Teacher Resources - Word Walls
Word Walls
What is a Word Wall?
A word wall is a designated space in the classroom where useful words are posted for students to use and reference to in their work. Word walls can have many uses and take on many forms such as:
- Sight Word Walls
- Name Word Walls
- Thematic Word Walls
- Seasonal Word Walls
Those are only a few of the many different types of word walls that teachers use in their classrooms.
In my classroom, our word wall is dedicated to high frequency sight words. We also have a red pocket chart in the room that is used for thematic/seasonal words. The picture below shows our word wall at the beginning of the year (with no words) and the pocket chart that we will use to display our thematic/seasonal words. This picture was taken before school began, so there are no words shown. I use my whiteboard for my word wall and all of my word cards have magnets on the back for easy manipulation.
How Do I Use a Word Wall?
The best advice that I've ever been given concerning a word wall is this: Don't stick words on the wall without introducing them to your students. Only put words on the wall as your students are introduced to them and are beginning to learn them.
For more ways to use concepts and skills from the word wall visit:
- Daily Practice - ideas for reinforcing sight word knowledge and phoneme segmentation through a daily practice book.
- High Frequency Words - ideas and resources for teaching and practicing high frequency sight words.
Related Resources
Resource Links
- Printable Word Wall Lists and Word Cards - from Four Blocks Literacy Framework
- Article: Word Walls that Work - from Scholastic
- Dolch Sight Word List (Preprimer through 3rd grade)
- Fry's Instant Word List (1st Grade through 6th Grade)
- Word Wall Songs and Chants - from the Reading Lady