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Emily Herrmann
Introduction
Throughout students’ entire school career, their teachers are always teaching them new
vocabulary. Vocabulary words are taught in every single subject, in every grade. Well-developed
vocabulary is an important key to student’s success in the classroom as well as outside of the
classroom. In order to help students with their vocabulary development, some teachers choose to
create word walls in their classroom. A word wall is a collection of words which are exhibited in
large letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other surface in a classroom (ReadingRockets, 2018).
These displays can be used anywhere in the school; they can be used simply in the classroom or
in the hallways and libraries (ReadingRockets, 2018). A word wall is designed to be a method of
teaching where the teacher can direct students to the word wall during lessons to expand their
vocabulary. By using a word wall, teachers are giving students a place in the classroom that they
are able to go to whenever they are unsure of a specific vocabulary word. This helps to eliminate
development.
Purpose
Helping students develop strong vocabulary is every teacher’s job. Part of teaching
students vocabulary involves getting them engaged in the specific vocabulary words. Using word
walls in the classroom is supposed to be an effective way to help to do this. Teachers of every
grade level use word walls in their classroom; however, do they truly know how much the word
walls are helping their students? Through this study, I want to know how effective word walls
are when helping students in the classroom relating to overall knowledge and level of
Through my survey, taken by teachers who have taught in elementary aged classrooms, I
hope to find that student engagement and knowledge of the subject increases while implementing
a word wall. I would also like to see how often teachers use their word wall with their students.
Through other research, I hope to find that word walls help students in a variety of subjects when
learning vocabulary.
I think that my research will show that, while teachers do not always use their word wall,
when it is being used students learn more and are more interested in the topic. I also think I will
find that when it is not being used, students look to it for help on individual lessons, whether that
is for spelling a word or trying to recall information about the specific word.
Review of Literature
strategies in order to help the students learn to the best of their ability. One common way
teachers do this is by implementing a word wall into the classroom. AlShaiji & AlSaleem (2014)
produced a quasi-experimental research study that takes a deeper look into these word walls and
their effect on English reading fluency of Saudi Kindergarten students. It aims at calling
attention to the academic significance of pictures, words and charts. The participants of this
study were fifty-five Saudi kindergarteners. The goal of this study was to figure out whether
there was a significant difference between the Saudi children’s subject mean score on English
reading fluency test when using word wall activities in the classroom or not.
By the end of this study, students were able to read 23.09 words per minute as opposed to
16.41 words per minute which was their average words per minute rate during their pretest. The
results from this study indicate that although the students have various academic abilities, the
word wall activities were a factor that helped to construct high-frequency word vocabulary. This
Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 4
study disproved the previous hypothesis that stated that students using a word wall for a 10 week
In their action research, Jasmine & Schiesl (2009) decided to conduct a study to see how
effective word walls are in improving students reading skills. The purpose of this action research
paper was to have students interact with a word wall and the related activities to develop high
frequency word recognition and therefore improve reading. The participants in this study were
twenty first graders that were made up from nine boys and eleven girls who were going to school
This study employed a case study approach using multiple data collection strategies to
establish credibility of the findings. One study that was used was a pre-running and post-running
record. The reason they chose to use this is because they wanted to know if the student’s
materials were not too basic nor advanced for them. It also helped them understand the word
recognition process the students were going through. The second method of data collection was
observation in learning centers. They chose to do a random sample to complete this study. They
chose five random names of students from the class to be the students whom were going to be
observed. While observing the five students, they used a three point checklist to determine how
well each student completed their activity. The reason they used this method of collection was to
The results of this study showed that with the development of a more extensive word
vocabulary through the implementation of word walls, students will be able to continue to further
increase reading fluency and comprehension. Through the pre-running and post-running records,
Vintinner, Harmon, Wood, & Stover (2015) developed a study examining the perceptions
of English teachers of the efficacy of interactive word walls in high school classrooms. The
participants that were used were five English teachers from the states of North Carolina and
Texas. This study used a qualitative descriptive content analysis approach to evaluate teachers’
During the post interview questions, the teachers stated that word walls allowed for
students to share knowledge in a meaningful way. Some also stated that word walls give students
the opportunity to learn multiple meanings of words with a focus on the particular lesson being
taught. By using the word wall, teachers were able to assess their students through a formative
assessment by watching them show their understanding of the word. The teachers also stated that
they found there were higher levels of engagements through the students when using a word
wall.
Methodology
The methodology I used in my research was an informal survey. I created this survey
through google forms. I then sent it out to my previous teachers asking them to pass it around.
My participants for this study were all current or former teachers in any elementary grade level
(eighth grade or lower). The reason I chose these participants was because I wanted to see how
often and when they used their word wall. I also wanted to see what they observed from their
The survey consisted of eleven multiple choice questions as well as two short answer
questions. I chose to use primarily multiple choice questions because I did not want teachers to
see a lot of short answer questions, become overwhelmed, and decide it is not worth taking. The
Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 6
survey only took two to five minutes to complete. This survey was a productive way to answer
multiple questions related to word walls by teachers who use them first hand.
