Making the Best Use of Your Classroom Walls is the topic of my latest ten-minute BAM! Radio Show.
Martha Caldwell, Oman Frame, and Ron Berger join me in the conversation, and they’ve all also contributed written commentaries to my Ed Week Teacher column.
By the way, the BAM! site has a minor technical issue so that the shows won’t play immediately – when you click “play episode” and a new window pops-up, you’ll need to click the play button in the window again.
You can also now listen to the show on Google Play and Stitcher, in addition to iTunes.
I’m adding this show to All My BAM Radio Shows – Linked With Descriptions.
This was a great episode, and something I have been struggling with at my school for the four years I’ve been working there. I see two problems or areas of concern for me, in my classroom.
First, my classroom, and the school in general, feels and looks more like an “institution,” and not the good kind. I put up several cork boards this year, and students are constantly adding to the word walls throughout the room. I also post exemplary student work and student-created posters periodically. I have also been trying to encourage students to take ownership of the classroom, and create a space that they actually want to be in by altering it’s appearance and organization. this has been difficult, however, because our students haven’t really experienced a classroom that is any different from a bare bones room with books and folders in it. So, in my opinion, it’s a lack of exposure to alternative models that limits their creativity even when they have the opportunity to make changes. I must admit that I don’t feel I have much of the creative capacity to show them too many alternative examples, which certainly doesn’t help them. So, what have some teachers done to help promote student-led “beautification,” or “de-institutionalizing” efforts (if that is actually a word)?
Second, although I enjoyed this BAM segment, I didn’t hear more of what I am particularly interested in, which is how to use wall-space to better facilitate language learning. A sI said, I’ve introduced word walls into the classroom this year for vocabulary development. This is a start, but I know it’s not good enough. My question is how can I use these boards, and the rest of the room, to help students with language knowledge and skills development? That is, besides just getting the words and phrases up there, and including them in warm-ups or other short activities. How do other teachers use their word walls effectively, and what other ways do you use to use the physical spaces to help with language acquisition in particular?
I should note that I am an English for Academic Purposes teacher at an international high school in southwestern China.
My Ed Week column that will appear next month, and which accompanies this show, should provide some ideas.