Today I’m back to share my fifth tip for differentiating during Writing Workshop. Today’s tip is all about word walls!
I currently teach first grade and have also taught second for many years. As we know these ages are still learning how to spell and some kids can get very caught up on spelling things correctly in their writing. One of the things I love is training kids to spell things the best they can. Inventive spelling is amazing! Now that being said there are some words that kid will frequently use in their writing or words that they can’t sound out. This is where the word wall comes in handy.
Now I’ve seen word walls done many different ways. Some teachers create a bulletin on their wall, some create a page at their table or in their folder, and some use portable word walls. I love the portable word wall! I’ve been using one for the last 2 years. It takes up less space and it’s easy to add words. The nice thing is this can be differentiated for my specific class. I will often put student names in there (as kids like to write about their friends), teachers at the school, special places where we live, and more. This can also be differentiated depending on your grade and student needs. If you have a high number of ELL students, you could differentiate by also adding pictures to your word wall words.
Here are a few pictures of what my portable word wall looks like:
Check back on Monday! I’ll be sharing ideas for differentiating editing checklists!
If you missed my past tips from the Differentiation in Writing Workshop series, click below…
No Comments