What are Anchor Charts?
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One of the definitions for the word anchor is... "a person or thing that can be relied on for support." Using Anchor Charts in the classroom can be thought of in this way as well. They serve as a support or reference of learning to students. But what makes them different than a pre-made poster or chart you might buy in a teacher supply store? First of all, they are handwritten, sometimes messy, sometimes they have typos, sometimes they even have lots of white out! The difference is that they are made by the teacher, along with students giving them a sense of ownership of the lesson. Anchor charts are highlights of the most important things that I want my students to know or remember by the end of a lesson.
On most of my Anchor Charts, I write an "I CAN..." statement. This tells students what the objective of the lesson is in kid friendly language. As I write on my Anchor Chart, students do the same in their "Brain Books." Often times before I even begin the lesson, my students have already written the words, "I CAN..." at the top of their page a because they know how important it is that they know the focus of our lesson. Sometimes we add to an Anchor Chart over the course of several days. Once it is finished it goes on the wall which has a spot designated for each subject. At the end of a lesson we refer back to what we wrote and we always start our lesson the following day by going over what we did the day before. We always go back to our "Anchor" for support to strengthen the foundations of our learning.
Please remember these Anchor Charts may not always be pretty! They may have misspelled words because I am talking as I write them. I try to catch my mistakes, so many of them have white-out or lines marked through things, or words that are squished in at the end, or missing words squished in between, above, or under, or titles not centered, or failed attempts at fancy letters and hand drawn pictures. But they are authentic, they are meaningful, they are used by students, and they are an important part of our classroom!
On most of my Anchor Charts, I write an "I CAN..." statement. This tells students what the objective of the lesson is in kid friendly language. As I write on my Anchor Chart, students do the same in their "Brain Books." Often times before I even begin the lesson, my students have already written the words, "I CAN..." at the top of their page a because they know how important it is that they know the focus of our lesson. Sometimes we add to an Anchor Chart over the course of several days. Once it is finished it goes on the wall which has a spot designated for each subject. At the end of a lesson we refer back to what we wrote and we always start our lesson the following day by going over what we did the day before. We always go back to our "Anchor" for support to strengthen the foundations of our learning.
Please remember these Anchor Charts may not always be pretty! They may have misspelled words because I am talking as I write them. I try to catch my mistakes, so many of them have white-out or lines marked through things, or words that are squished in at the end, or missing words squished in between, above, or under, or titles not centered, or failed attempts at fancy letters and hand drawn pictures. But they are authentic, they are meaningful, they are used by students, and they are an important part of our classroom!