Building Powerful Word Walls in Every PAISD Classroom

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Building Powerful Word Walls in Every PAISD
Classroom

• Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and School
  Leadership
• August 21, 2007
• District-Wide Professional Development
• Johnny E. Brown, Ph.D.
• Superintendent

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Training Outline

• Purpose and Desired Outcomes of Training
• Why Word Walls?
• Elements of a Powerful Word Wall
• Importance of Word Walls
• Strategies for Engaging Students in Building the
  Word Wall
• How to Teach Students to Provide On-Going
  Maintenance of the Word Wall
• Sharing Ideas for Building Powerful Word Walls
• Campus-Wide Word Wall Implementation Activities
• District-Wide Monitoring Expectations

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Purpose and Desired Outcomes of Training

• This training is designed to assist teachers in
• all content areas to
• appreciate
• build
• use
• maintain Word Walls

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What is a Word Wall?

• A word wall is
• a systematically organized collection of words
• displayed in large letters on a wall or other
  large display place in the classroom
• a tool to use, not just display
• designed to promote group learning
• to be shared by a classroom of students

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Why Word Walls?

• Words -- the most important tools of a reader or
  a writer
• Words -- absolutely essential in our classrooms
• Words -- must be in full view so that
• teachers and students can work through texts
  together
• so that students can see them and use them in
  their writing

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Importance of Word Walls

• Word Walls promote vocabulary growth and lead to
  improvement in literacy.
• Word Walls serve many purposes
• Provide meaningful building of vocabulary with
  emphasis on student engagement and higher level
  thinking skills
• Build vocabulary thereby improving reading
  comprehension and writing styles

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Importance of Word Walls

• Provide students with high-frequency words that
  will be encountered in particular units of study
• Reinforce understanding of subject-specific
  vocabulary with a focus on students internalizing
  key concepts
• Help students to improve spelling and spelling
  patterns

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Importance of Word Walls

• Provide visual clues for students
• Encourage increased student independence when
  reading and writing
• Regardless of the grade level or the subject
  area, word walls are an extremely effective
  teaching and learning tool.

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Elements of Effective Word Walls

• Build over time with shared student-teacher
  responsibility
• Words added with cautionat least five words per
  week
• Simple and uncluttered as possible
• Practical and used on a daily basis
• Space efficient -- easily seen
• Hands-on

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Types of Word Walls

• Personal
• Content or Thematic
• High Frequency
• Current Events
• Genre
• Common patterns, phonograms, phases

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Strategies for Engaging Students in Building the
Word Wall

• Use students ideas and suggestions in
  determining words to be used
• Use word walls daily
• Vary activities for using words on the word wall

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Word Wall Activities

• Erasing Relay
• Mind Reader
• Hot Seat
• Word Wall Bingo
• Mystery Words
• Visiting Words
• Word Pictures/Word Relationships
• Word Origins and Root Words

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How to Teach Students to Provide On-Going
Maintenance of the Word Wall

• Students may
• Serve as weekly Word Wall Monitors to assess
  condition of the wall
• Easy to read and use
• Words in good condition or in need of repair
• Suggest words to be added to the wall
• Develop ideas for Word Wall activities

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Sharing Ideas for Building Powerful Word Walls

• Word Walls should be used in every content
• area and every grade level.
• For example..

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Elementary Word Walls
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Grade 2
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Urbanization
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Migration
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13th Amendment
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Middle School Word Walls
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Hazardous Environmental Conditions
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Primary Sources
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Secondary Sources
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Renewable Resources
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Bill of Rights
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French and Indian War
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High School Word Walls
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1492
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Cold War
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Albert Einstein
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Cultural Change
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Campus-Wide Word Wall Implementation Activities

• Review PowerPoint presentation of Powerful Word
  Walls
• Share Word Walls used in the past and ideas for
  future ones
• Meet by grade levels and subject areas to
  brainstorm appropriate Word Walls
• Make long-range plans for the first six weeks
• Visit peers room to view Word Walls
• Assess degree of implementation at each grade
  level/department meeting

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District-Wide Monitoring Expectations

• Each teacher will establish classroom Word Walls
• Word Walls will be appropriate for grade
  level/department
• Students and teachers will use Word Walls daily
• Word Walls will be changed as necessary to
  accompany units of study

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Make no mistake about itwhen we teach a child
to read,we change the world.