Update on this post, Aug. 12, 2012. The list below has changed and both shorter and longer Word Wall collections can be found on the resources link of this website, click on posters. The text below is actually from months ago. It’s still a good list, but not as good as the ones on the current (updated this month) posters page.
Below is a good core list for a word wall. I like the blend of parts of speech. But I lost the entire wall when my computer crashed this past winter. There are about 60 words below, the half I didn’t lose. I would like the list to have 120 words or so. Note that this list has nothing to do with the recently published verb list here, a list that I am not even sure that I want to use. Does anyone have any ideas for 60 more words to get this list to 120, which I personally think is about the right number to have up there for level one classes? (I would put the same list up for level 2 classes.)
Why 120? It just feels comfortable to me. Not too many, not too few. I use these words in many ways: as one word images, to rain down off the wall into stories, to form the basis for the word chunk team activity, to help the kids think of cute answers in the TL, to help the kids in free writes and, of course, to start class with a few of them each day when I think about it (process described elsewhere):
- on se lève/stand
- on s’assied/sit
- rapidement/radidly
- lentement/slowly
- marche/walks
- saute/jumps
- arrête/stops
- on se tourne/turns
- devant/in front of
- derrière/behind
- lève/lifts
- baisse/lowers
- main/hand
- jambe/let
- crie/yells
- doucement/softly
- fort/strong, loudly
- touche/touches
- frappe/hits
- tête/head
- bouche/mouth
- les yeux/eyes
- table/table
- nez/nose
- garçon/boy
- fille/girl
- chaise/chair
- plafond/ceiling
- plancher/floor
- porte/door
- fenêtre/window
- mange/eats
- poisson/fish
- pleure/cries
- rit/laughs
- écrit/writes
- dessine/draws
- oreille/ear
- genou/knee
- voiture/car
- lance/throws
- coupe/cuts
- lui donne/gives to him, her
- lui dit/says to him, her
- coupe/cuts
- prend/takes
- boit/drinks
- maison/house
- bras/arm
- crayon/pencil
- stylo/pen
- cheveux/hair
- pied/foot
- grand/big
- petit/small
- pose/puts
- joli/pretty
- sourit/smiles
- une fois/one time
- j’aime/I love, like
Note that I personally choose to not have the translation on the wall; I include it here for non-French speakers who may want to help expand this list.
What is missing from this list that would strengthen it – strengthen it in the sense of making it a nice blend of different parts of speech? Note that the words aren’t important, it’s how they can be used together that counts. I didn’t choose those words because they are common, but bc they aresimple and also just good words to use in CI.
You may recognize this list from the original one Blaine had in his early green bible editions, which had sixty four words, but it morphed a little each year. Word walls tend to do that, I have noticed.
What about prepositions? I use that hand reference thing to teach those. It’s modeled somewhere in one of the videos. So they are not really necessary here.
The reason I’m posting on this and also have been talking about a possible verb word wall discussed here recently is so we don’t have to scramble to get our posters in place in August, for those who, like me, want to get the entire poster thing figured out before the summer conferences.