Word Walls are an effective strategy for building vocabulary with students, especially for subject-specific terms. These lists are usually posted on classroom walls and sometimes have a definition attached to them. A more interactive word wall that includes images requires students to be more active learners as they attach meaning to each of the words in the list. Teachers may post these in the classroom after first using them as teaching tools when introducing a concept. They may continue to refer to them as students make deeper connections. Another good option is to use an interactive whiteboard, allowing students to place words in the correct place in the diagrams. As a pedagogical tool, an interactive word wall requires students to attach meaning to the words and build their own definitions. Because there is no definition attached to any of the terms, there will be no reason to hide these when there is a quiz or test.  

Creating these more interactive word walls is easily accomplished by making us of some of the image tools in Microsoft Word. There are 19 mathematics images ready to print as posters and a template that you may use to create your own. You may download the .pdf and just print the posters for your classroom, or use the Microsoft Word file and edit what is here, or create more of your own.

You may also want to use the Mathematics Tool Kit for Teachers … it will make your job a lot easier when you are creating those beautiful mathematics documents. 


About the Guest Blogger
Joe Sisco has taught Secondary Mathematics for 25 years in the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board. He is currently the e-Learning Contact, coordinating e-Learning, Blended Learning, Homework Help, and distribution of tech resources for teachers in our Board.
joe_sisco@wecdsb.on.ca
BLOG – http://wecdsbit.blogspot.com/
Website – https://sites.google.com/a/wecdsb.on.ca/math-matters/