Using Word Walls to Strengthen Students' Reading and Writing at the Emergent Level, Grades K-1

*Includes a comprehensive video training resource guide

Viewers see how Name and ABC Walls provide many wonderful opportunities for phonemic awareness activities and explicit instruction in letter recognition and letter-sound correspondence.

Janiel demonstrates how a Chunking Wall is able to move children beyond a focus on individual letters and sounds to an awareness of common rimes (word families). All introductory, practice and application activities are modeled in a real classroom setting so viewers can observe the advantages that word walls bring to emergent-level literacy learning.

Viewers learn how to:

• work with explicit skills and strategies within a context of real reading and writing
• easily generate engaging, fast-paced practice activities that promote students' emerging literacy learning
• model use of the word walls as a vital classroom reference within varied literacy contexts: shared and guided reading, modeled and interactive writing
• capitalize on emergent-level students' fascination with their own names and the names of their classmates with a Name Wall
• maximize children's day-to-day use of an ABC Wall to increase students' automaticity with letters and their sounds
• reinforce common rimes as consistent, reliable phonetic patterns by building and practicing a Chunking Wall
• teach students to really use the classroom word walls in their everyday reading and writing activities

Using Word Walls to Strengthen Students' Reading and Writing at the Early/Fluent Levels, Grades K-2

*Includes a comprehensive video training resource guide

In this video training program, Janiel Wagstaff demonstrates how to build and use three different types of word walls to strengthen students' early/fluent reading and writing skills:

• A Chunking Wall at the early/fluent levels goes well beyond the word family approach that is so effective with emergent readers and writers. You will see children using rime references to expand their reading and writing vocabularies, approach unknown words in text, and spell multisyllabic words.
• Words We Know is a high frequency word wall that focuses children's attention on often-used words that defy phonetic spelling patterns. Short, engaging activities and high expectations cause students to quickly memorize the correct spelling of these critically important words.
• Students' awareness of correct writing conventions and word usage is heightened by a Help Wall. Viewers see how this unique wall becomes an excellent reference tool for young writers as it expands to match their growing literacy.

Viewers learn how to:

• work with word walls to help children develop critical reading and writing skills
• explicitly teach effective decoding and spelling strategies using students' knowledge of rimes
• move phonics instruction beyond a letter-by-letter approach to a "pattern detector" approach
• increase students' ability to consistently spell high frequency words correctly in their everyday writing
• reinforce proper writing conventions and word usage in a positive, proactive way
• build, practice and apply word wall content to maximize children's independent use of word wall information