Anchor Charts
The Environment as the Third Teacher
by Wendy Seger
Cornerstone Literacy Fellow
Creating a learning environment that supports and extends literacy learning is an
exciting and challenging task. Many schools have made an immediate impact on
their environment by creating a visually pleasing “welcome area” at the entry of
the school. However, as many in the network would agree, that is just the “warm
up”. Modifying the school environment to support student learning is much more
daunting when it requires a change in teaching practice. One of the ways that
the environment becomes the third teacher is through the use of the anchor
chart.
So, what is an anchor chart? That was the question on the table for the
Springfield coaches at a recent gathering of new and sister Cornerstone
schools. The term “anchor chart” had been used repeatedly in the model
lessons, but no clear guidelines had been given so teachers could create them
on their own. This coaching group took on the challenge of answering that
question through their own inquiry.
The first step was to focus on the topic. They gathered together at Frederick
Harris Elementary, a Foundation school, to prepare for their study. Before
moving out into small groups, the coaches viewed a power point presentation
that introduced these ideas and questions:
Nearly all teachers use charts in their classrooms. So what makes an anchor
chart distinctive from other visuals found on bulletin boards and walls?
After viewing a series of photos of various anchor charts from some of the
Cornerstone schools, they considered the definition of the word anchor:
Any device that keeps an object in place;
Somebody who or something that provides a sense of stability
One of the more provocative issues concerning anchor charts is represented in
the slide below:
Source: www.cornerstoneliteracy.org
Finally, the coaches set out to answer one essential question: What are the
features of an anchor chart? They moved into the school in small groups with
cameras and notebooks to collect data from the hallways and within the
classrooms at Harris. The goal was to discover which features could be used to
form a rubric that would help define and assess the charting done in each school
setting.
Upon the coaches’ return from their scavenger hunt, the photos were quickly
downloaded and viewed with a critical eye for common characteristics and the
contexts of use. It was from this analysis that they were able to recommend a list
of features that would define a good anchor chart:
1. An anchor chart should have a single focus.
Sometimes a teaching standard is broad by
design, such as Students will write with a clear
focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail.
(MA ELA #19). To be able to meet this standard,
teachers would have to help students accomplish
the many more discrete skills that build capacity to
meet this writing expectation. Those discrete
skills make up the topics of the crafting lessons
that are taught in the day-to-day work within the
reader and writer’s workshop. It is those discrete
skills that are represented in an anchor chart. For example, the anchor
chart to the right supports the learner in one of the skills that would lead
toward mastery of the aforementioned standard.
2. The anchor chart is co-constructed with the students. The brainbased research of Marcia Tate and others support the use of visuals to
incorporate new learning into memory. When the visual represents a
Source: www.cornerstoneliteracy.org
learning event that includes the students, it becomes an artifact of the
learning experience. It has meaning for the students because they
participated in its construction. One could think of it in terms of food: The
cookies taste better when you help make the dough.
3. The anchor chart has an organized appearance. The importance of
clarity is paramount to understanding. If the students can’t read the chart
or find the statement of explicit instruction (Where’s the WILF?), the chart
will be of no support to the students when they return back to the chart as
a scaffold.
4. The anchor chart matches the learners’ developmental level. The
language, the amount of information, the length of the sentences, and the
size of lettering should all match the cognitive level of the students for
whom the chart will serve. Following this explanation, there are two
anchor charts created for the same lesson: introduction to the
comprehension strategy of schema. The one on the left was designed for
second graders, the one in the middle for fourth graders, and the one on
the right for first graders. Notice the differences in language and
complexity.
5. The anchor chart supports on-going learning. One of the most
important considerations for learning is whether or not the chart is relevant
and used by the students. Charts should reflect recent crafting lessons or
concepts that need continued scaffolding. Teachers can support learning
by placing an anchor chart in a classroom library where students can
access the information when they are making their literature responses
during and after independent reading. It is within this feature that the
coaches felt a commercial chart could indeed be an anchor chart,
provided that there was evidence that the students were actually using the
chart.
With the recommendations completed, the features were placed into a table,
creating a useable tool for generating and assessing anchor charts in each
building.
Source: www.cornerstoneliteracy.org
The work from this cadre of coaches is not meant to be definitive on the subject
of anchor charts. In fact, the hope is that their work will start the discussion in the
Cornerstone network about this significant element of the classroom
environment. If any readers are interested in sharing their insight or expressing
a viewpoint about the use of anchor charts, please join an online discussion
occurring at the Cornerstone web log found at:
http://blog.cornerstoneliteracy.org/wendy/, listed under Cornerstone Colleagues:
What is an Anchor Chart?
Happy Charting!
Anchor Chart Rubric:
Apparent
Not
Apparent
A single focus
Co-constructed with students
Organized appearance
Matches learners
developmental stage
Supports on-going learning
Source: www.cornerstoneliteracy.org
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