interaction.
You can easily share activities you create with other teachers by making them publicly available on Wordwall’s website or posting them on social media. You can also embed them on websites.
Supporting teaching and learning.
Wordwall reminds me of when I used to use a ‘word box’: a real box which I put new words and phrases in, each one on a piece of card. Those cards could then be used for a number of different revision activities. Although some features can help other aspects of language learning, Wordwall feels most useful for this kind of vocabulary revision.
Research shows that exposing students to vocabulary at ‘spaced’ intervals is helpful to their learning, and this is even more helpful if there is some kind of task, such as grouping words or typing them out correctly. Wordwall can help with this.
Technical: user safety and data security.
Remember, it is important to plan how your learners will access online activities, and if you are going to ask them to use their own device (most probably a smartphone) in class to do so, it may be helpful to have rules in place already for how they can use their own devices.
Any content you create on Wordwall is by default ‘private’; to make it publicly available you have to select an option when you edit your content.
- Privacy policy
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Teachers say word walls work.
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."
WORD WALLS A "PRIMARY" FOCUS
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. WORD WALL FOLDERS AND HOLDERS 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. WORD WALLS ARE FOR ALL GRADES! "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." WORD WALLS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL 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.'" WORKING WORD WALLS "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:
"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. EW Lesson Plans EW Professional DevelopmentEw worksheets. 
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Any and all content can be enhanced by using a word wall, whether for social studies vocabulary or mathematical vocabulary. Even in physical education classes, teachers can help students benefit from word walls. Teaching students themes in special areas is often a great way to incorporate word walls. Learn More: Cap'n Pete's Power PE. 13.
Word Walls. A word wall is a visible display in a classroom that features a collection of words students are studying. Word walls can focus on high-frequency words, word study examples, academic language, and words that are introduced in the content areas. They can be used to support phonics, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.
Word Wall "Active-ities" Build Vocabulary, Spelling, Writing Skills. A classroom word wall has many uses. A wide variety of activities and games can be used to help reinforce vocabulary words that appear on the wall. Included: Five activities shared by teachers who use word walls in their classrooms.
During her 20+ years in education, Lindsey has been an elementary and secondary classroom teacher, an instructional coach, and a specialist in teacher induction. She has collaborated with teachers and administrators nationwide to develop learning partnerships that focus on evaluating and implementing High Yield Instructional Strategies.
A word wall can be used to: support science and literacy experiences of reading, viewing, writing and speaking. provide support for students during literacy activities across all key learning areas. promote independence in students as they develop their literacy skills. provide a visual representation to help students see patterns in words and ...
Learn how to create interactive learning games using Wordwall, a tool for students to practice vocabulary and other subjects.
Josh Smith takes you through how you can rejuvenate your learning environment, and how to keep students engaged in the lesson with interactive, education bas...
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Font Size: + -. Mathematics vocabulary word wall cards provide a display of mathematics content words and associated visual cues to assist in vocabulary development. The cards should be used as an instructional tool for teachers and then as a reference for all students, particularly English learners and students with disabilities.
Price: Free (basic), Subscription (£6.00 p/m), School plans (contact them) Platform: Website. Wordwall takes vocabulary games and reviews into the digital world, and is easy to use for teachers and learners. If you are looking to add a new digital tool to your teaching, this is a very good place to start.
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 ...
Wordwall is a web-based educational game to create fun quiz-based games. This research describes the creation of an educational game (quiz) by using Wordwall as an interactive learning media for ...
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Moscow n (Placename) the capital of Russia and of the Moscow Autonomous Region, on the Moskva River: dates from the 11th century; capital of the grand duchy of Russia from 1547 to 1712; capital of the Soviet Union 1918-91; centres on the medieval Kremlin; chief political, cultural, and industrial centre of Russia, with two.
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