Bump It Up Walls – Relax! Just Watch Your Students Grow

bump it up wall display

Bump It Up Walls are exploding in classrooms around the world, and if you aren’t already using them, you are probably stressed to the max, researching the best way to implement one in your classroom. You are probably researching online, peeking into colleagues’ classrooms, and making notes on what you are going to include.

My advice? Relax. Start small.

Start with one thing: work samples for the levels that you want to display.

You can add in annotations, ‘I Can’ statements, highlighting, student goal and name-tags (if you choose to use them) and anything that comes to mind, later. But for now, just begin with your work samples. Find some online (shameless plug here); use student work samples from last year, co-construct some with your class, or simply write them yourself.

Why?

After using Bump It Up Walls for a while, I have noticed one thing that happens when I use a BIUW, whether I think it’s complete, accurate enough, or enticing enough. There is always  an ‘A-ha’ moment where you know that something on the wall has had an impact on your students’ learning. Even just one thing, that’s better than an empty wall, or a wall filled with beautiful but ignored posters, right?

Normally, this ‘A-ha’ moment is because students have seen a great work sample and adapted something from it into their own work.

So that’s why work samples are where I suggest you begin. Once you have that part of the Wall mastered, move onto adding ‘I Can’ statements, colour-coded highlighting and annotations, and student goals.

Do one thing at a time and do it well. 

After all, that’s what we ask our students to do. We scaffold their learning, one thing at a time. Why would we ask anything different of ourselves?

Take care, 

Ana – Teachie Tings x

bump it up walls little sprouts
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