How often do you ask your students “¿Cómo estás?” and their response is “bien.” If I had a nickel for every time my students responded with “bien,” I would not be a Spanish teacher anymore! The solution to the unison “bien” or “good” came to me during one of my post-observation meetings with my supervisor a few years ago. She said, “Your classroom walls should be a student resource.” The wheels started turning and I realized that my classroom wall decorations should be converted to classroom word walls. And with that, I immediately made changes to my classroom walls and provided my students with word walls, vocabulary lists, and reminders that would subtly increase their language proficiency without them even realizing it! How did I do this?!
Emotions Bulletin Board
I was getting really tired of hearing my students respond with “bien” in unison every time I began class by asking “¿Cómo están?” After all, this is a language class. We are supposed to be teaching new and useful words. They should be expanding their vocabulary. By allowing them to respond “bien” every time, it prohibits them from growing and learning. So, what did I do? I turned my decorations into classroom word walls and made a bulletin board titled “Cómo te sientes?” or for ELL classrooms “How are you feeling today?“
To break the habit of responding with “bien” or “good,” I designed an emotions bulletin board to expand student vocabulary. I put six emoji faces on the board with mini word walls under each face. My classroom walls now serve as a mini thesaurus for their emotions. Now, when they are describing their own emotions, or answering comprehension questions about a character’s feelings, or writing an essay about their personality, I see many students glancing over to the emotions word wall and incorporating this new, advanced vocabulary into their work. It still looks like a cute bulletin board, but serves a greater purpose.
Now, think about if every bulletin board and open wall space was used like this! For example, students are writing an essay and need a transition phrase for a new paragraph. They go to the word wall to find an appropriate one. Your students are working on preparing for a debate in Spanish class, so they look to the wall of opinions and find “estoy de acuerdo” or “desde mi punto de vista…” What about assisting our students in forming questions? That is always a struggle for students, as they may not remember which question word to use, but if you have question starters around the room, they will be able to form the rest on their own.
What to put on classroom walls?
- Emotions vocabulary (frustrado, exhausto, alegre, emocionado)
- Opinion phrases (en mi opinión, para mí)
- Compare/Contrast phrases (en vez de, no es cierto)
- Transition phrases (luego, entonces, para empezar)
- Idioms & Sayings
- Question words (qué, cuándo)
- Classroom Expressions (Puedo ir al baño, puedes repetir)
- Verb conjugations
- Synonyms/Antonyms/Opposites (energético/cansando)
Why should I use classroom word walls instead of decorations?
I’m not saying scrap the colorful papel picado all together. There is always room for that! But maybe you change your welcome back bulletin board to a word wall or instead of the 10th poster of a Spanish-speaking country, switch one out for another word wall! Language classrooms can be intimidating for shy students. Those students that are hesitant to participate in class may find an extra boost of confidence if a sentence starter or vocabulary word is on the word wall. All they have to do is read it and they don’t need to worry about being wrong or right. They don’t need to have the pressure to start a sentence on their own. These stepping stones help students of all levels get the confidence they need when writing and speaking.
Remember, some of our students are visual learners so by seeing these words every day, they will eventually pick them up. Put pictures and visuals with words or phrases that you think would benefit from an image. For example, for question words, put a clock next to cuándo or the emoji faces for emotions. Use your open classroom wall space to help build your students’ vocabulary. You will see their eyes scanning the room for the perfect word or phrase. Eventually, they will start to incorporate this vocabulary on their own, without even glancing at the classroom word walls!
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