It’s no secret that I *love* our language wall and the work we do within that block of time each day.
I’ve written about the language wall HERE, HERE, and even HERE. Those are all great resources to start with but today, let’s talk about some things that might not have been covered just yet!
First off, I prepare the language wall so that it’s fresh and ready on Monday morning (see the photo above). I have the root prepped, the sentence written, and the picture book pulled. All the mentor sentences come from HERE and the picture books we use (and love!) are all in HERE.
Another important thing we do is link the learning from the language wall and revisit it during literacy centers or small group work. This is HUGE for mastery because the spiral review and application is so beneficial.
You can grab the bundle of what we use right HERE. We LOVE them and store them in plastic photo cases.
Speaking of small groups and center work, I like to set up sentences for students to work with, typically as review. The primary language wall has pieces that are GREAT for reteaching and help spiral back to previously taught concepts. You can grab that resource right HERE.
Okay, as we build the sentence and learn throughout the week, the board grows and grows.
We leave it ALL up until Friday morning. We celebrate our learning, share out things we learned or used in our own writing, and then we erase the board. Every Friday is a quiz (included in HERE).
Also, it’s important (for me!) to remember that not everything has to be written down. My kids love when they can work with task cards and just TALK. They love to discuss the card and the task without feeling like everything has to be recorded!
Alright, last point! The language wall doesn’t have to be JUST about language. We incorporate higher level thinking with icons (you can read about that HERE), we count up how many things we were able to label and we find the average after a few weeks, and we have conversations around the theme of each picture book.
There are SO many things you can do with a language wall and SO many teaching points and standards that can be covered.
Do YOU use a language wall in your class? I’d love to hear!
