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Central Foundation

Girls’ School

Good Practice Guide

Classroom Displays

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Classroom Display Ideas

Section

Page

1. Bloom’s Taxonomy

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2. RSS and the UNCRC

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3. SMSC

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4. Independent Learning

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5. Literacy

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6. Wonderwall

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7. Careers and Work-related Learning

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8. Exemplar Levelled and Graded Student Work

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9. Challenge Wall

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10. Learning Walls

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11. What ...(subject)… means to me

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12. News and Current Affairs

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13. Plenaries 28

14. Numeracy

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15. Praise and Rewards

16. Motivation and Inspiration

17. Help Desk

18. Assessment Criteria

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19. Project Wall

20. Washing Line & Bunting

21. Other novelty ideas

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Section 1

Bloom’s Taxonomy

In G41, students can pick Bloom’s Taxonomy question cards from the display

and use these to extend their critical thinking skills.

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Consider displaying Bloom’s taxonomy posters in your classroom. These can be

referred during the lesson when students are using the various Bloom’s skills.

Display keywords and skills that link to each level of Bloom’s.

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Section 2

Rights Respecting School (RRS) and the

United Nations Convention on the Rights

of the Child (UNCRC)

What links can you make

between Rights Respecting

Schools, the UNCRC and your

subject? On the left, student’s

work on Nelson Mandela and

apartheid is displayed with

explanations and questions

that are related to the UNCRC

articles.

Students could take responsibility

for creating a class charter and

deciding on their roles and

responsibilities within the

classroom, as well as their rights

e.g. I have the right to have my

opinion heard and my

responsibility is to listen to others.

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Section 3

SMSC Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural

Social, Moral, Spiritual and

Cultural

SMSC displays could include:

An overview of what SMSC is

Explanations of each aspect

of SMSC

Worldwide events and

festivals

SMSC displays could also

make links to RSS and the

UNCRC

Inspirational quotes or a

Thought for the Week

How SMSC links to your

subject

Interesting pictures

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Spiritual, social

and moral

Create a space in

the classroom

where students

can ponder the

answers to SMSC

related questions.

These could link to

your subject and

topics studied.

Social and

cultural

This display could

be adapted to

reflect what

makes a class,

subject or year

group special.

Students could

add their own

ideas to the

display.

Display posters in the classroom that reflect core SMSC values and ideas.

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Section 4

Independent Learning

Share the characteristics and skills of outstanding independent learners with

students. You could also display examples of role models who are also

outstanding independent learners. This could be specific to your subject e.g. key

leaders in History, athletes in Sport or religious figures in RE.

You could also display eye-catching independent learning posters which show

the skills required to be a successful independent learner.

Stuckboards are great for encouraging student independence and self-management.

We’re great learners

When we’re stuck we keep trying and we:

Try breaking the question down into smaller parts.

Try another question and come back to the question

we’re stuck on later.

Try having a go on a whiteboard first.

Highlight the bits we find difficult or the keywords.

Look at our working walls and displays.

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A space on the wall or a display to give students ideas and strategies to be

independent learners is another great way to encourage students to take

ownership over their learning.

Suggest strategies for students:

Use a dictionary to look up a keyword or term

Read a book or newspaper article related to today’s lesson

Complete an extension question, activity or task

Carry out additional internet research on today’s topic

Help a classmate of they’re stuck

Check and self-assess your work against the Literacy marking code

Use the grade, level or success criteria to self-assess your own work

How could you improve this piece of work?

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Section 5

Literacy

Kk

Create a ‘Literacy Hotspot’ in your classroom. It provides students with a self-help

area and the tools they need to improve their literacy skills. There is an excellent

example in G41. Make dictionaries, literacy marking code, highlighters, green

pens etc available for students.

Create a space to collect keywords that are

interesting, relevant or useful for a particular

lesson. Ideally, use a wipe clean surface.

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A novel display that provides students with keywords to takeaway.

An interactive and useful levelled literacy reminders display.

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Do you have space in your classroom for a book corner? This is where you could

keep textbooks, non-fiction and fiction books related to your subject area as well as

interesting newspaper articles and other additional reading materials.

Verb flowers created by students in

Modern Foreign Languages.

Connectives displayed at the front

of the class.

Display GCSE topic keywords for

all of the units that you teach.

These are great reminders for

students. Add visual images to

reinforce definitions. These can

also be taken off the wall for starter

and plenary activities or for

students to check their keyword

spellings.

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Section 6

Wonderwall

A wonderwall is a space in the classroom where students can pose and

potentially ask questions about what they are learning. This could be

incorporated into starters or plenaries. Students could pose their questions on

post-it notes or a laminated area.

