Using Action Research
To Empower North Carolina Educators
A Race to the Top Initiative
NC Department of Public Instruction
Educator Effectiveness Division
Best Practices for Vocabulary & Word Walls
Greg Griffin, M. Ed., NBCT
Harnett County Schools
Harnett Central Middle School
Internet/Wireless
Network
NCCAT_Guest_
Wifi
nccat_airserver
Password
R3c@pp21
Friday01#
www.socrative.com
 Log in as student
 Room: YIXAX2MN
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3075/2841148170_f12c7ea2a1_o.jpg
Why Vocabulary & Word
Walls?
•Students’ vocabularies are limited.
•Academic vocabulary is crucial to success in every
content area.
•All teachers, regardless of content, can benefit
from understanding best practices for vocabulary
instruction.
• Many districts are mandating that word walls be
used in middle school but teachers don’t know
how to use it to maximize achievement.
Project Overview
 Research best practices for vocabulary and word wall
creation/implementation on the middle school level
 Survey students and staff
 Implement new strategies with my eighth grade students while
observing vocabulary scores and reading levels
 Look for opportunities to share strategies with my colleagues and
encourage implementation
 Collect feedback informally throughout the year
 Pay attention to vocabulary scores and reading levels
 Post-survey students and staff
 Create a set of recommendations
Guiding Questions
 What is the best way to teach vocabulary in middle
school?
 What is the best way to make word walls work to
maximize student achievement?
 What words should be taught?
 Can word walls be used effectively in any content area?
 What do students think about vocabulary and word wall
strategies/games?
 What strategies do teachers think are working best for
their students?
Pre-Survey Results (Students)
 79 responses collected, all eighth grade students
 Almost 40% said their teachers have word walls up but
don’t use them
 36% agreed that word wall games can be effective
 40% said that word walls were created without any type
of student input
 Over 10% said they did not know what a word wall is
 Over 10% said that they did not know what a word wall
is supposed to be used for
Pre-Survey Results (Teachers)
 28 responses collected from 6th, 7th, 8th grade teachers
 Almost 90% said that they have used word walls before
 28% agreed that their word walls are interactive
 64% said they did not know how to play learning games
that involve the word wall
 30% said that their word walls were organized
graphically
 About 35% color-coded
 25% said have word wall, don’t know how to use it
 25% said have it up due to requirement
Findings
 Word walls should be legible from anywhere in the room
 Color
 At times, organized graphically
 Interactive
 Meaningful words from the curriculum
 Visual representations
 Speaking
 Humor
 Music
Choosing Words to Teach
Padlet Link
http://padlet.com/greggriffin65/cullowhee
Introducing Students to Words
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3092/2409979662_37504854c1_o.jpg
Mr. Griffin’s GRE Crash Class
Unit 1
abscond
chicanery
endemic
impecunious
ossify
venerate
sagacious
obviate
irascible
lugubrious
insipid
esoteric
After the robbery the two crooks absconded with 10,000
dollars and were never heard from again.
absconded: departed secretly and hid with stolen
property
The chicanery and treachery of the obnoxious student
reached new heights when she stole colored paper clips
from Mr. Griffin’s desk for a third time and made
homemade jewelry out of them.
chicanery: deception or trickery
Buttermilk biscuits and sweet tea are endemic to North
Carolina and many other places in the south.
endemic: existing in a certain place or region; common,
native
My impecuniousness reached new heights (or lows) when
I was forced to visit the Coin Star machine at the local Food
Lion at the end of January.
impecunious: having little or no money
The ‘horns’ of a giraffe are the direct result of ossification.
ossification: causing something to become hard like
bone
No one is more venerated in the American Christian world
than Billy Graham.
venerated: respected, considered great
Lucille Van Pelt feels that she is so sagacious that she sells
advice to her friends for a nickel a pop.
sagacious: having an ability to understand difficult
ideas and to make good decisions
The anticipated closings due to snow may obviate a need
to call in sick.
obviate: to make something no longer necessary
Mr. Griffin is extremely irascible when he hasn’t had
enough sleep.
irascible: becoming angry very easily; having a bad
temper
Darlene’s overreaction in front of the casket at the funeral
home was such a lugubrious, ridiculous reaction that
everyone mocked her and the cheap Payless pumps that
she rode in on.
lugubrious: very sad, especially in an exaggerated or
insincere way
Mr. Griffin began teaching the novel The Incredible
Journey but ditched it like a hot potato after the first
twenty pages. He could tell that his students found it to be
extremely insipid.
insipid: not interesting or exciting; dull or boring
Conspiracy theorists believe that occult symbolism and
imagery in music videos present esoteric messages.
esoteric: taught to or understood by members of a
special group; hard to understand; secretive
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Proximal_tibia_Masson_Goldner_Trikrom_rabbit_600x
_growth_zone.jpg
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Top-hat-red_01.jpg
http://pixabay.com/p-295489/?no_redirect
http://theprayingwoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/woman-crying-21.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/remkovandokkum/3702884284/
http://www.lecconotizie.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ladro.jpg
http://pixabay.com/p-18615/?no_redirect
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/San_Giovenale_Masaccio.jpg
http://blog.devost.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/iphone-converge.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/La_Touche_Lennui_1893.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3272/2327856638_ae74bcd28f_o.jpg
The “Floating Frayer”
WORD WALL BINGO
http://pixabay.com/p-159974/?no_redirect
Pop Quiz!
