High School Math Word Wall Ideas

When I taught math in Boston my classroom was next to a Geometry teacher who had a math word wall that spread just about floor to ceiling. At the time I thought it was a bit extreme. I mean, aren't high school kids a little old for so many visuals? Did they really need all that?

part of an Algebra Word Wall

Well, my teacher neighbor went on to become Teacher of the Year and I went on to realize how powerful math word walls are - especially those that show math vocabulary in context.

free math word wall for 3-D shapes

Before landing that first full-time teaching job, I was a substitute teacher for a year. I'll never forget a job I took in a kindergarten class. The letter of the day was K. Some kids could write "kite", "kat" (English is so weird), while other kids couldn't even write a K. 

part of an Algebra Word Wall

The discrepancy in abilities I saw that day in kids so young completely blew my mind. If there was such a large span of abilities in five year olds, what about in 15, 16, 17, 18 year olds? And how would I reach them?

In all of our classrooms there is a wide range of abilities. Some kids are above grade level while others may be years behind. What I like the most about math word walls is that they are always there offering information to students who need it. 

part of a Unit Circle Word Wall

Whether they are too shy to ask a question or need a quick reminder, or maybe they have a hard time concentrating so do a lot of looking around the room. While they are glancing around, maybe they'll learn something new. 

Part of an algebra word wall

Word walls allow students to access the curriculum at their level and continue to offer support every day. I write more about this in the post 5 Ways Math Word Walls Have Changed My Teaching.

part of an Algebra 2 Word Wall

In this post I'll share photos of my own classroom's word walls (like the photo at the top) as well as photos of word walls I have made for teachers by request. This post is linked in 8 Out-of-the-Box Ideas for Teaching Algebra and Geometry on the We Are Teachers blog.

Digital Math Word Walls

I also recently updated all of my high school math word walls with no-prep digital versions built in Google Slides. 

Digital algebra 2 word wall

They are clickable in GOOGLE Slides or can be downloaded as PowerPoint or PDF files and still be interactive. Above is the home screen of a digital algebra 2 word wall. Each image clicks to an enlarged version. The word wall is also included as print color and print black and white.

part of an Algebra Word Wall

My teacher back in Boston neighbor was absolutely right in putting it all out there like that. If you think about it, there's a measly 5 year age difference between a 4th grader and a 9th grader. Yes, kids do grow quick, but what is it about those 5 short years that suddenly allows students to remember and recall everything and no longer need visual reminders? 

part of an Algebra 2 Word Wall

When my husband moved from teaching elementary school to high school he was a little worried. I told him that high schoolers are just little kids in big bodies. It's true! They still need the support of word walls as much as the little ones do. 


For me, adding math classroom décor to my walls not only made my classroom a more inviting place to learn, it also made it one giant reference sheet. This immediately lowered my students' anxiety levels to where memorization and past misconceptions were no longer sticking points. 

Since starting at my current school, I have taught Geometry, Biology, Consumer Math and Algebra 2. Since Algebra 1 is so important, we have references for it too. Here are some photos of the word walls in my classroom.

Here you can see an anchor chart for drawing and naming points, lines and segments. I made the parallel lines cut by a transversal poster below it from cut paper. 

Free parallel lines cut by a transversal poster

This parallel lines cut by a transversal poster was one I made for a class of sophomore study skills students who were taking Geometry. Many of them were mixing up the angle pairs. So I made this poster for them to put in their notebooks (above is the enlarged version).

   

I also converted it to work on GOOGLE Slides as a digital angle pairs poster. 

I recently made a Geometry word wall and a super sweet teacher sent me this photo of it hanging in her classroom. Here is my own photo of some of the included parts up close:

part of a Geometry Word Wall

Here is a closeup of the transformations section:

part of a Geometry Word Wall

Next up is our wall of Algebra, Geometry and Algebra 2 formulas. I like to think of this wall as "the hodgepodge", though I have since updated most of my math word walls.

The PEMDAS, slope formula, y=mx+b, and green exponents posters are all also made from cut colored paper like the angle pairs poster in the previous photo. Here's a close up of the exponents posters:

This exponent rules posters is made out of cut paper too. I added exponent rules into my 8th grade math word wall. Here is a photo of some of the graphing references included. You can also see all of the middle school math word walls I have made in the post Middle School Math Word Wall Ideas.

An scatter plots:

This PEMDAS mobile was a recent addition.

Free PEMDAS mobile

Our Algebra 2 word wall has grown a lot over the years. Teachers have asked me to make parent graphs for nonlinear functions and also expand the word wall in other areas. It's gone through a lot of updates! :) Here's a photo of our reference for quadratics.

part of an Algebra 2 Word Wall

And of course we need a Quadratic Formula anchor chart. My students were able to use this one a lot more effectively once I added the white-out to the a, b and c in the formula. You can read more about our quadratics activities in the post Fun with Quadratics. 

We teach a lot of vertex form in Algebra 2 so we reference these 3 anchor charts on our Algebra 2 word wall for nonlinear equations all year. These are updated printable versions of cut paper versions I finally retired this year. It was time.

 

part of an Algebra 2 Word Wall

I love catching students glancing at our word walls for hints. To me, knowing how to access information is just as important as the information itself. Every year I add more and more to our classroom word walls. The more I add, the better things get. 

One of the free quadratics math posters that worked especially well during our combined graphing calculator/projectile motion unit - a unit that is VERY hard at first for my students - was this one.

It shows good cursor placements for finding maximum points and zeros. My students get confused by "left bound" and "right bound" and this poster all but completely eliminates this confusion. 

These factoring anchor charts hang in my room to remind my students how to factor trinomials and binomials. I always find my students have a harder time retaining how to factor binomials than trinomials! 

In an earlier post I wrote about our classroom Fridge, an area in our classroom where students are invited to display their hard work. I am always surprised that even my seniors would rather hang their work in our classroom than take it home. Math pennants are another fun way to display student work. See more math pennants.

Having a language of math poster has helped so much, especially for those small but powerful words like "of" and "is". When kids start seeing Math as a language that can be translated into symbols... WHOA watch out World! :) 

Function transformations poster

With references on the walls I feel like a better teacher and my students feel less anxious and more confident in their ability to do hard math. The more I add to my classroom walls the more empowered my students feel and become. 

Math word wall downloads:

◉ Algebra Word Wall

◉ Geometry Word Wall

◉ Algebra 2 Word Wall

◉ Unit Circle Word Wall