Working Walls - Literacy and Maths

As well as my enquiry (topic) displays and other wider curriculum displays I have two working walls in my classroom - Literacy and Maths. These displays are not put up at the beginning of a unit of work they evolve and develop as the children's work progresses. At the beginning of the unit they often look bare but have key features of the genre or maths unit of work the children are currently working on. Throughout the unit examples of successful work or strategies to solve questions will be displayed as reminders for the children but also as a scaffold.

The children's work is often displayed at different stages of the writing process on my Literacy working wall - from their initial ideas, to mind maps, to first drafts, to final edits and eventually a final and finished presented piece of writing. I often photocopy the children's work and highlight successful use of vocabulary, connectives, openers or punctuation. I will stick post-it notes up around the work highlighting what has been done well. Sometimes I place questions around the work for the other children to answer about how it could be improved. The children really enjoy seeing the working wall evolve during the unit and always come into my class and look straight away at what has been added since their previous lesson. The children also even suggest to me what could be put on the wall to help them.

Maths is more of an interactive display to start with. I will have number of the week up, or shape of the week and the children have to answer the questions around the number or shape using post-it notes to record their answers and ideas. This can be a quick extension activity for the children at the end of a lesson to consolidate their learning. Throughout the unit formulae or important facts or rules are displayed on the working wall as well as examples of successful work. Again this display changes throughout the topic and helps support the teaching in the classroom - I find myself displaying success criteria frequently on my Maths working wall which the children then use at the end of the lesson to assess their work.