Findings
There were a total of thirteen teachers who chose to take my survey. Of those thirteen,
eleven of them were currently teaching in the field while two of them were former teachers. The
grades that were taught ranged from kindergarten to eighth grade and included special needs
classrooms. Four of these teachers taught multiple grades while seven of them taught just one
elementary grade. Figure 1’s data shows that the teacher’s choice of where to place the word
wall in their classroom was very even. Four people chose the front of the room, four people
chose the back of the room, and five people chose the side of the room. I wanted to specifically
ask this question because the classrooms I have been in have all had their word wall on the side
of the room. I wanted to see if there was a correlation between engagement of students with the
word wall and location of the word wall in the classroom which I did not find any association
Figure 1
Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 7
Yes
Sometimes
Too hard to tell
No
Figure 2
Figure 2 shows the data from the question “Have you seen any difference in the learning
outcomes of students when you incorporate the word wall into your lesson?” This was an
important question for this research because if student learning is not being positively impacted
through using different practices like word walls, than there would be no reason to use them.
This question helps answer whether or not students learning is affected when using word walls.
While there were four options to choose from, only three of them were chosen. Although it is a
good thing, I was surprised to see that, of the teachers who completed my survey, none of them
stated that they did not see a difference in students learning outcomes. This question shows that
while using a word wall, the learning is impacted and therefore, this method is a positive one to
In figure 3, the question was asked, “Have you seen students vocabulary improve upon
the use of the word wall in the classroom?” While this question is similar to the previous one, it
asked about a specific skill that elementary age students spend a lot of time on every year. This
question was asked to ensure that teachers were able to see that their students’ vocabulary is
Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 8
being improved through the use of word walls. This helped answer the research question because
it specifically shows that word walls do help student learning through vocabulary development.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4 Series 1
3
2
1
0
Yes No A little Too hard
bit to tell
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 4’s data answers the question “On a scale of 1 to 5, do your students show
excitement when you incorporate your Word Wall into a lesson? (1 being the least excited, 5
being the most excited)” This question was important to my research because it focuses more on
engagement rather than vocabulary improvement. By doing activities that students are excited
Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 9
about, teachers are taking a step to promote engagement of the lesson in the classroom. This data
shows that there is not a huge increase in excitement when incorporating a word wall into the
lesson. However, most of the teachers who took this survey indicated that excitement in their
students does increase some when using a word wall. This helps show that word walls can
Recommendations
To continue with this research, I would start a multiple database collection to ensure
more credibility for the study. I would like to start by creating a survey for students to fill out to
see what they think about the use of the word wall in their classroom. I think this would be
important because students are the ones really utilizing it and learning from it and if they have
negative feelings to it or some ideas on how to use it that would be important to use for research.
Getting the students opinion on this could be very enlightening for teachers and help them use it
like to use various classrooms throughout different grades and states in order to develop a
diverse group for the data. I think observation would be important to see how engaged students
are with word walls. There would be a group of students in each class that I would use in order to
ensure that I am spending the amount of time on them instead of trying to observe everyone. I
would use a rubric to score their engagement. I think this would help towards my research
because scoring students in person with a rubric will allow to have richer data to work with.
References
AlShaiji, O. A., & AlSaleem, B. I. (2014). The impact of word walls on improving the English
Jasmine, J., & Schiesl, P. (2009). The effects of word walls and word wall activities on the
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/word_walls.
Raw Data
a. Current
b. Past
4. Do you utilize your Word Wall every day with your class?
a. Yes
b. No
5. When you use your Word Wall, do you use it Before, During, or After instruction?
a. Before
b. During
c. After
d. All of these
Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 11
6. On a scale of 1 to 5, do your students show excitement when you incorporate your Word
Wall into a lesson? (1 being the least excited, 5 being the most excited)
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4
e. 5
7. Have your students ever asked you if you could use the Word Wall in a lesson you would
8. Have you seen any difference in the learning outcomes of students when you incorporate
a. Yes
b. No
c. Sometimes
9. Have you seen student’s vocabulary improve upon the use of the Word Wall in the
classroom?
a. Yes
b. No
c. A little bit
10. Are students more engaged in the overall lesson when you incorporate the Word Wall
a. Yes
b. No
c. A little bit
Appendix
15.40%
Current
Past
84.60%
K
1 1 3 1st
2
2nd
3
3 3rd
4th
2
5th
3
2 6th
1 7th
5
8th
30.80%
38.50% Front of the room
Back of the room
Side of the room
30.80%
Do you utilize your Word Wall every day with your class?
23.10%
Yes
46.20%
No
Most of the time
30.80%
When you use your Word Wall, do you use it Before, During, or After instruction?
Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 14
7.70%
Before
23.10%
During
After
61.50%
7.70% All of these
On a scale of 1 to 5, do your students show excitement when you incorporate your Word Wall
into a lesson? (1 being the least excited, 5 being the most excited)
0%
15.40%
23.10% 1
7.70% 2
3
4
5
53.80%
Have your students ever asked you if you could use the Word Wall in a lesson you would
8%
8%
26% Yes
8% No
Not Usually
Sometimes
Not Yet
50%
Have you seen any difference in the learning outcomes of students when you incorporate the
23.10%
Yes
38.50%
No
Sometimes
Too hard to tell
38.50%
0%
Have you seen students’ vocabulary improve upon the use of the Word Wall in the classroom?
Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 16
7.70%
15.40% Yes
No
7.70% A little bit
69.20% Too hard to tell
Are students more engaged in the overall lesson when you incorporate the Word Wall into the
lesson?
15.40%
Yes
38.50%
No
A little bit
38.50% Too hard to tell
7.70%