Interactive word walls: Enhancing students’ ability to speak, read, and write about science experiences.
Speaking, reading and writing skills are essential to science. Reading, interpreting, and producing domain-specific text are fundamental practices of science. Interactive word walls help develop students’ ability to read and produce the genres of texts that are intrinsic to science at every grade level. They resemble graphic organizers, strategically target academic vocabulary, and are student generated. Interactive word walls support the development of scientific thinking, build academic vocabulary, and reinforce important patterns while providing an overview of each lesson and unit. They unify related terms and concepts, and visually display connections between vocabulary, inquiry experiments, and experiences. This session will describe how to plan and use interactive word walls as scaffolds that help students effectively communicate scientific ideas.