Domain 2: Classroom Environment → 2b. Establishing a Culture for Learning; Student Incentives (Strength)

Above is the Slides presentation called “Word Wall Taboo” that I used as an incentive for my Critical Reading students. Throughout the semester, my students and I built a word wall (pictured below) to build their lexicon of tier II and tier III vocabulary words throughout our informational text unit. To build our word wall, students identified a word they were unfamiliar with, wrote it on a bright piece of paper, and instead of writing out the definition in words, created an image to represent the definition. This allows for dual coding, which aids in retention of the word by forming mental images.

The words posted on the word wall served as the word bank for the “Word Wall Taboo” game students played as an incentive in my classroom. To play, students are divided into two groups, with one student from each team in the “hot seat.” While there is a vocabulary word from the word wall behind the students in the hot seat, their teammates must use verbal and physical clues to define the word so that the student may call it out correctly before the opposing team and gain a point. This is a fast-paced, friendly, and competitive game my students were always engaged in and excited to play. I chose this artifact as a strength because it is an effective incentive that is educational as well. Rather than using candy or extra credit, this incentive gives students the opportunity to move, interact, and collaborate with one another, while practicing tier II and tier III vocabulary words.