Kid Writing-Spelling with Word Walls
For sight words the class had already studied, the students can walk over to the interactive word wall, select the sight word they want to spell, and return to their seat to transcribe the word. The purpose of a word wall is to make words accessible to children when reading and writing and support them as they experiment with words (Houle & Krogness, 2001), and the words chosen can come from a shared reading or a list of developmentally appropriate high-frequency words (Brabham & Villaume, 2001; Cooper & Kiger, 2003). Additionally, the words must be easy to see and accessible to children especially when they write in journals or when they construct their own stories (Brabham & Villaume, 2001; Jasmine & Schiesl, 2009).
These word wall words allow children to transfer the words into their repertoire of language. Thus, a word wall provides a visual scaffold for beginning readers and writers to utilize (Brabham & Villaume, 2001; Houle & Krogness, 2001) and allows children to take control of words and become independent writers. Students can collaboratively locate words on the word wall and pass sight words amongst themselves before they return the word to the wall for someone else to use. (I love this pocket chart from Godery, that can be hung at student-height, so they can grab the words the class is currently studying. #CommissionsEarned)
References
Brabham, Edna Green & Villaume, Susan Kidd, (2001). Building walls of words. Reading Teacher, 54(7).
Houl, Amy & Krogness, Allison, (2001). The wonders of word walls. Young Children, 56.
Jasmine, Joanne & Schiesl, Pamela, (2009). The effects of word walls and word wall activities on the reading fluency of first grade students. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts. 49(4).
