Did you know Dual Language Spanish Word Walls should look different?

by: Teresa Ordoñez BE/ESL Coach & Academic Translator

It has been mentioned that although Word Walls are widely used, and highly effective pedagogical practice for English instruction, in Dual Language classrooms Spanish Word Walls should look different.

Spanish Word Walls would be far more beneficial if organized by orthography, morphology, regionalisms, and/or cognates. When planning for Language Arts instruction and all literacy components, the grammar and spelling instruction would be what produces the Spanish Word Wall. Word Walls serve as reference to students in order to infuse these words into their writing.

Here are some examples:

Orthography:

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Morphology:

Regionalisms:  (Mrs. Ramos-Rivera, 4th Grade Ginnings Elementary)

Cognates:

Taking risks is vital to personal and professional growth, we hope you’ll try to make word walls more authentic and useful to students. We will be sharing examples from our classrooms as we capture more images. We'd love for you to share your Spanish Word wall with others, if you are interested please let us know!

Reference material:

Teaching for Biliteracy, Beeman and Urow

Teaching Literacy in Spanish, article by Kathy Escamilla

CAL Solutions, PK-12 ELL Education