Back to School: Word Walls & Take Home Book Solutions

So, word walls… I can sum this one up in four words...

Are you ready?

Kids. don’t. use. them.

Yep, I said it! Let’s keep it real. While the idea of a word wall is a good one, in practice, I just have not found them to be a very effective tool for my students. Even if my words are huge, even if we practice using it together, even if they help me make it, a typical word wall just doesn’t do the trick.

Why? I think there are a few reasons.

• First, the kids just forget about them. If you don’t remember a tool is there, you’re not going to use it.
• Second, They’re hard to read. Word walls tend to have too many words, not enough, and are often just plain difficult to navigate.
• And third, copying from a word wall is often tricky. Looking up and back to your paper over and over is hard for students

Desktop Word Walls to the Rescue…

I was thrilled when I found these Desktop Word Walls from Steps to Literacy because they solve all of the problems with a typical word wall that we put on our classroom walls. If you’re still required to put up a word wall, you can definitely still do that, but these are a perfect compliment, and students can actually use these!

See more of why I love these Desktop Word Walls and also how I’ve solved the Take Home Book Problem here.