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Section 7

Careers and Work-related

Learning

Create displays like the one we have at CFGS that show students the

fascinating careers that are related to the subjects that they are studying.

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You could have a space devoted to careers that stem from your subject.

Alternatively, students could write about the careers that they aspire to have that

may link to your subject.

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Section 8

Exemplar Levelled and

Graded Student Work

Displaying exemplar graded or levelled students work can be an effective way of

modelling to students. This means that students can see what a ‘Grade A or C

answer’ looks like. An exam answer could be blown up, laminated and

annotated for further guidance. This could be done with different styles exam

questions. With longer exam essays, sections of an exemplar essay could be

display e.g. a model introduction.

You could link and colour code where pieces of work demonstrate particular

assessment objectives or grade criteria.

In G39 the students work is stapled to the wall so that other students can look

through the exemplar answers for reference.

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For GCSE or A Level students you

could display various pieces of work for

each unit or topic for each grade so that

students have a model of what is

expected.

Another idea from http://walto-maths.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/new-teaching-and-

learning-display.html

“Throughout the year, I photograph individual pieces of exemplar work, showing

the pupils work, my marking and their feedback. I blow it up to A3 and stick it on

my board. The intention is that I will do this weekly, however fortnightly will

probably be more like it. I can use the board to show other class members what is

expected, what exemplar work looks like. My board will be refreshed regularly

and the format is relevant to the lives of our students. Win win.”

@prawnseye on Twitter says that “Classroom walls should closely mirror the pages of children's books."

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Another example of an engaging

display that shows students work

at each KS3 level.

A2 Law students work examples.

These portray examples of some,

clear and sound students work which

is clearly linked to the assessment

objective criteria.

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Section 9

Challenge Wall

In the Music classroom

E024, there is a challenge

wall for KS3 students.

Each folder contains

extension tasks related to

the topic studied at each

key stage.

In the RE classroom G39, there

is a challenge wall for each year

group. Extension work is kept in

each folder for students to

access if they complete all of the

set class work. Each folder is

updated termly when a new topic

is started.

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Use a challenge wall in your classroom to provide extension work for your G&T

students. However, it can also be used to challenge and extend learners of all

abilities.

Coursework subjects

could use a challenge

wall to provide

materials and

resources for each unit

of work that students

need to complete. This

could be linked to

merit and distinction

criteria.

Laminated challenge cards could be blue-tacked to the wall for students to take

down and use to extend their learning further.

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Section 10

Learning Walls

A learning wall can be used in a variety of ways. Its main function is to track and

monitor student progress. Grade and level criteria are put on display. Students in a

class then have their name, photo or a number (assigned to each student) on a

tag which is placed on the learning wall by the grade or level they are currently

working at. It’s easiest to laminate and blue-tack students names or numbers.

Students can move their names along the wall after assessments or they could be

given the opportunity to self-assess where they think they are at.

This X Factor example uses

students photos and doesn’t

refer directly to grade criteria

but students are aware which

stage links to where they are

currently at in terms of

progress.

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Learning walls can also

be a great place to

provide students with

help sheets that will help

students move to the

next grade. The

examples opposite are

from Modern Foreign

Languages classrooms.

Student friendly

grade criteria can

easily be displayed

on a learning wall.

You could even add

key vocabulary or

other literacy

learning techniques

e.g. PEE which will

help students make

progress.

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Make your learning wall fun

and engaging for students,

see the ‘Superhero’

example opposite.

You could also add levelled

extension questions to your

learning wall, which will help

students make progress sin

their learning journey!

You could add a washing

line to your learning wall

so that students can easily

move along when they

make progress.

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Section 11

What ...(subject)… means

to me

Have a display in

your room which

gives students

the opportunity

to express their

feelings and

thoughts about

your subject.

See the Music

example in E024

and the RE

example in G39.

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Section 12

News and Current Affairs

Create a display area to show news articles related to your subject. You could have

a ‘Sociology in the News’ or ‘Business in the News’ display in your classroom!

Students could be encouraged to bring in articles to add to the display.

Your news displays could link to a specific topic that you are studying.

Additionally, you could provide space around the display for students to leave

comments on a post-it note about the different articles. Maybe they could explain

their view on the issue or how it links to their learning and ‘the bigger picture.’

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Section 13

Plenaries

Place a laminated cross, tick and question mark poster on different walls of the

classroom. This is a great way to encourage students to express their views at

the end of a lesson or topic. They can either jot down their opinion on a post-it

note or they can stand under the sign that represents their view e.g. if they

agree with a statement that you give them they go to the tick.

