Writing time can sometimes be a headache, especially at the beginning of the year. Teachers are often racing to teach students how to be independent writers. To help my students, I decided to ditch the traditional word wall in order to:

• personalize writing time.

• differentiate for groups of students.

• have a portable writing tool.

• save precious wall space.

Ready to make your own word walls? Click to learn how to make your own personal word wall folders.

1. Personalize Writing Time

Make writing more engaging by personalizing your student’s word wall. You can include the names of all the students in your class.

My students love that they can open up their personalized folder and see their friend’s name to add to their writing.

There is also a section where you can include the names of important places that students visit around the school or community.

Having a list of familiar places gives students ideas for what they can write about right in their folder. Your students will be eager to write about familiar places each day during writing time.

2. Differentiate for Students

It can be overwhelming for some students to have a full list of words. Some students may not be ready to read some sight words on the list.

You can differentiate word wall folders for different writing groups. As your students develop their writing skills, they can add their own words, or you can exchange their folder for a new one with more challenging words.

Your students will build confidence and independence using this tool during writing.

3. Word Wall Folders are Portable

Your students will now be able to take their word walls everywhere that they can write.

No matter if your students are writing independently or conferring with the teacher at the horseshoe table, your students will always have the writing tools that they need.

4. Save Wall Space

There are so many things that a self-contained teacher is required to have on the wall: the monthly calendar, anchor charts for each subject, and classroom rules posters.

Word walls tend to take up a lot of wall space. Instead of having a spot on the wall for each letter, my students use a personal word wall in a folder.

The folder is organized just like a word wall. The folder has a square for each letter. There are also categories on the word wall for color and number words, days of the week and months of the year.

The familiarity helps my students work independently on assignments throughout the day.

Get ready to watch your students grow in their confidence and independence during writing. They will love using the names of important people and places in their community in their writing. They will take pride in writing about the things that they love each day during writing workshop!