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High Quality Anchor Charts

High Quality Anchor Charts
One of the best ways to support your students’ independence is to create high quality anchor charts.
Anchor charts are helpful in the following ways:
  • Keep the learning alive on the walls of your classroom.
  • Support independence because students can access them as needed.
  • Can hold visuals to help cement the learning.
  • Can help to make expectations really clear.
  • Can be used to illustrate processes as well as examples of what work should look like.
  • Can be used for behavioral as well as academic information.
Tips for creating really high quality anchor charts:
  • Make a plan ahead of time but create charts while the children are present.
  • Have children do some of the writing.
  • Add as many visuals as possible, students can even help pick which pictures to use.
  • Use as few words as possible.
  • Use dark ink for the text of the chart, preferably black, use colored ink for emphasis.
  • Simple drawings can be just as powerful as complicated ones. (ex. It is totally OK to draw people using circles and lines)
  • For tips on how to make really great visuals with simple lines check out Chart Chums at:https://chartchums.wordpress.com
  • Refer back to your charts, add on to them, and take things off as needed.
  • If you treat the chart like a tool, the students will use it as a tool. If you hang it up and forget about it, the students will too.
  • Give students individual, letter size copies of charts as needed.
  • When a chart is no longer being used, take it down!
    Please check out our pinterest board for many examples of anchor charts at:


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