I feel like I am always telling students to use more academic vocabulary. My goal is to have a beautiful color picture as a visual so that every student, even the students we have who only speak a little English, will want to look at the words and use them.
I work with 8th grade students in a co-taught science classroom.
In the classroom we have students who are new to the country and students who were born here. A majority of my students are low income and are English Language Learners. In our inner city school we have many families who come from poverty or limited schooling. This, still, does not stop our students from learning.
My Project
By having a colorful word wall, students will be more inclined to use it as a resource during class time. They will refer to it when we talk about a new or connecting topic. Also, they will look to it when they write, or during a test.
In addition to this, the English Language Learners who are just starting to learn English will use the wall as a simple dictionary. The color helps them see the pictures clearly and really understand the words without a long definition. One example of this is the red used to talk about magma versus lava. It is better to have the real object for these students to look at, however that is not always possible. The color in the word wall gets us closer to what the object actually looks like.
I think this printer and ink will save us teachers time printing at home or else where, so we can focus on the core of the lessons.
It will also be a boost for students' writing and speaking. I hope to reference the word wall everyday, until the students are telling each other to look to the word wall.
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