Modern American History Word Wall
Have you ever used a Modern American History word wall before? Word walls can be a helpful tool your students can use to remember and better understand the vocabulary words that connect with whatever historical topic you’re teaching. In this previous blog post, we’ve briefly discussed word walls, however, we wanted to give a more thorough guide on how to use them in this post, as well as share examples that pertain to Modern United States history.
Creating a Word Wall
The first step in creating a word wall is choosing which words to use and how you want each card to look. There are multiple ways to do this, depending on your preference. Some cards just have the word, some add a definition, and some include an image. In our teaching experience, we’ve found the most helpful cards use all three, which help support our visual learners. We like including definitions because it can create a “dictionary wall” that students can refer back to throughout the year. You can find examples of our word wall template here.
Once you have decided which words you will include, you will then decide how you want to organize them. You can see a few examples in the pictures below.
Vocab Word of The Day
To break up your Modern American History vocabulary words into smaller, more doable pieces, consider our strategy of teaching one word per day. Going over the vocabulary words gradually will allow you to go into more depth with each word. You could even use this as part of your daily warm-up activity!
Organize by Theme
Another option is to organize your words by theme. While teachers of younger students may organize words alphabetically, consider instead organizing by theme to help students make connections. For example, you might create categories of people, places, events, documents, and more! For your convenience, our Modern American History Word Wall cards are color-coded by historical timeframe. So while using this method, students would still have a way to remember which word belongs to each historical point in time.
Modern American Word Walls for Each Unit
The main method we’ve used in the past is breaking up our word walls by unit. This especially works well if you have limited wall space. Simply display the words for each Modern United States History unit all at once on a bulletin board or area of your classroom. To make life easier, there are usually a couple of students who would love to help you change out the board once they’ve finished an assignment.
If you’re interested in checking out our Modern American History word wall cards, check out our epic bundle or any of our individual sets below!
Reconstruction Word Wall
Tensions in the West Word Wall
Industrialization Word Wall
Immigration and Urbanization Word Wall
Progressive Era Word Wall
American Imperialism Word Wall
World War 1 Word Wall
Roaring Twenties Word Wall
Great Depression Word Wall
World War 2 Word Wall
Cold War Word Wall
Civil Rights Movement Word Wall
Vietnam Era World Wall
Late 20th Century Word Wall
21st Century Word Wall
Since originally posting this blog, we now have vocabulary activities for each of the topics included in this post! They are all included in this bundle (but you can also click on the specific units you need).
If you’re interested in early American History word walls, we have a complete word wall bundle you can check out here!
Are you looking for some new teaching ideas to engage your students in your social studies class? If so, you’ll love our FREE guide: 5 Creative Projects to Ignite Student Engagement in Your Social Studies Class. These activities have both printable and digital options and can work for any social studies subject!
