Anchor Charts 鈥� How Teachers Can Use Them
October 8, 2024
Anchor charts are visual and interactive teaching tools that can help to ground鈥攐r anchor鈥攕tudents in class content while they learn. Anchor charts can be poster-sized and placed throughout the classroom, or they can be worksheet-sized printouts that students keep in a binder or folder for the duration of the lesson or year. Either option can be laminated, and anchor charts are particularly helpful when they are interactive. Rather than being created by the teacher and simply viewed by students, anchor charts are most effective when they are a living document created and contributed to by the class.聽
Anchor Charts vs. Posters聽
Posters can also work well to anchor students in current classroom material. They work as visual cues for students to remember what鈥檚 happening in class. This is especially helpful if they start daydreaming or let their thoughts wander off for a bit. Visual cues help bring them back to what you鈥檙e doing and what they鈥檙e learning.聽
But, an anchor chart goes the extra mile.聽
Posters are typically created by teachers ahead of time and without student input. Again, they鈥檙e passive tools that do serve a specific purpose, but they are passive.聽
Anchor charts, however, can be interactive. They can be created collaboratively and with student guidance and input. Teachers can create the general scaffolding for the anchor chart, based on the curriculum, but students can fill in the details as they learn. This turns the anchor chart into a formative assessment. It is a reinforcement tool and (again) a future anchor鈥攁ll at the same time.聽
Making Anchor Charts Interactive + Examples聽
How can teachers go about making anchor charts interactive? There are several ways. Let鈥檚 take a look at some simple techniques that you can plug-and-play into your own classroom鈥攐r use as inspiration to create your own interactive technique.聽
New Vocabulary
Create a two-column, laminated chart. The columns can be labeled 鈥淣ew Words鈥� and 鈥淒efinitions鈥� (or some variation thereof that suits your learners). Have in mind the specific vocabulary words that you want students to grasp in the section. You can backfill the 鈥淣ew Words鈥� column鈥攐r, even better, have students fill it in as you go along. They may or may not instinctively find your desired vocab terms. Further, you can feed them in as needed if students don鈥檛 catch them immediately. Get students started with a couple examples. Then, have them take notes of new words they encounter in reading or lessons. Lastly, make time to fill in the anchor chart at the end of a class period.聽
If you鈥檙e working with a laminated, poster-sized anchor chart for the whole classroom, students can use whiteboard markers or laminated squares that they tape (or magnet or velcro, etc.) to the anchor chart to fill in information.聽
If you鈥檙e working with individual anchor charts that students keep in a folder or binder, they can write their individual lists鈥攁nd those can be further shared out with a full-class list, kept where everyone can see.聽
Sample Chart Links
See Sample Point of View Anchor Charts
See Sample Text Structure Anchor Charts
Sample Main Idea Anchor Charts
Sample Text Features Anchor Charts
See Sample Theme Anchor Charts
Observation and Reflection
When you鈥檙e looking to elicit specific observations from students, give them the public, collective space to do so. Create another two-column chart. One column is for observations, which you can name in whatever creative way you want (鈥淲hat We Noticed鈥� or 鈥淪een/Heard/Felt鈥� or 鈥淚n the Moment, We鈥︹��). The other column is for reflection and creating questions. You can name it something like 鈥淲hat We Thought鈥� or 鈥淨uestions/Reflections鈥� or 鈥淎fter the Moment, We鈥︹�澛�
During the observation period, have students take individual notes. After, have them contribute those notes to the anchor chart. You could do this by having students call out their observations and writing them yourself. Or you could have students write out their most important observations and submit them to you. Or you could have students themselves come up to the anchor chart and contribute in their own writing鈥攖his could be the product of group discussion, synthesizing observations and choosing a reporter to write on the chart, in order to streamline the process.聽
For the reflection period, give students a specific amount of time to write out their observations. Then they can come up with questions based on their experience. Again, this could be particularly fruitful when done in small groups. Backfill the anchor chart together in one of the methods listed above.聽
Standout Concepts
Let this anchor chart be more about free-association than strict definition. Have students keep track of key concepts they鈥檝e been learning over the course of a series of lessons. Using a large piece of butcher paper or a laminated poster board, give students time to come to the anchor chart and write out the key concepts that are, in fact, anchoring them in the unit.聽
- Ask students to write out the name of the concept. Plus how it鈥檚 providing the 鈥渒ey鈥� for them to understand this unit.聽
- For older students, this could be done on index cards and in greater detail.聽
- For younger students, this could be done by simply calling out keywords associated with a specific concept that you write on the anchor chart. For example, if you鈥檙e teaching a unit about the seasons and you want to focus on autumn, students could call out/name key concepts they鈥檝e internalized. You can create the list around the image of a pumpkin or a tree with colorful, falling leaves.聽
Student-Centered Learning聽
In a traditional classroom, we see the teacher as the focal point of the occasion. They are giving a lecture or writing notes on the board.聽
In a 鈥渇lipped鈥� or student-centered classroom, the focus is put on the student. Part of their work is collaborating to create the classroom environment, to structure their own learning, and to overcome strategically placed challenges that open up into opportunities for discovery and learning.聽
