Vocabulary Word Walls

• Organize word walls in category of use not in alphabetical order.  (Possible Categories: color, sound, movement, transitions,dialogue tags, adverbs, adjectives, etc.) This helps students know where they can replace a less powerful word within their writing.
• On a sheet of light-colored construction paper, have a student create a wall poster decorated with illustrations, symbols, and words or sentences to explain the meaning of studied words.
• Have Tier 1, 2, and 3 word walls that are categorized.
• Word windows, word filing cabinets, word ceilings, or word floors are all possibilities if you are low on wall space.  Word floors can be tricky, but fun! Laminate your word and tape it to the floor as a “Welcome Word Mat” and watch as students look down when they walk in the room and learn a new word.
• Have an “un-word” wall. These will be words students have agreed not to use as the upgrade their vocabularies with more interesting words.
• Multiple-meaning word walls display words in web format, in which the word is in the center of the web and the various definitions surround the word.  Individual students can create these and become experts on their word’s definitions.
• Secret coded word walls allow you and students to chose colors for specific parts of speech.  As words are placed on the wall, either the background of the paper or the color of the text tells students the part of speech of the word. This signals students how to use the word in sentences.
• WHAT TO DO WITH EXTRA TIME – Talk about words on your word wall or in your word scrapbooks;  Have students create associations among two or three words on the wall;  Play “Password” by partnering students with one guessing a vocab word for which the other partner provides clues;  Have students create exit tickets consisting of a drawing that represents a word on your list to use for later with whole class.

Brain-Compatible Vocab Strategies

Grab a Word (novelty and movement)

• Using masking tape, place a word under each student’s chair.
• Ask students to grab the word, read it, and place it on another student’s back.
• Student must walk around asking questions to discover their words.

Keeping Tabs on Words (keep things predictable)

• Create a “vocab tab” area in your classroom with a file drawer or box with tabbed folders for word information.
• The vocab tabs provide information about a word.
• How do you create the tabs? Students make them by taking the file folders, writing the word on the tab, and writing all pertinent information about the word inside the folder.
• By making those tabs, students really “know” the word and become that word’s expert.
• Students can use these files as needed.

Vocab Gab (feedback)

• Have students pair up.
• Each student chooses a word from the word wall, the vocab bag you class may have created by placing a card with each word learned in a decorated paper bag (might have different bags for a variety of categories of words), or their vocab scrapbook.
• Students discuss the meaning of the words and possible synonyms and antonyms.
• Students create a graphic organizer, such as a Venn Diagram, and compare and contrast the words.

Vocab Lab (choice)

• In the vocab “laboratory,” students choose a word from the word wall.
• The word is then dissected:
  • Is there a root? A suffix? A prefix?
  • What does each mean?
  • What other words contain these?
• Create a list of the words connected to your word through these word parts.