Vocabulary · Tier 1: everyday words
Visual word wall
A word wall where every word has a picture and an example sentence, organized by topic or routine. Students use it during lessons to find the words they need to speak and write.
- Bands
- 1 to 3
- Stages
- Early Years, Lower elementary, Upper elementary and Middle school
- Settings
- Mainstream class, Push-in support and Small group
- Prep
- Medium prep
How to do it
- Pick a small set of words for the current topic or routine, around eight to twelve.
- Add each word with a picture and a short example sentence.
- Teach each word as you add it, and model finding a word on the wall.
- When a student is stuck, point them to the wall before giving them the word.
- Move older words to a smaller section so the wall stays uncluttered.
In a lesson
Math (lower elementary)
In a lesson on shapes, a student wants to say that a square has four corners but doesn’t know the word. The teacher points to the wall, where “corner” sits next to a picture of a square with its corners circled. The student says, “It has four corners.”
What commonly goes wrong
- The wall becomes wallpaper that nobody uses.
- Words go up without pictures, so new arrivals can’t use them.
- Words are added but never taught.
Adapting it
For a lower band
Keep to six or eight words with large pictures, and say them together every day.
For a higher band
Add word forms and a sentence frame for each word, and let students add their own examples.