Student-centered learning has been shown repeatedly to be more effective than traditional, teacher-focused classroom setups. This is true when it comes to long-term and short-term retention. Setting up a student-centered classroom and overcoming the initial and normal student resistance can be extra work. However, once it鈥檚 done, a flipped classroom can become a well-oiled machine. One in which students feel and take ownership over their own learning.聽
Properly facilitated anchor charts that ask students to find and define core concepts (with the assistance of the teacher) can play a fundamental role in a flipped classroom. Instead of simply absorbing content dictated by the teacher, students actively create the course content and have the ability to watch themselves and their observations shape their learning.聽
The Benefits of Inclusive Classrooms聽
Anchor charts can also play a role in contributing to more inclusive classrooms, because they work to display and contain information in the class in a multitude of ways. Even if the students receive the key vocabulary, for example, through a classic lecture or a reading, when they鈥檙e given the chance to write out those keywords on a large anchor chart displayed in the classroom, they can repeat those keywords on their own terms and in a place where the words are readily available when they need them.聽
Students who benefit from visualization will be served by having the terms they need to know displayed in front of them. And, students who don鈥檛 necessarily need to have terms visualized and at the ready will also benefit from the anchor chart.聽
Students with Special Education Needs聽
There is already a substantial body of research showing that accommodations for students with special educational needs (SEN) benefit those students profoundly. But there are also decades of studies that show that students without specific learning disabilities or SEN also benefit from classrooms in which there are students with special educational needs鈥攁nd accommodations for those special needs.聽
A 2021 with researchers from Spain, Taiwan, and Poland published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology showed that students without specifically diagnosed educational needs benefitted from classrooms with students with SEN in the following ways (quoted directly from the study):聽
- They learn to respect others, accept differences, and acknowledge different abilities, thereby creating opportunities for new friendships to develop;
- They learn about abilities related to helping others participate and learn, to be patient and to gain the satisfaction in helping others learn and behave better; and聽
- They benefit from the cognitive effort required to explain themselves and from the contributions of peers with SEN from which they can learn.
Anchor charts can go a long way toward meeting students where they are. We鈥檒l get into that a bit more in the next section. But the fact that anchor charts can help students with special education needs is also true for students who are encountering a learning environment in English for the first time.聽
Students Learning English as a Second Language聽
ELL students can benefit from the use of new words in the discussion component of setting up the anchor chart. When students are asked to come to a consensus on a definition of a term or concept, particularly in a small group, English Language Learning students are given the opportunity to develop comfortability with a new term, while practicing using it in an environment in which all students are learning the term together.聽
The presence of the new words displayed in the classroom also helps English Language Learners with recall. This can reduce potential for the kind of embarrassment and shame that can stymie language acquisition. If the new terms are readily at-hand, English Language Learners don鈥檛 need to worry about recall. They can determine for themselves when they鈥檙e ready to ignore the anchor chart and recall a new word without assistance. Perhaps contrary to some kind of popular belief, having the words on hand actually helps with language acquisition. It is a form of repetition that serves to reinforce and cement the new vocabulary in the mind of the student.聽
Because spelling and pronunciation is also a challenge for the new acquisition of English, specifically, the display of new vocabulary on an anchor chart helps English Language Learners鈥攁nd it helps all students. The visual repetition is an aid for students who present with some specific special education needs. And the posted definitions aid in this same way, as well.聽
Anchor Charts and Student-Centered, Accessible Learning聽
There can be challenges to setting up a classroom with accommodations that puts an active focus on the student. And care, research, and professional and personal preparation on the part of the instructor is necessary to build an effective classroom that meets all student needs to the best of that instructor鈥檚 ability. Without proper preparation, a student-centered classroom can actually harm students with disabilities or other marginalized identities.聽
However, building a classroom with multiple options for engagement across the course material that opens doors for connections for all types of learners is one way to create a more accessible environment.
Anchor charts can be helpful in this regard. When teachers utilize them with multiple modalities and opportunities, they can provide helpful reframes, formative assessments, and reinforcing behaviors for many types of students. Anchor charts in which a teacher also provides students with time and space for reflection on course content, the possibility for independent, small group, and full class work time with invitations for engagement at each level, and the consistent presence of the material in the classroom create full-scale learning experiences from which all students can benefit.聽
It鈥檚 one small tool. But a little can go a long way.聽
Additional Resources
