“How do you spell because?”
“How do you spell beautiful?”
“What’s another word for good?”
If you teach elementary students, you have probably answered these questions hundreds of times.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with students asking for help. But over time, we want them to develop strategies that allow them to become increasingly independent writers.
One simple tool can make a surprisingly big difference: a personal word bank.
A personal word bank gives students a physical place to collect the words they need most often, record interesting vocabulary they discover, attempt unfamiliar spellings, and quickly reference words while they are writing.
It becomes part dictionary, part vocabulary notebook, and part writer’s toolbox.
Writing Requires a Lot of Brainpower
Think about everything a young writer is juggling at once.
They are deciding what they want to say, organizing their thoughts, choosing words, constructing sentences, remembering punctuation and capitalization, forming letters or typing, and trying to spell words correctly.
That is a lot happening at the same time.
Research on elementary writing instruction recognizes the importance of developing fluency with the foundational parts of writing, including:
- handwriting,
- spelling, and
- sentence construction.
The Institute of Education Sciences recommends explicitly developing these transcription skills because greater fluency allows students to devote more attention to the ideas they are trying to communicate.
This is where a word bank can be incredibly useful.
When students have easy access to words they frequently use, it removes one small barrier from the writing process.
Instead of stopping their train of thought every time they encounter a tricky word, students have somewhere they can quickly look.
The goal isn't for students to depend on a reference forever.
The goal is to support them while those words and spelling patterns are becoming increasingly familiar and automatic.
What if you already have a Word Wall? Do your students need Personal Word Banks?
A personal word bank serves a slightly different purpose.
The classroom word wall contains words that are useful to many students.
A personal word bank can contain words that are useful to one particular student.
For example, your classroom word wall might include words such as:
because, different, important, through, favourite
But one student's personal word bank might also include:
hockey, tournament, goalie, championship
while another student's might include:
horseback, saddle, pasture, galloping
Both resources have value.
The word wall builds a shared classroom vocabulary, while the personal word bank allows vocabulary support to become individualized.
The Most Powerful Word Banks Are Personal
The word personal is what makes this tool particularly useful.
Students should have space to add the words that matter to their writing.
Maybe one student frequently writes about sports while another loves writing fantasy stories.
One student may need the names of family members, places, or hobbies they frequently write about.
Another might keep returning to words such as:
suddenly
enormous
mysterious
exhausted
Those words may not need a permanent place on a whole-class word wall, but they absolutely have value in that student's personal collection.
Over time, a personal word bank becomes a record of the language each student actually uses.
Give Students Somewhere to Attempt Words
A personal word bank can also be a safe place for students to try.
This is especially important during writing.
When a student reaches a word they do not know how to spell, we don't always want the entire writing process to come to a halt.
Sometimes the best strategy is:
Try the word. Use what you know about sounds and spelling patterns. Keep writing.
Students can record their attempt and later confirm or correct the spelling.
In my classroom, we have a teeny notepad, the ones from the Dollarstore, and we call them the 'Give-It-A-Go' notebooks.
Interesting Words Need Somewhere to Live
We spend a lot of time encouraging students to notice vocabulary.
We discover interesting words during read-alouds.
We introduce vocabulary in science and social studies.
We discuss synonyms.
We encourage students to replace overused words with more precise ones.
We talk about strong verbs, descriptive adjectives, and interesting language.
But students also need somewhere to keep those words.
Otherwise, they hear a fantastic word on Tuesday and have forgotten it by Friday.
A personal word bank gives those discoveries a home.
Build a Classroom Full of Word Resources
Students don't need one single vocabulary tool. They benefit from a language-rich classroom filled with places to notice, collect, practise, and reference words.
That might include:
- classroom word walls,
- anchor charts,
- content-area vocabulary displays,
- dictionaries,
- mentor texts, and
- personal word banks
Each serves a slightly different purpose.
A classroom word wall says:
“These are words that are important to us as a class.”
A personal word bank says:
“These are words that are important to me as a reader and writer.”
Together, those resources help students become increasingly confident and independent with language.
That is exactly why I created my Personal Word Bank.
It gives students a physical place to keep common words close at hand while also collecting the new, interesting, challenging, and personally meaningful vocabulary they encounter throughout the year.
Because when we want students to become better readers and writers, one of the simplest things we can do is give them a place to keep the words they are learning along the way.
Click the image below to explore a personal word bank option for your classroom:
