What???!!!! My word wall has to go?????!!!!!!!
After having been asked to make many changes to our teaching practice, this fall we were asked to take down our word walls. None of us could understand why. For those who don't know, word walls are walls of words that students can refer to. They can be words from the current unit of study. My main word wall listed commonly mispelled words; I had a second word wall that would change as our units changed. We were very attached to our word walls and had worked very hard on them. And now, we had to take them down. Why? Because research shows that when students create their own vocabulary lists, vocabulary recall is higher.
I decided to put this to the test in my French class. Our topic of study was winter. Normally, I would create vocabulary charts and flashcards of winter words. We would practise them, use them in skits, read stories, answer questions, play games etc. This time I let the students do the work. If we're learning about winter what will we need? They knew - vocabulary. I informed them that they would be creating their own lists for the unit and that everyone would end up with a different list. The students stared at me somewhat puzzled, but set to work. Normally, I would expect my students to have learned 20 new words over a two week period. It turns out I've been sorely underestimating their potential. Almost all students had the minimum: 20 words. Many students had over 40 words on their lists. Some had pages of words that they wanted to know. The longest list had 280 words. What was truly remarkable was the excitement and focus during this process. Most of all, they KNEW those words. If someone needed a word, I frequently heard someone else call out, "I've got that one! It's ...."
Students had three days to complete their lists. We then met and generated a common class list. Now that we had our words, I had to figure out what to do with them. I wondered, if they could generate the vocabulary, could they also design the unit? The students knew I expected them to have mastered 20 words. Did it really matter how they learned them. No. The class agreed that they would learn the words based on their learning styles. We listed options: create a power point, draw a labelled picture, write and perform a skit, write a story. They decided that every day they would spend 5 minutes reviewing the 20 words from their lists that they truly wished to master. After that, they would continue working on the activity they had chosen. Once they felt that they knew their words (within the two-week time limit) I would test them on them. As this was our first time working this way, we decided to go for a straight forward oral quiz. Students who performed poorly on the quiz would have the option of going back to their lists until they had learned all of their words.
And I have to say what happened next was remarkable.
Unless students truly needed my assistance, I was pretty much ignored. I became a facilitator, a resource. Students checked in only when help was needed. One group that had chosen to perform a play ran into difficulty. I had helped them write their script, but they found that they were not productive with 8 students. They needed more teacher assistance. We discussed this as a class and came to an agreement that groups should be no larger than 5 for these kinds of activities. Other students checked in only 2 or 3 times. Group sizes varied depending on the activity chosen.
We took time each day to reflect on our learning. We talked a great deal about the learning process, self-direction, independence and what was happening in the classroom. In fact, the students were thinking about many of the things that teachers think about as we plan our units of study. This was our first time through student-directed learning. Of course, it wasn't perfect. Refinement is needed. The response from the students was overwhelmingly positive: this is a great way to learn!
Below are pictures of our process.
After having been asked to make many changes to our teaching practice, this fall we were asked to take down our word walls. None of us could understand why. For those who don't know, word walls are walls of words that students can refer to. They can be words from the current unit of study. My main word wall listed commonly mispelled words; I had a second word wall that would change as our units changed. We were very attached to our word walls and had worked very hard on them. And now, we had to take them down. Why? Because research shows that when students create their own vocabulary lists, vocabulary recall is higher.
I decided to put this to the test in my French class. Our topic of study was winter. Normally, I would create vocabulary charts and flashcards of winter words. We would practise them, use them in skits, read stories, answer questions, play games etc. This time I let the students do the work. If we're learning about winter what will we need? They knew - vocabulary. I informed them that they would be creating their own lists for the unit and that everyone would end up with a different list. The students stared at me somewhat puzzled, but set to work. Normally, I would expect my students to have learned 20 new words over a two week period. It turns out I've been sorely underestimating their potential. Almost all students had the minimum: 20 words. Many students had over 40 words on their lists. Some had pages of words that they wanted to know. The longest list had 280 words. What was truly remarkable was the excitement and focus during this process. Most of all, they KNEW those words. If someone needed a word, I frequently heard someone else call out, "I've got that one! It's ...."
Students had three days to complete their lists. We then met and generated a common class list. Now that we had our words, I had to figure out what to do with them. I wondered, if they could generate the vocabulary, could they also design the unit? The students knew I expected them to have mastered 20 words. Did it really matter how they learned them. No. The class agreed that they would learn the words based on their learning styles. We listed options: create a power point, draw a labelled picture, write and perform a skit, write a story. They decided that every day they would spend 5 minutes reviewing the 20 words from their lists that they truly wished to master. After that, they would continue working on the activity they had chosen. Once they felt that they knew their words (within the two-week time limit) I would test them on them. As this was our first time working this way, we decided to go for a straight forward oral quiz. Students who performed poorly on the quiz would have the option of going back to their lists until they had learned all of their words.
And I have to say what happened next was remarkable.
Unless students truly needed my assistance, I was pretty much ignored. I became a facilitator, a resource. Students checked in only when help was needed. One group that had chosen to perform a play ran into difficulty. I had helped them write their script, but they found that they were not productive with 8 students. They needed more teacher assistance. We discussed this as a class and came to an agreement that groups should be no larger than 5 for these kinds of activities. Other students checked in only 2 or 3 times. Group sizes varied depending on the activity chosen.
We took time each day to reflect on our learning. We talked a great deal about the learning process, self-direction, independence and what was happening in the classroom. In fact, the students were thinking about many of the things that teachers think about as we plan our units of study. This was our first time through student-directed learning. Of course, it wasn't perfect. Refinement is needed. The response from the students was overwhelmingly positive: this is a great way to learn!
Below are pictures of our process.
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