Algebra Word Wall

What ideas do you have for your algebra bulletin board? In this post are photos of an algebra word wall that will make your algebra bulletin board beautiful and functional.

One year, I found myself drawing linear graphs and tables on our whiteboard over and over and over again. My students needed constant refreshers back to these algebra vocabulary words to better understand the vocabulary of nonlinear functions we were learning in class. 

The next summer, I put together parts of an algebra vocabulary word wall to cut down on all the drawing. 

digital version

I posted photos of the algebra vocabulary words, graphs and tables that I had made on social media and immediately heard from teachers who wanted the references for their own algebra classrooms. 

Fast forward a bunch of years, and this algebra word wall now includes a printable color version, a printable black & white version, and a no-prep version in Google Slides.

Laminating extends the life of your word wall by years, but the shine can make it hard to see in the classroom. Clear, flat (matte) spray paint on top of the lamination takes the shine off.

Here is the very first part I made for the algebra word wall:

It was made for my algebra 2 students so that they could make connections between x-intercept and y-intercept in linear equations and the zeros and y-intercepts of the nonlinear functions we were learning in class. It shows the math vocabulary origin, grid, graph, y-intercept and x-intercept. 

I have always found examples to work really well with my students, especially my students who struggle with reading for any reason. This section shows the algebra vocabulary through the example y = 2x - 6. 

Is it a factor, term, expression, equation? This section shows these vocabulary words as well as exponent, constant, coefficient and variable through more examples. I have found examples helpful for students, especially students who struggle with language for any reason. Being able to apply an example to a new problem is a skill that needs to be developing in kids and one that comes in handy during problem solving.

Like most of the later additions to this word wall, this section on compound interest was a teacher request.

There's an exponential functions section in the word wall that is a lot like the linear section. It helps students compare exponential and linear functions and how they each grow. The quadratic functions section has a lot of math vocabulary going on! You can choose to display everything at once or add pieces as you progress through the unit. 

I love how "difference of squares" is literally one square removed from another.

This section links the process of completing the square and standard, vertex and factored form quadratics.

All of the photos in this post are hand-colored because I only have a b&w printer, but every word wall is also in color in the same file.

Solving systems of equations through graphing, elimination and substitution with links to their graphs are included. 

Algebraic and geometric sequences were another more recent teacher request. And of course, quadratics. The different forms, the Quadratic Formula, difference of squares, completing the square, zeros, vertex, second difference. I also added domain, range, increasing, decreasing and function notation into this section.

You can see a short YouTube video of this algebra word wall here to see more of what is included inside.

Algebra Word Wall

See all math word walls.