The Benefits of Using a Word Wall in the Middle School Classroom
Do you use a word wall in your classroom? A word wall is a wall (or bulletin board) where frequently used words are posted for students to see. In my middle school Social Studies classroom, my word wall is filled with vocabulary words from our current unit. The more students see and interact with the vocabulary words, the more comfortable they will be when using them in group discussions, in writing activities, when making new connections between concepts and more!
What Does a Word Wall Look Like in the Classroom?
A word wall is placed in a location where students can easily see it during class. I have a specific location in my classroom where my word wall stays all year. The words on the wall change with each unit, but the location remains the same. When teaching or reinforcing vocabulary words during a unit, you can point to the words and easily refer to them frequently throughout the year. Students also know exactly where to look to review words and definitions! Your word wall can include vocabulary words or vocabulary words and their definitions. I also love to include pictures alongside the words so that students can see the word, definition and a symbol or picture that represents the word at the same time.
How Can I Make a Word Wall?
Making a word wall is easy! You can type the words (or words and their definitions) on the computer and print them out. You can also use index cards and write one word on each index card. If you're looking for ways to save time, I've created word walls for each Ancient History and American History unit in my TPT store! (Click here to check them out) Just print and post them on your wall and you're ready to go. You can even laminate them and save them for future years!
How Can I Use a Word Wall?
It's important to use your word wall frequently throughout the year. Point to the words when you use them in the unit and encourage students to reference the word wall during class activities and discussions. The vocabulary activities in my TPT store directly correspond to the word walls so that students are consistently engaging with the words in dedicated vocabulary activities and within the instructional activities for the unit as well. It's fun to involve students in creating the word wall, too! When a new word is introduced, allow a student to place it on the word wall. The more they interact with it, the more confident they will be in using the vocabulary during class.
A Bonus for You!
If you're on the fence about using word walls in class, I invite you to try one for free! Fill out the form below and I'll send the Introduction to Social Studies Word Wall directly to your inbox. It is a great resource to use at the beginning of the year when you are introducing foundational topics or to keep up all year long for students to see! After all, they're probably frequently using words like point of view, bias, primary source, secondary source, timeline, chronology and more all throughout the year. Fill out the form and print and post your word wall in the classroom today!
There's nothing quite like the feeling of looking around your classroom and seeing students engaged in an activity that introduces them to a new concept or deepens their learning. I'm always on the hunt for activities that will keep students' interest and web quests are one of my go-to resources for that very reason.
P.S. Stick around until the end of this post to snag a web quest to use with your students - a little gift to you!
What's a web quest? A web quest is a digital scavenger hunt. During the activity, students visit websites or watch short videos on platforms like YouTube while answering questions or completing various tasks.
5 Reasons to Love Web Quests
Reason #1: Web Quests Engage Students
I know I said this before, but it's that important to me! I love using diverse activities in Social Studies units. Today it's a web quest, tomorrow they'll focus on guided notes, next week they'll design a creative project - you get the idea! There are certainly common activities that keep each unit "grounded" (interactive notebook notes, for example), but I also love to keep things fresh. Web quests are an easy choice for that reason! Since students are visiting multiple websites, it keeps their interest in the activity. They also have to read and "hunt" for answers in different places
Reason #2: Web Quests Use a Variety of Sources
As history teachers, we love using a variety of primary and secondary sources throughout our units, right?! Web quests take students on a journey through web sites and videos that prompt them to analyze different sources and use historical thinking skills to answer questions. In the span of one class period, students might interact with informational text from a secondary source, analyze a historical document and watch a video that features both secondary and primary sources. In the process of completing a web quest, they're activating their critical thinking skills to analyze these sources and reach conclusions.
Reason #3: Web Quests Promote Critical Thinking
When I create web quests, I love incorporating a wide variety of question types to promote critical thinking skills. A mixture of questions that prompt students to recall facts, explain concepts, and interpret documents are used in conjunction with questions that ask students to compare and contrast various sources or ideas, defend their opinion and more. I love asking students to stretch their minds and think critically and creatively about the topics they're learning in class. It's easy and fun to do through a web quest! (Click here to see some of my favorites!)
