So working walls –when used well they become an integral
part of the learning process, used badly they become terrible wallpaper. Until
this year, working walls were pretty much an unused tool in my teaching toolkit
until I moved to a school which lives and breathes working walls and now I can’t
imagine life without one. Here is my low down on what I think makes a good
working wall (and I am still learning and improving this!)
So why have a working wall?
In the past, teachers have used their wall displays for a
multitude of reasons: to celebrate great work, topic display boards of maths
and English vocabulary walls (VCOP!). However working walls offer a more
purposeful use of the classroom display which offers a richer learning
environment for the children. Working walls are an interactive wall which can be used to record, visualise and assist learning- to me an underused teaching
resource. Working walls allow a learning
journey to be shared from a starting point to an end point. Within in that
journey, clear steps of the progress
will be shared and displayed along with examples
of good practise and scaffolded
models with clear success criteria’s.
They should be a flexible tool that
allows innovation and evolution from the children and the
teacher. A good, well used working wall can effectively create an independent learning environment where
the children use the wall as much, if not more, than as much as they use the
teacher.
So what makes an effective working wall?
They must ultimately be child
led. The success of a working wall lies heavily on the involvement of the
children and how a teacher encourages them to take ownership of the wall and
their own learning which will mean the walls become used and less like
decorative wall paper. Children will use a resource that they have managed and
organised themselves and invested time and effort in. If they do not see its value, the children
will not use it so they must be involved in it from start to finish. Children
in my class now ask me to change the theme of our literacy working wall linked
to the theme or topic we are learning, showing their engagement and desire to
be part of every process of the wall making. I often have a working party of
children that help me change the learning journey for maths every Monday or at
the start of a new journey ready for the next one.
The children need to take pride in their working wall and it
should become an integral part of the lesson. Refer to it always and praise
children who independently use it to support their learning, which will
ultimately encourage others to follow. If the children see you valuing their
work and adding it to the working wall as best practise, a culture of
achievement will follow where children are engaged in the learning and will
also seek to have their work displayed on the wall. The more you use the working wall and build it
into the lesson planning, the more the children will see how each lesson fits
within the concept there are learning and where it is taking them. For example,
during any one lesson the children should be able to state their WALT for the lesson
and share how it is linked to the bigger picture – the ultimate end goal at the
end of the unit of work, they do this by referring to the working wall. During
a unit of work on play scripts, they children understood that a lesson on
adverbs would help them write clearer stage directions which will ultimately
help them reach their end goal of writing a play script of Harry Potter for J K
Rowling.
What should be included in a working wall?
A working wall should
evolve. It should start empty and as the learning journey progresses over
the days and week it should be added to and developed by the children and the
teacher. It should at no time be pretty. Don’t get me wrong, I love being
creative with my displays but they start off looking nice, enticing the
children to the board, and soon they become covered in learning which is used
by the children.
There should be a clear
audience, purpose and outcome displayed so they children know where they
are heading to and why, particularly on the English wall however this could
easily be added to a maths wall. For example on a unit on writing to entertain,
the audience was to Year 3 children, the purpose was to entertain and the
outcome was to write a funny short story for year 3 children. Once children
know where they are going, the learning journey and WALTs will demonstrate to
the children the steps of how to get there, for example step 1: WALT: Identify
the feature of an entertaining story. Step 2: WALT Use dialogue to create
entertaining characters (this step will have its own success criteria linked to
speech marks and dialogue writing which may last several lessons). I could
continue further along the journey but I think you get the idea!
Modelled examples
showing the different stages of the writing process for word and sentence level
activities to mind maps, drafting and editing should be displayed. The examples should come from both the
teacher and the children. It is vital to display the children’s work as
examples and WAGOLLs (What A Good One
Looks Like) so they children can see the steps are attainable and also
seeing their work displayed allows successes to be celebrated. It is also good
practise for the teacher to write their own setting high expectations. WAGOLLS
and scaffolded models do not need to be pretty – scraps of paper, photocopies
of children’s work, visualiser print outs, whiteboards, flip chart paper – whatever
way of getting the work up, it doesn’t matter as long as a wall of visual
prompts develops. Post it notes are a great way to involve the children using
the working wall, they promote engagement and allow children to independently
add to the wall at key points in the journey/ lesson. Use multiple examples of work or steps in the journey. You can take
these down as the journey progresses but it is important for the children to
see several examples to inspire them. On my English wall, I have ‘Ingredients
for Magic Writing’ where the success criteria is split into organisational
features and language features, this is also developed and evolves along the
learning journey.
Key vocabulary needs to be a vital part of the working wall
alongside other generic models that
can aid support the children in their learning. The working wall should be a
visual toolkit for the children to utilise at any point of the day.
Let the children track their progress along the working
wall. I have seen different versions of this in different classes in the
school. Some teachers use a symbol which the children move along to show which step
the class is on along the learning journey. I, however, recognising that all
children learn at different paces, use names on post it notes, and the children
move themselves along the journey based on their own progress. This really allows
for a more individualised approach for each child, so they know where their
next step is. I always include challenges and extensions for those children
that reach the end of a journey more quickly than others. This method works
particularly well on a maths working wall.
Word of warning!
Only start a working wall if you have support from your
headteacher, remember they are not meant to be pretty so if you have a
headteacher who advocates neatness and mounting, working walls will not work
for you!
So in summary, an effective working wall must:
- Be child led – children should value and use it!
- Show the starting point and an end point to a leaning journey.
- Visually display the steps along the journey with modelled examples including teacher examples and children’s work.
- Be included in the planning and referred to throughout the lesson.
- Be flexible and not pretty!
Useful articles
Here is a useful articles I found on the TES Website regarding
working walls: http://community.tes.co.uk/tes_primary/b/weblog/archive/2013/09/16/how-to-create-an-effective-literacy-working-wall.aspx
Here are some photos of my working walls at the start of the journey- yes they do look pretty but trust me they do not stay that way!!
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