Out of the Room and into the Hall: Making Content Word Walls Work - Essay Example

?Journal article review Out of the Room and into the Hall: Making Content Word Walls Work Purpose: This article very informatively highlights the usefulness and educational importance of Content Word Walls for Middle Schools. The purpose of the article is to enlighten the teachers, instructors, facilitators and to orient them with the benefits of this type of learning for the students, as it can help in the enhancement of their comprehension as well as increasing vocabulary retention. The idea of the content word walls had been used previously for primary schools only but given the need it has been established that the Interactive Word Walls serve to be a good instructional tool for the Middle Schools as well (Harmon, Wood, & Kiser, 2009). The paper illustrates the importance and usage of the Interactive word wall through an example of the Middle school that adopted this instructional methodology. The results of the adopted methodology showed a stronger student-teacher interaction as well as increased reading scores of the students in the areas for which word walls were created. Hence showing that this learning methodology is not only restricted to enhancing learning capabilities of the primary school students but also can be equally helpful in increasing learning capabilities of middle school students as well. Also, the content word walls serve to be constant learning cues for the students and because the students are involved in making the word walls therefore they take ownership and value it which also adds to their learning (Education World). Hence, the objective of the author is to encourage middle school teachers to include the word wall in their teaching planning and methodology so as to strengthen the comprehension and student’s vocabulary building. Also by engaging the students in this process of making word walls will promote learning in them as well as build greater understanding of the contents. Main Points: Importance of Word Walls A word wall is described as a special wall in the classroom that is designated for the exploring and studying word (Cunningham, 1995). The purpose of designating a wall for such activity is to increase the knowledge power of the students by making them analyze unfamiliar words, spell out the unfamiliar words and resultantly enhance their vocabulary. The importance of the content word wall can be analyzed from the fact that these walls are a collection of words that study specific and help in the development of the students. The collection of words keep on increasing by adding new words to the list helping in further building of the vocabulary. The word walls also encourage students in using the learnt words in discussions, reading and writing thus making them able to use the words appropriately in every setting. Word Walls encourage Student Teacher Interaction This instructional tool is quite unique as it tends to focus the students attention on the consistency of the words being used in the curriculum. It helps the students build word knowledge that can be applied to a wide array of educational activities. The general idea behind the interactive word wall is that rather teachers just having the word wall, should engage students in the doing the word wall with them because the students tend to remember the words that are related to what they know and what they do (Ehri, 1992). Using the Interactive word wall instructional tool also empowers the students and the teachers whereby the students can easily view content specific words and can therefore make use of these words in the current educational setting or in that of the future. From the teachers perspective there is a collective learning opportunity being provided to the students. This way it guides the teachers in preparing the curriculum in a systematic way and to address any gaps that are found in terms of documentation of skills. It has also been emphasized by Harmon, Wood, & Kiser ( 2009) that the concept of interactive word walls in the Middle Schools tends to “(a) associate word features and meanings with familiar ideas, concepts, and experiences; (b) actively engage students in multiple, varied, and meaningful experiences with words; and (c) highlight student choice.” Word Walls can be created for any subject The interactive word walls are not specific to just one subject rather these can be used for any subject be it theoretical, language, mathematical etc. As the idea is to build student vocabulary and to strengthen comprehension hence this applicable to any subject being taught. Having a word wall in the hall can be a good learning medium for the students as they can learn new words while traveling up or down the hallway and it also is a good place to attract the attention of the students. Similarly in other subjects focusing on the critical areas of the subject the word content wall can be created with additions of new words periodically. Having a word wall for every subject helps the students in creating a visual cue, organizing the terms learnt and to use it an appropriate manner. Conclusion: Outcomes Based upon the ideas presented in the article the following outcomes are expected from the inclusion of this instructional tool in the course of study: Meaningful building of vocabulary with emphasis on student engagement and higher level thinking skills Building vocabulary resulting in improvement in reading comprehension and usability of words Reinforce understanding of subject-specific vocabulary focusing on the internalizing of key concepts by students Provide visual cues for students and enable them to improve spellings and spelling patterns Serves to be an effective instructional teaching and learning tool Strategies The following is a list of suggested strategies that should be adopted by the middle school teachers in order to make the interactive word wall more meaningful: Students should be encouraged to participate in the preparing of the word wall New words should be added to the word wall on a periodic basis Word walls should be curriculum specific rather than being randomly selected words Teachers should refer to word walls every often so as to make students understand its value and relevance for study purposes. My Comments: This article has emphasized on the importance and usage of the interactive word walls in Middle School. It has illustrated with example that a word wall is not only a learning tool for the primary school students but equally important tool for the middle school students as well. It has been established that a word wall should not be a mere inanimate object but it need to be interactive by involving students in its preparation and development. It has been viewed that those students that learn in classroom with the word wall have an edge over those students who don’t have such learning tool in their class rooms. Although the article has emphasized on the importance of word walls and has also provided with the strategies that must be used by the teachers that can make the word walls and student learning much more meaningful it would have been more informative if there had been a comparison of learning outcomes between students having word walls as a learning resource and those who don’t have this resource available. Also the research is based upon the finding from one school only, by including 2-4 schools in the research would have added additional information about the effective utilization of the word walls in Middle Schools. As the word walls can be created for any subject as written in the article therefore it can be a very helpful tool in building vocabulary and enhancing comprehension and learning capabilities of students in Language Arts by making learning more fun and interactive. Also the students will benefit from the word wall as they can use the words as reference for both speaking and writing. As a teacher the usage and emphasis on the use of descriptive language and reference to the word wall would internalize the focus of the students. Repetitive use of vocabulary would also infuse the word power among the students and through this learning tool they can connect their knowledge and experience not only in school but also in the outside world. Interactive Word Walls are not just a visual display rather it’s an engaging vocabulary instruction. The vocabulary is connected to the curriculum, involving concept learning, participative learning for the students and a means to identify gaps in learning capabilities of the students by the teacher. Based upon the identified gaps a better and more effective curriculum can be planned that only provides content information rather learning and vocabulary enhancement medium. Works Cited Cunningham, P. M. (1995). Phonics they use: Words for reading and writing (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins. Education World. (n.d.). Teachers Say Word Walls Work! Retrieved from Education World: http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev086.shtml Ehri, L. C. (1992). review and commentary: Stages of spelling development. In S. Neuman, & D. K. Dickinson, Handbook of early literacy research (pp. 30-42). New York: Guilford. Harmon, J. M., Wood, K. D., & Kiser, K. (2009). Promoting vocabulary learning with the interactive word wall. Middle School Journal 40 (4), 58-63. Read More