A Beginner’s Guide to Anchor Charts

For many new teachers, the pressure to have a print rich worthy classroom
can feel overwhelming with all the other things being thrown your way.

In this article you will find a little background information on what anchor
charts are and how best to use them to support learning in your classroom.

What is an anchor chart?

An anchor chart is a teaching tool that helps visually capture important

information from the lesson. They are created, at least in part, during
instruction to help emphasize and reiterate important information,
procedures, processes, or skills being taught.

For example, if you're teaching students a problem-solving strategy to help

them approach multi-step word problems, your chart might include the
steps in the process so that students can refer to this as they work through
problems.

Some anchor charts are interactive, meaning that students help to fill them
in as a part of the lesson by writing directly on the chart or using post-it
notes. This can be a great tool for formatively assessing student
understanding during instruction.

You can use anchor charts for any subject, and they are commonly seeing
in reading, writing, and math classrooms. After the lesson, the chart should
remain visible for students to refer to during independent practice and
across future lessons.

Why are anchor charts valuable tools in the classroom?

Using anchor charts is a fantastic way to get students actively engaged in

lessons. You can use these charts to teach vocabulary, explain concepts,
illustrate examples, and make the learning process fun and visually
engaging for students.

Anchor charts serve as a great scaffolded support in the classroom offering

a visual reference that you and your students can look back at as you work
through guided and independent practice.

While charts are great for all learners, they are especially helpful for several
groups of at-risk learners. They offer students who struggle with attention a
visual of the steps to guide them through a process. They can also offer
English Language Learners a reference for vocabulary and key academic
language.

You can also use charts to help students retain key information and make
connections between prior knowledge and new information. Research
shows this is a key to helping students build a stronger understanding of
new material.

How To Make An Anchor Chart With Your Students

As you're preparing to make a chart for your class, you'll want to have a
plan for what information you want to include and how you anticipate it
being laid out prior to teaching the lesson.

Since your students should be involved in the actual creation process

(whether in a hands-on or verbal participation format), you don't want to
fully create the chart in advance.

However, that doesn't mean you want to start class with a blank slate!

You can prep certain parts of your anchor chart – like headers, graphics, or
questions you plan to have students respond to – in advance. This can
allow you to focus on the instructional pieces more fully during the lesson
instead of trying to get everything on the page while your students watch
you write.

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Here are a few simple tips to help keep things neat and organized
while making your charts:

1. Stick with simple. Trying to put too much information on a chart

can create a huge mess. Focus on just the most important
details and write big enough that the student furthest away from
the chart can still refer to the information.
2. Use Post-It notes for student responses. While you can have
students write on the chart, you can use the same chart multiple
years if you have students respond with sticky notes.

The Most Popular Types of Anchor Charts

While there are lots of different kinds of anchor charts out there, as
Pinterest can plainly show us. Most anchor charts you'll create for your
classroom fall into one of four main categories. These four types are
interactive charts, vocabulary charts, strategy charts, and procedures
charts.

Here's a little more information about each type.

1. Interactive Anchor Charts

Interactive anchor charts are designed to be completed as a part of the

lesson process. They are a way of students showing their learning. These
anchor charts are commonly designed in a way that they could be used
multiple times within a unit.

For example, when teaching a skill like main idea and supporting details,
the anchor chart might include the graphic organizer where students can
add a main idea and supporting details using post-it notes from a reading
the class did together.
Interactive anchor charts can be a great tool for formative assessment.

2. Vocabulary Anchor Charts

This type of chart focuses on content area vocabulary. It commonly

includes visual examples, definitions, and details that can help the students
apply the term to their learning and in academic conversation.

Here's are some great examples:

3. Strategy Charts

This type of chart is common in classrooms. They provide the steps and
strategies students can refer to when working through assigned tasks.
Designed as a way to scaffold instruction, strategy anchor charts lay out
the step-by-step process the student should go through to implement the
material taught in the lesson.

This often includes worked examples done as guided practice and graphic
organizers, acronyms, or other tools that students were taught to use
during the mini-lesson time.
The Positives & Negatives of Visual Supports

Creating anchor charts with your students offers a visual that helps keep
students engaged during the lesson.They also provide help to facilitate self-
directed learning. Instead of being reliant on the teacher to answer every
question that arises, students can refer back to the anchor chart to clarify
and reassure them that they are on the right track.

However,it is important to prioritize what information you're putting onto a

specific chart a cluttered chart may lead to comfusion. Additionally,it is also
important to prioritize how many charts are on display at any given
time.Too many visuals in the classroom can be a major disruption to
learning. This means that instead of helping your struggling learners by
providing visual cues on how to complete the task at hand, you might
actually end up making the task more difficult because they're being
overwhelmed by too much visual stimuli.

Therefore, it's important to find a balance. As a new teacher, you may feel
pressure to make an anchor chart for everything. Take time to assess
whether this is something that your students will use again and again. If
not, feel free to let that pressure go!