Provide students

with the opportunity

to write down any

key concepts,

ideas, theories etc

that they found

difficult in a lesson.

This is really helpful

in terms of

informing teacher

planning and also

great for revision.

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Create a poster for students to stick their exit ticket on as they leave the

lesson. An exit ticket is simply a post-it note summary of what a student has

learnt in that lesson.

Alternatively, you could have students self-assess where they are at in

relation to the learning objectives and they place their post-it note on the

corresponding traffic light colour.

A learning objective continuum can be an effective way of encouraging students to

consider where they are currently at and what they need to do in order to progress.

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Section 14

Numeracy

Are there opportunities in your subject to create displays with clear links to

numeracy? See the PE example below which is an engaging display of

students work on Mathematics in Sport.

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Section 15

Praise and rewards

Have an area in your

classroom where students

best and most creative

work is displayed and

celebrated! This will show

that students work is

valued. See the Music

example above. Classroom

E024 has its very own

amazing work wall.

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You could split your praise and rewards display into different sections.

There could be an area for continued excellence or achievement e.g. the

Nobel Prize, an area for exemplar work e.g. fab work and an area for stars

of the week e.g. lab star. See the Science example below.

G41 has an amazing work wall

full of students most creative

work from a recent topic.

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Section 16

Motivation and Inspiration

Bunting in RE classroom G38 displays

students work on inspirational women!

This is a wonderful way for students to

share inspirational role models with each

other, whether it is a celebrity or family

member.

Personalised displays are a

fantastic way of motivating

students, especially if they

also have an inspirational

quote or statement and

encourage the students to

think about their futures or

talents. This could be an

excellent form group display.

Displays which have words

to inspire and motivate

students to be kind

towards others, the best

versions of themselves or

citizens for the future can

also be visual and eye-

catching. Students could

choose their own words for

the board so they take

ownership.

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Section 17

Help Desk

Help Desk ideas from @ASTSupportAAli (Twitter) via http://cheneyagilitytoolkit.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=help+desk#!/2013/05/help-deskvolunteers.html

Dedicate a space in your classroom where students can simply get up and go and seek help at any point of the lesson. They may want to use the help desk to;

Find out what the correct spelling of a word is using a dictionary? Find out the definition of a keyword using a texbook? Get help with the simplification of a phrase using a revision guide? Go online to find out some facts using a mini laptop/Teachers Computer?

Listen to the relevant GCSEPod?

The help desk could also contain emergency help sheets - where students can go and find out an answer/or get help for a particular task they are currently completing. This is more specific help to the lesson.

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Variations:

If you do not have a dedicated space - maybe you could hire some Help Desk

'volunteers'- give one dictionary to a student, a revision guide to another,

textbook to another and ask students to see those students to help with any

problems they may have?

These students could ideally be the G&T students? But don't have to be.

Also - if no computer is available - allow students to post a question on a post it

note - then when others are finished? They can go and answers questions by

taking a post it note.

(Note- questions should be initialled so the answer can be returned to the right

person!)

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Section 18

Assessment Criteria

It can be a really good idea to display

assessment criteria in your classroom;

whether this is simply KS3 level criteria or

an explanation of GCSE assessment

objectives. Not only does this give students

the opportunity to familiarise themselves

with the criteria, it can also be used for self

and peer-assessment, plenaries and it can

also be directly referred to in a lesson by

the teacher.

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Section 19

Project Wall

Project walls can be created to tie in to a topic studied. They could give students

more information or act as a tool of engagement. Students can even add their

own work to the project wall as you go through the scheme of work.

Dr Who example

Africa example

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WW2 example

Titanic examples

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Mad Science example

Magnificent

women example

(G41)

Feminist

theories

example

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Section 20

Washing Line and Bunting

Bunting is a brilliant way of displaying students work. Give the students small

plain triangles to complete a piece of work on then peg on to a piece of string.

Very simple and looks brilliant! See the examples in RE classroom G38 and

History classroom G41.

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Create a ‘what

have we learnt’

washing line in

your classroom. At

the start of a

lesson students

could re-cap what

they learnt in the

previous lesson or

at the end of a

lesson; students

can tell you what

they have learnt in

that lesson. Paper

clips or pegs can

be used for

students to clip

their responses to

the washing line.

The Music washing

line in E024 is a tool

to measure student

progress. Students

each have a

progress card which

they can move to the

level they think they

have worked at

during a lesson or

series of lessons.

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Section 21

Other Novel Ideas

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