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BUZZ WORD
• Similar to the game Taboo
• Students can play in teams of 2 or 3
• Can be done with any content
• Students give clues and guess words
• One minute rounds
• Students may pass only once per round
Buzz Word
breakfast
economics
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2541/3886633422_33d6df8441_o.jpg
Chik-fil-A
nutrients
roller coaster
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Taylor_Swift_2012.jpg
longitude
hand sanitizer
mixed number
iPhone
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/LeBron_Jame
s_(15662939969).jpg/715px-LeBron_James_(15662939969).jpg
equator
chicanery
economics
internet
Navajo
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3927/15206652409_39f82b75f7_z.jpg
cardiovascular
stanza
Super Bowl
reservoir
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Rihanna.jpg
coordinates
mantle
pizza
irony
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3692/9494139227_292135e3e3_z.jpg
blog
analyze
irascible
http://pixabay.com/p-655318/?no_redirect
temptation
Duck Dynasty
photosynthesis
Nicki Minaj
WORD WALL B-BALL
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Basketball.png
3-2-1
Student Identifies Word
Correctly Without Help
3 Shots
Student Identifies Word
Correctly With Assistance
2 Shots
Student Cannot Identify
Word Correctly With or
Without Assistance
1 Courtesy Shot
 Play with teams, in rounds
 Play boys against girls
 Great filler activity when you have a few extra
minutes unexpectedly
 Add points to lowest grades for incentives
Other Word Wall Strategies
Fly Swatter/Spatula Competition
Creative Writing
Sticky Notes
Design Competitions
Charades
Post-Survey Results (Teachers)
 35 responses collected from 6th, 7th, & 8th grade teachers
 89% of teachers said they see the benefit in finding ways
to make word walls interactive
 70% said they have thought about how to create and use
word walls more this year than at any time in the past
 Over 90% said they saw the benefit in color-coding and
arranging the words graphically
 Almost 50% said their students contributed to creating
word walls in their classroom this year
 8% feel that word walls aren’t that useful when it comes
to teaching their specific content
Post-Survey Results (Students)
 62 students responded, all 8th grade students
 86% said vocabulary games help them to learn better
 86% said the use of photographs helps them to learn
 57% said the use of music helps them to learn words
 31% said they would like to help the teacher design a word wall
 72% said graphic organizers on the wall are beneficial
 75% said they are more engaged when the teacher uses humor or
humorous materials
 73% said Buzz Word is fun and helps them to learn (3% disagreeing,
24% neutral response)
 81% said Word Wall Bingo is fun and helps them to learn (5%
disagreeing, 14% neutral response)
Analysis of Vocabulary Scores
All Classes
Core 1
Core 2
Core 3
Core 4
Average
Strategy Used
Test 1
83
79
81
71
79
Teacher
Created Slide
Deck, Music
Test 2
85
82
85
76
82
Teacher
Created Slide
Deck, Music
Test 3
81
78
69
76
Teacher
Created Slide
Deck, Music
Test 4
68
70
70
76
71
Teacher
Created Slide
Deck, Music
Test 5
91
84
96
88
90
Floating
Frayer,
Teacher
Created Slide
Deck, Music
Test 6
73
73
64
77
72
Bingo,
Teacher
Created Slide
Deck, Music
Test 7
81
81
78
75
79
B-Ball,
Teacher
Created Slide
Deck, Music
Test 8
90
85
87
89
88
Student
Created Slide
Deck, Music
Analysis of Reading Levels
September January
Average
7.2
Grade
Level
Equivalent,
All Classes
8.0
May
7.5
References
Hackathorn, J., Garczynski, A. M., Blankmeyer, K., Tennial, R. D., & Solomon, E. D. (2011). All Kidding
Aside: Humor Increases Learning at Knowledge and Comprehension Levels. Journal Of The
Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning, 11(4), 116-123.
Harmon, J. M., Wood, K. D., Hedrick, W. B., Vintinner, J., & Willeford, T. (2009). Interactive Word Walls:
More Than Just Reading the Writing on the Walls. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 398408.
Jackson, J., Tripp, S., & Cox, K. (2011). Interactive Word Walls: Transforming Content Vocabulary
Instruction. Science Scope, 45-49.
Leonhardt, A. (2011). Making Your Music Word Wall Work. General Music Today, 23-27.
Yates, P. H., Cuthrell, K., & Rose, M. (2010). Out of the Room and into the Hall: Making Content Word
Walls Work. The Clearing House, 31-36.
Feedback
.
http://goo.gl/forms/nuhwNC6pyV
Conclusion of Presentation
•Thank you for your participation.
Contact Information:
Name: Greg Griffin
School/District: Harnett Central Middle School
Phone:(910) 578-6746
Email:ggriffin@harnett.k12.nc.us
Website: http://www.harnett.k12.nc.us/education/staff/staff.php?sectionid=5426&