Things to Look Forward to Next Year: Anchor Charts are Important at All Grade Levels

The importance of anchor charts is sometimes overlooked in our hurry to teach concepts to the mastery level.  Anchor charts help students process their thinking while helping ensure buy-in through collectively creating their own understanding. Anchor charts continue to aid in student understanding by being present through the learning process. Students are able to consult anchor charts while adjusting their thinking and processing, adding new information to the chart as they go. Anchor charts allow you to display a variety of necessary information, from specific concepts to classroom policies and procedures. The use of anchor charts by teachers and students alike provides depth and complexity to student knowledge, more than what is possible without them.

Some example and further explanation of anchor charts' value can be found in these two blog posts:

Middle School Teacher to Literacy Coach - 5th Through 8th Grade Anchor Charts http://middleschoolteachertoliteracycoach.blogspot.com/2013/04/take-little-walk-with-me.html#

New Perspective: which talks about anchor charts from an elementary perspective
http://middleschoolteachertoliteracycoach.blogspot.com/2014/06/new-perspective.html

These two blog posts have great ideas regarding anchor charts as well as pictures of well thought out examples of anchor charts from both an elementary and a middle school perspective.

Vickie