Findings About Students' Initial Perceptions Of Word Walls

By Author: Alex Armas
Total Articles: 74
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We first report the findings of students' perceptions of word walls using categories described by Hoffman and Sailors (2004). The interview categories contained questions about identifying the word wall and talking about its function, value, and usefulness. During the interviews, we showed each student a picture of a word wall (see Figure 1) while asking the interview questions.

When asked to identify the word wall, only 43.1% of students used the term word wall and approximately 12% could not identify the word wall. Other descriptors used by students were variations, such as pictures on the wall. Nonetheless, almost 60% of the students had a general understanding that word walls were for learning new vocabulary. Some students offered specific uses, such as to learn and remember words, to aid with spelling, to help with writing, and to review for a test. One particularly difficult question we asked was "How does the word wall help you Thomas Sabo Jewellery with word meanings" Apparently, this question surprised the students since over 50% were unable to articulate any response ...
... or felt that the word wall was not helpful in learning word meanings. Only 16% of the students stated that the word wall was only beneficial when they already knew the word meanings. Some even commented that the word wall helped to trigger their memory when they could not remember exactly how the word was spelled.

When asked who used word walls, the seventh graders readily responded that both students and teachers used word walls. Students used word walls for learning and teachers used them as teaching devices. In particular, students used word walls for studying, remembering, writing, and completing classroom assignments. The students felt that certain teachers, like reading teachers and social studies teachers, used word walls for presenting new terms and for helping students review previously discussed words. In regard to valuing word walls, we found that 80% of the students felt that they were an important classroom tool. One student stated that the word wall was particularly useful as a reference for words to use in discussion and conversations. The remaining 20% were either unsure of the importance of the word wall or did not value it, especially if they did not know the word meanings.

We were surprised that many students were not familiar with the term word wall, a lack of familiarity that may reflect the level of occurrence of this tool in upper grades. Nonetheless, most students responded positively about the importance of word walls and could envision how they might use them for reviewing and studying vocabulary, spelling words, and completing class assignments. Of particular note was the inability of students to respond to the prompt about how the word wall helps Thomas Sabo Charms with word meanings. The students who did respond were quick to notice that the word wall in the picture was not all that helpful since there were no clues on the wall about the meanings. Some students felt that word walls were simply a display of words they were about to learn. These responses prompted us to consider how word walls could be used more effectively in middle-level classrooms. As a result, we developed a sequence of vocabulary lessons with the word wall as an instructional focal point. In the next sections, we provide the knowledge base for the instruction, a description of the instructional sequence, and the findings of the postinterviews and student achievement results on the teacher-developed tests.