Using Interactive Word Walls in Science

Toni Enloe
Mar 09, 2009

Flashback:  It is Monday morning, and the teacher has just finished a unit of instruction with a test the previous Friday. Students are told to turn to the back of the next chapter and locate the usually lengthy set of new vocabulary terms. Students look up each word in the glossary in the back of the book, write the definition and then either use the word in a sentence or find the word in the chapter and write that sentence. On Friday, students take a vocabulary test, even though the new words may not have been introduced within the context of the lesson. Sound familiar? Some of us have probably been guilty of this kind of vocabulary instruction or victims. This type of instruction is a "Dead Horse" that needs to be buried.

Fast Forward:  Based on skills that you acquired in your Learning-Focused Strategies and Vocabulary Instruction workshops, you have designed your Student Learning Maps and identified key vocabulary. Now what? Word Walls! In addition to what you learned in your Vocabulary Instruction workshop, there are several other things you might want to remember, as you begin to design your Word Wall.

1. Encourage students to take ownership by identifying their own unfamiliar words to include on the wall.
2. Constantly add new information to grow your wall.
3. Make sure the vocabulary is curriculum based and content driven.
4. Make sure the design encourages students to see and make connections.

The use of interactive Word Walls in science enhances the learning experience for your students. Not only are they relatively simple to design and use but also beneficial to vocabulary development.
Science is a vocabulary-intense subject that is dependent on students learning new and often times difficult vocabulary to increase comprehension and help them make connections between and among concepts. When science students are given the opportunity to interact with the vocabulary, they are more likely to remember it.

What makes a Word Wall interactive? It becomes interactive when students are allowed to "do something" with the vocabulary. By posting the words in the classroom, students automatically have visual cues. Other things to consider include are:  auditory processing through pronunciation, using their own language to define the words and using games as a form of summative assessment.

For vocabulary development to occur students need multiple visual and auditory exposures to the words, kinesthetic experiences, relevant connections, opportunities to play with the words, and time to write and use the new words in the appropriate context. Interactive Word Wall activities can:

1. Increase vocabulary
2. Help students make connections between and among concepts and units
3. Provide opportunities for productive and meaningful interaction among classmates
4. Make students accountable for their own learning
5. Facilitate student directed learning
6. Serve as either formative or summative assessment

Suggestions for when to use Word Wall activities in science include:

1. Activating strategy for a lesson
2. Part of classroom instruction
3. Summarizer for a lesson
4. Unit launch activity
5. Follow up after science lab to help students connect to concepts
6. Review for test

Ideas for using the words on your wall are only limited by your imagination. Some examples include:

1. Students categorize and sequence from largest to smallest (cell, bacteria, yeast, tissue, ribosome, organ, organism, organ system, protozoa, virus)  Variation:  Students are given vocabulary words,  and their classmates must arrange them in the correct order and justify the placement.

2. Students remove words from the wall and make connecting statements about the words. The class can then create a summarizing statement. Ex. Cells make up tissues, and tissues make up organs.

3. Students can select words from the wall and create a cheer or chant for new vocabulary words.
 
Ex. anticline, syncline, dike and sill

Anticline - Students move their right hand from left to right in an upward arch
Syncline - Students move their right hand from right to left in a downward arch
Dike - Student's right forearm is vertical
Sill - Student's right forearm is horizontal and parallel to the front of the body

4. Teachers can use the system of classification for seat assignments. It keeps things lively and is a
    clever way to create new collaborative pairs.

Ex. animal kingdom classification - One student might have the word "Platyhelminthes" and another "Planaria";  those students would sit next to each other. "Chordata" and "Fish", etc.

Varying the activity that you use with your Word Wall wordskeeps things interesting and students motivated. To vary activities vary the difficulty of the words; let students help you generate words based on their knowledge.  Make it a silent activity. Pull vocabulary from several seemingly unrelated units, and see if students can make and justify their connections. Once students are familiar with the new vocabulary, they have the flexibility to make new connections. When actively engaged in their own vocabulary development, students begin to understand how words work and see relationships.

Increased understanding = Increased competence=Increased confidence = Increased effort = INCREASED ACHIEVEMENT!

For more ideas on Word Walls see Vocabulary Instruction.