5 Tips for the Perfect Book-based Working Wall

At Literacy Tree, we are passionate about having carefully designed sequences which demonstrate a clear and coherent journey through a high-quality text.  For us, the process is key to the outcomes.  As children ‘travel’ through the text, we want them to be fully immersed in a literary world, whilst also being taught specific skills which lend themselves to the particular part of the book they are studying, being taught the right grammar at the right time.  This journey through a planning sequence builds sequentially to result in longer written outcomes which allow children to apply the skills they have been learning, revising and practising throughout the sequence.  

In order to be able to do this successfully, it is essential that children are able to look back over the skills they have learnt and practised in context, in order to be able to apply them to longer pieces of writing.  Whilst looking back through their books is one way of achieving this, an effective working wall is invaluable in supporting children to apply taught skills in context and weave together literary techniques and language to apply to their own writing.  Unlike a display of finished outcomes, a strong working wall acts as a road map, guiding children through the planning sequence and supporting the deepening and application of skills and language in context.  Used effectively, it can act as an additional adult in the room you didn’t realise you had, increasing children’s independence and freeing up teachers and TAs to work with a wider range of children.  In recent school visits, we have seen some fantastic examples of working walls in practice with clear evidence of children using these effectively to support their writing.  With this in mind, we have collated some top tips to support you in the design of an effective and purposeful working wall to improve independence in your class.

Simple starts
As a working wall acts as a road map and guidebook of your journey through a text, it is to be expected that it will be relatively empty at the start of a sequence.  As you work your way through the text, the working wall should be added to with relevant, purposeful content to support your teaching.  Perhaps at the very start you may just have a picture of the front cover, or a more creative way of displaying the book, like here at St George’s in Camberwell, where their Year 2 class used a beautiful yet simple hanging shelf to give If All The World Were pride of place.  We want there to be no doubt as to the book your class are exploring when you walk into the classroom.  Perhaps any particularly pertinent items or props explored as part of a discovery point into the text, as well as any predictions children have made could also be added.  

Plan it out
As the process of building a working wall is very organic, it would be impossible to plan exactly what your working wall will look like before starting a sequence.  That being said, it is useful to consider which elements of a planning sequence will be most helpful to add to your working wall.  When planning out the sequence and considering how you will adapt it to the needs of your class, why not annotate the planning with possible aspects which could lend themselves well to the working wall? See it as an additional resource opportunity for each lesson.  Which skills or language building tasks would be helpful to refer back to when children begin their written outcomes?  It can also be useful to sketch out roughly what you envisage it looking like and what might go where, whilst at the same time bearing in mind that things will need to be replaced and added in as you progress throughout the sequence.  What should stick throughout and what can be removed?  Remember that working walls are not displays of work and as such bordering and laminating is simply not necessary.  They need to be accessible, legible and inviting but should not involve any additional preparation – rather more just careful selection of what you are already using and creating as part of your teaching.

Careful selection of language
Working walls are a fantastic way to store and display new language you have explored and experimented with throughout a sequence.  Selective and precise choice of language is key.  Focus in on Tier 2 language which children can apply across different contexts.  You could also use colour coding to categorise the language.  Grammar splats can be a useful way to collect and classify language from the text and try to include examples of literary language in the style of the author.  Rather than front loading and ‘displaying’ language at the start of a sequence, avoid it becoming word list wallpaper by only adding language as and when you actively explore and teach it.  This way, you can refer back to it during shared writing to support application of the language and embed understanding.   At the end of the sequence, you could even store the collected language in a zippy wallet with the book’s front cover on it to store somewhere in the classroom to allow children to refer back to at a later point.  

Use space creatively
Depending on the layout of your classroom, you may struggle to find enough space for your working walls.  Think creatively about how to combat this.  A working wall is a fundamental part of teaching and so we need to be flexible in how we approach this in a classroom with limited wall space (particularly in those classrooms with a lot of windows!).  Collection of vocabulary and language often takes up a lot of room on a working wall – could you use a vocabulary net to the side of your working wall to ‘catch’ language explored in your text like these fantastic examples at Van Gogh Primary?  Or perhaps use string hanging down to attach language to?  Using pegs for language you are collecting is also a great way of making the collections interactive – train children to fetch them for modelling purposes or when doing their own writing.  Using a washing line approach with string from wall to wall can be another useful way of extending your working wall if you have limited space.    Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

A team effort
Consider your working wall as a team effort.  From your side, display your own live modelling of key skills in context and written outcomes – this could be word or sentence level, or longer modelled paragraphs applying taught skills.  The working wall should demonstrate the build-up of contextualised skills into application, including the editing process.  As well as this, think about how you can include children’s own work to support others.  Rather than displaying finished pieces as examples, think about the process to get there, for example this could be a group character splat that has been created, sentence strip work or post it notes of vocabulary.  We want to get to a point where children are saying, “That would be really helpful for our working wall!”.  Involving children in the creation of the working wall will not only give them a sense of involvement, but it will make it easier to train them into using it to support their independent writing.

When used effectively, working walls become an interactive support to engage children in discussion and promote independence, forming a key part of scaffolding to support them with their writing.  To make them work at their best with a book-based approach, remember to:

Start simply, with the book cover pride of place, adding carefully selected aspects of the sequence to the working wall as you go.

Plan it out, considering which elements of a sequence will lend themselves well to the working wall and what will be most helpful to your children to support their writing.

Be selective about the vocabulary and language you display – focus on specific literary language and Tier 2 vocabulary you want to teach for them to apply in their own writing.

Be creative with space and think carefully about how you can maximise the use of all corners of your classroom.

Include your own live modelling of writing alongside children’s contributions to make the working wall a team effort and increase engagement.

We hope this collection of tips will support you in developing working walls further in your own setting when you teach through a text – please do share any photos with us as we always love seeing your creative approaches and how your working walls support children with a book-based approach!

Posted in: Curriculum