Word Walls

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Word Walls

• Presented by
• Danielle Connors

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What is a word wall?

• A collection of words displayed in large letters
  on a wall or large display
• A tool to help teach reinforce vocabulary
• An interactive visual map that helps children
  remember connections between words

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How do you make a word wall?

• Choose a space that you plan on using for your
  word wall (i.e. wall, bulletin board, cabinet,
  file folders, etc). Students should be able to
  see this space.
• Determine how you are going to set your wall up.
• A. Alphabetical Order
• B. Theme
• Have a list of vocabulary words for each unit
  prepared ahead of time.

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How do I choose words for the wall and what do I
do with them?

• Choose the most common words that students need
  to know and use a lot in their writing.
• Add words gradually (7-10 per week).
• Practice words by chanting writing them.
• Make sure that word wall words are spelled
  correctly in any writing students do.
• Make word wall activities a regular part of your
  program.

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Word Wall Activities

• Say, Chant, Write
• Rhyme with the Word Wall
• Be a Mind Reader
• Bingo
• Guess the Covered Word
• Hot Seat
• Vocabulary Definitions

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Say, Chant, Write

• Have students repeat the new word after you.
• Instruct students to chant the word and spell it
  out.
• Students should write the word in their notebooks
  or on a sheet of paper.

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Rhyme With the Word Wall

• Choose 5 to words to review.
• Have students number their papers 1-5.
• Give students clues for each one.
• word cell
• clues the word begins with c rhymes with
  shell

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Be a Mind Reader

• Have students number their papers 1-5.
• Choose 5 words and prepare clues for them.
• The first clue should always be, Its one of the
  words on the word wall.
• Word infinite
• Clues 1. Its one of the words on the word wall.
• 2. It has 8 letters.
• 3. It begins with a prefix.
• 4. It has 3 Is in it.
• 5. It means having no limits or boundaries
• Students should then write down their guess.

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Bingo

• Have students copy down 25 words from the word
  wall onto a bingo card.
• Have all the words on the wall written onto index
  cards or scraps of paper in a jar.
• Randomly choose the cards or scraps of paper to
  play the game B-I-N-G-O.

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Guess the Covered Word

• The teacher writes 4 or 5 sentences on the board
  or overhead. Cover a word in each sentence with
  two sticky notesone covering the onset, the
  other covering the rhyme (or you could do
  pre-fix, root word, suffix).
• Call on a student to read the 1st sentence.
• Students make several guesses for the covered
  word. The teacher writes down the guesses on the
  board.
• The teacher takes off the first sticky note that
  is covering the onset.
• Guesses that dont begin with the onset are
  erased and any new guesses can be added.
• When all the guesses which fit both the meaning
  and the onset are written, the whole word is
  revealed.

Onset-the consonants before the vowel in a
syllable Rhyme-the letters that include the
vowel the rest of the syllable i.e.
Word-lewd Onset- l Rhyme- ewd
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Hot Seat

• A student is chosen to go into the hot seat.
  This student should have a good view of the word
  wall.
• The teacher or classmate chooses a word from the
  wall and writes it down.
• The student in the hot seat has to ask yes and
  no questions to figure the word out.
• i.e. Is it a noun? A verb?
• Does it have fewer than 10 letters?

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Vocabulary Definitions

• The teacher should choose five words.
• The teacher should say, Im thinking of a word
  that means
• -There can be many variations to this.

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Creative Places for Word Walls

• Cabinet doors
• File folders
• Tall spaces
• Project boards
• Above chalkboard
• Bulletin boards

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The Keys to an Effective Word Wall are

• Make it interactive
• Use words that students are currently learning
  about review old words
• Make the word wall/vocabulary development a part
  of your program

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Resources

• Websites
• www.teachnet.com
• www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy
  /
• Books
• Cunningham, P.M. (1999). The Teachers Guide to
  the Four Blocks.NC.Carso-Dellossa.

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Door Prizes