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Running header: ENGAGING STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF WORD WALLS 1

Engaging Students through the Use of Word Walls

Emily Herrmann

Franciscan University of Steubenville


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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

students becoming discouraged or guessing and helps to promote positive vocabulary

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

engagement when using a word wall.


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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

Teaching English Language Learners (ELL) involves using a variety of different

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
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study disproved the previous hypothesis that stated that students using a word wall for a 10 week

period of time had no effect on reading fluency.

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

at a rural public K-6 elementary 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

determine if the intervention was successful.

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,

the fluency of the students increased.


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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’

response to interactive word walls.

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

students when using the word wall.

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
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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

between the two.

Side of the room


Front of the room
Back of the room

Figure 1
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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

use to help students vocabulary development.

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
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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
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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

increase engagement and excitement within a lesson.

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

to an even greater effect in the classroom.

I would also conduct an observation in different classrooms. To complete this, I would

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

reading fluency of Saudi kindergarten's children. Education, 135(1), 39-50.


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Jasmine, J., & Schiesl, P. (2009). The effects of word walls and word wall activities on the

reading fluency of first grade students. Reading Horizons, 49(4), 301-314.

Word Walls | Classroom Strategy. (2018, January 12). Retrieved from

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/word_walls.

Raw Data

1. Are you a current or past teacher?

a. Current

b. Past

2. What grade(s) do you or did you teach? (fill in the blank)

3. Where is your Word Wall located in the classroom?

a. The front of the room

b. The back of the room

c. The side of the room

4. Do you utilize your Word Wall every day with your class?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Most of the time

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
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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

otherwise not use it in? (fill in the blank)

8. Have you seen any difference in the learning outcomes of students when you incorporate

the Word Wall into your lesson?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Sometimes

d. Too hard to tell

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

d. Too hard to tell

10. Are students more engaged in the overall lesson when you incorporate the Word Wall

into the lesson?


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a. Yes

b. No

c. A little bit

d. Too hard to tell

Appendix

Are you a current or past teacher?

15.40%

Current
Past

84.60%

What grade(s) do you or did you teach?

K
1 1 3 1st
2
2nd
3
3 3rd
4th
2
5th
3
2 6th
1 7th
5
8th

Where is your Word Wall located in the classroom?


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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?
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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

otherwise not use it in?


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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

Word Wall into your lesson?

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?
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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%

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