Reason #4: Web Quests Help Students Learn Research Skills
My administrator loves seeing students use technology safely and productively in class. Web quests, by nature, promote that very practice! Students are guided to various sources online to answer questions and complete tasks. They get to practice using online sources that are reputable and safe. Oftentimes, they'll return to those websites on their own when completing research projects, which is so awesome to see! I always preview every website I send my students to before assigning a web quest. Making sure the links work properly and it's a website I feel confident using with my students is super important.
Reason #5: Web Quests Are Easy
As teachers, we're always keeping our eyes open to spot ideas and activities that will be easy to implement in the classroom. I love a good challenge, but there are some days when I want something that's effective, meets the state standards, engages my students...and is easy to implement in my classroom. Do you ever feel the same way? Web quests meet all of those goals. If I'm using a printable web quest, I'll often make the links available on my class website so students can click on each one when needed. When I use the digital version, I just assign it to my students and PRESTO! They can click on the links in the web quest themselves and off they go.
If you want to try a web quest in your classroom, I'd love to send you one as a gift! Fill out the form below and a download will be sent to your inbox. I'll also keep you updated on exciting lesson ideas, inspiration for your classroom and welcome you to a community of teachers who share your passion in bringing history to life in our classrooms!
As teachers, we wear many hats. Teacher, mentor, listener, event planner, cheerleader, mediator, entertainer, motivational speaker...and on and on! We also have to be good communicators. We communicate with our students every day, of course, but we also need to be mindful of communicating with our students' families on a regular basis. When you have over 100 students, it seems like a daunting task. You may wish you could email each student's family individually every other week with a kind note about their progress, but there's just not enough time. That's where a class newsletter saves the day.
Why Use a Classroom Newsletter?
A classroom newsletter serves two purposes: it saves time and it allows you to effectively and efficiently communicate with your students' families. Communication is key because we are all working as a community to support the students.
What Does a Newsletter Look Like?
This is the beautiful part - it can look however you want. Are you a creative soul with time to craft a detailed one-page (or more, wow!) letter with multiple columns and pictures? Go for it! Short on time and want to write a paragraph or two in a mass email summarizing recent class activities or upcoming due dates? That works perfectly, too. I prefer to send mine digitally to all the families with access to an email and make a paper copy for those without easy access to the internet. The main goal is that you are communicating with families and keeping them updated on what's happening in the classroom. I love the responses I get from families after I send a newsletter or email and feel that it creates a stronger community between my classroom and students' homes.
How Often Should I Send a Newsletter?
Again - you decide! While I love to aim for once a week (Fridays being my favored day), sometimes its just a bit too much to handle. If once a week seems daunting, aim for twice a month. The important part is that you are opening the lines of communication between your classroom and your students' homes. It can make a huge difference in creating a positive classroom environment and managing student behaviors when your students know that the lines of communication are open between teachers and parents.
What Information Can Be Included?
Here are some ideas to get you started:
1. Upcoming due dates
2. Overview of recent class activities
3. Pictures of student work (and students working, with parent permission!)
4. Reminders about upcoming tests
5. Study strategies
6. School-wide events
7. Requests for classroom donations
8. Student Spotlight - choose a student (or a few to ensure everyone gets chosen throughout the year) to highlight in each newsletter or email blast
9. A list of optional supplemental resources students can use at home to further their learning about your class content
10. A link to a helpful blog post that parents may find interesting as they support their child's academic success from home
Your turn! What else should our teacher community include in our frequent communication with families? Leave a comment with your thoughts to help us all grow as educators in our efforts to effectively communicate with families.
I love teaching Social Studies. I really love it. It's exciting to present historical concepts to students and find ways to make it interesting and engaging for them. I love hearing comments like, "Social Studies is my favorite class" and "Social Studies is really fun" because they often come from students who were wary of the subject at the start of the school year. Through our activities and the creation of a positive classroom environment, they find an appreciation for my favorite school subject and sometimes it even becomes their favorite subject of the year. How cool is that?!
I also love sharing my passion for teaching Social Studies and connecting with teachers like you who share that same love of learning and bringing history to life in their classrooms! But where to begin? Hint: it involves lots of freebies which are included in a FREE Introduction to Social Studies Mini Unit - 5 complete days of lessons - all activities are included - just for you!
