Word Wall

Why Use a Word Wall?

The Word Wall teaching strategy creates a place in the classroom where students display the meanings of important ideas using words and pictures. As students encounter new vocabulary in a text or video, creating a classroom word wall offers one way to help them comprehend and interpret ideas in the text. It is also an effective way for students to keep track of new terms they’ve learned in a unit of study.

Vocabulary terms that you might add to your classroom word wall include bystander, perpetrator, genocide, democracy, tolerance, nationalism, and prejudice.

How to Make a Word Wall

Step 1: Prepare the Space

Select a place in the room for your word wall. Large sheets of poster paper or a dedicated whiteboard work well.

Step 2: Build Your Word Wall

Before you begin reading a text, watching a video, or studying new material, assign students, possibly working in pairs, a term to define for the class word wall. You can also require students to present an image or graphic that represents the meaning of this word. Associating an image with a word is one way to help students remember definitions.

Step 3: Add to Your Word Wall

New terms can be added to the word wall as needed. Students can also update the definitions on their own word walls as they develop a deeper understanding of key terms.