New Buzzwords: Bump It Up Walls

Today I thought I'd share all about the Bump It Up Wall that I created with a colleague. 

We wanted the wall to be useful and engaging, so we decided to have a Super Mario Bros theme. We also wanted the wall to provide students with another tool when it comes to writing. This term we are looking at Writing to Persuade, and so we ensured that all of the text samples reflected this style of writing. We also wanted the wall to show the gradual progression across the Literacy Continuum markers. We therefore designed the text samples to reflect what would be expected at a Cluster 4 level right through to Cluster 12.

Having examples on display like this, helps students see where they're at and where they're heading to next. It clearly shows students what's expected of them at each level and breaks it down into achievable bites. Students are encouraged to create their goals around what they need to do, to move to the next level.

The Bump It Up Wall is accompanied by exit slips. Students tick off all of the markers to prove that they have in fact completed all necessary requirements before moving up a cluster.

Each student has their own avatar. The avatar is moved along the Bump It Up Wall, and is placed at the level (or cluster) that they're currently working at. The Bump It Up Wall enables the teacher to keep track of student progression and assess where to next. It's a lovely way to visually represent the data as well.

We also ensured that we kept some anonymity when it came to the avatars. So the only two people who know which avatar represents whom, is the teacher and the students themselves. 

It took a little while to plan out the Bump It Up Wall. I had to draw several sketches and plan out how it all sat before officially putting it up on the wall. We also made significant changes to the sample texts, adding in annotations to show what each piece of writing has done well.

You can download a copy of each of the Cluster Examples below:

Cluster 4

Cluster 5

Cluster 6

Cluster 7

Cluster 8

Cluster 9

Cluster 10

Cluster 11

Cluster 12

I'd love to give credit to The Relief Teacher. They created the levelled signs and exit slips (along with other amazing resources). You can check out their Years 3-6 Bump It Up Wall documents HERE. And a special mention to my colleague Vanessa for all of her handwork and for doing all of the jobs that I didn't want to do - including the amazing annotations. It's a pleasure working on projects with you!

Where to next?

The plan is to add a Comprehension Bump It Up Wall across the bottom of the design. I'd also like to work on another design for a Numeracy BIU wall.