Here are some lesson ideas for introducing the subject of social studies in your classroom:
Hook Ideas
A good hook activity is a great way to start a new lesson. It grabs students' attention and sets the scene for the unit or daily lesson. Here are some easy ideas:
1. True or False?
Write a brief series of questions about the study of history and some key terms you plan to cover. Ask students to raise their thumbs in the air (up for yes, down for no) in response to the questions. It's an easy and fun way to assess prior knowledge. You can also use mini white boards and have students collaborate in groups of 2-3 to answer true or false. After each question, you can review the right answer.
2. YouTube Videos
I love finding a great (and brief!) YouTube video to use during a lesson. Here are some of my favorites to introduce the subject of social studies:
This hook is perfect for mini whiteboards. Ask students to draw or write images, words, doodles, etc. when they think of the words "social studies" or "history". These images can spark discussions about concepts that relate to social studies!
A Word Wall
Hold up! Do you have a word wall in your classroom? If not, it's time to start. A word wall is a place to collect the important vocabulary terms you are teaching in your unit. You can even collect and keep them up all year! Word walls give students a chance to review and interact with vocabulary daily. The more students interact with vocabulary terms, the more connections they can make between ideas and build upon those concepts to better understand and make deeper connections to curriculum content.
You can make your own word wall for an Introduction to Social Studies unit or download this free resource from my TpT store! :)
Introduction to Social Studies Activities
Now that your students are hooked, it's time to dive into the unit. I've created some free resources in my TpT store - The Teacher's Prep- to help you in this endeavor!
1. Vocabulary Activities
We've already discussed the importance of vocabulary posted in a word wall - now let's talk about some activities students can complete to interact with the vocabulary in a variety of ways!
The Introduction to Social Studies Vocabulary Activities resource (it's free, too!) has three activities to use with your students. I like spreading out these activities over the course of the unit to give kids extra practice.
The first activity I typically start with is the Introduction to Social Studies Vocabulary activity in which students write the definitions for each vocabulary term. As we use the terms in class during the unit, I give them time to write a sentence using each word in the chart.
On subsequent days, there are two more activities to use - a matching activity and a crossword puzzle. Again, the more students interact with the words, the more opportunities they will have to understand the important concepts you are teaching in class!
If that sounds like activities you'd find useful in your classroom, download it here!
2. Informational Text
Ok, now it's time to dive into the heart of the unit - reading informational text! If you don't already have access to informational text or would like to supplement the resources you currently have, I've created an Introduction to Social Studies Interactive PowerPoint that is filled with informational text students can read. It also directly corresponds to a set of interactive notebook graphic organizers for student note taking.
Oh! And not only is it available in PowerPoint in an interactive format, there's also TpT Easel and Google Drive versions included, too. I've got you covered!
How do students organize their notes for this unit? In an interactive notebook! I love these graphic organizers because they consolidate student notes in one place. The graphic organizers directly correlate to all the activities I've mentioned above so far and give students the opportunity to summarize the main ideas and details they learn as they are introduced to the study of history.
I love interactive notebooks so much, I made complete sets for Ancient History, American History and Civics / American Government ... in both paper and digital formats. You can check them out by clicking on the links in the last sentence!
Last (for now!) but certainly not least are task cards. Task cards can be used as bell ringers, entrance tickets, exit tickets, station work and more! I alternate their use based on my class needs of the day, but they include brief writing prompts to encourage students to think critically about the content they are learning in class.
If task cards seem like something you'd like to add to your Introduction to Social Studies unit, click here to download a free resource of them from my TpT store!
And Finally...
Thank you for all you do for your students to bring history to life in your classroom and engage students in topics that will foster a love of learning. I hope these resources make your life a bit easier and save you valuable time in the school year.
I absolutely love hearing from teachers like you. If you find the resources useful in your classroom, I invite you to leave me a note in the feedback sections and let me know how you used the activities in your classroom. I read every word and your notes mean so much to me!
Happy Teaching!
Oh, and here's a link (click here!) directly to a page in my TpT store that lists all of these free resources in case you don't want to scroll back through the post. :)
