Middle and high school teachers vary in their use of the bulletin boards and wall displays of student work. Displays can be distracting or an effective teaching tool.
Bulletin boards and student work taped to the wall can make a teacher's room look inviting or cluttered. It is a teacher's preference how to decorate a room, but the jury is out on the effectiveness of this practice.
Bulletin Boards in the Classroom
I am a middle school teacher and am not as artistically inclined as my elementary counterparts. However, I do create bulletin boards, and I do hang work on my walls. I find that middle school students (boys and girls) love to help design and make bulletin boards. Sometimes I ask students to either design bulletin boards or to put them up for me as a time saver. Pre-service teachers can be a big help too.
Many high school teachers do not use bulletin boards as a teaching tool, unlike most elementary teachers and some middle school teachers. It seems that the older the students are that the bulletin boards are used less.
Student Work Displayed on the Walls
Sometimes my room looks like a tapestry of student work on the walls, and sometimes they are blank. To reinforce key concepts, I like to hang student work. I don’t just pick the best pieces; I like to hang them all up on the walls. I find that this inevitably helps bolster the quality of the work for all students. Students show others their work, and they talk about the best ones. The key for this to be effective is to take it down after a week.
On the flip side of “plaster the walls with student work”, I have had teachers tell me that this is a distraction or too much stimulation for struggling students. So what is a best practice when it comes to bulletin boards and student work? I think that variety is the key.
