Anchor charts are not only great visual supports in teaching students, but they can also help with remediation. They can be used for any subject and any grade level.
When teachers think about anchor charts, the first thing that comes to mind is that big self-stick flip chart paper that it is used during lessons to sketch the most important elements and “anchor students’ thinking. It’s done while teaching, students have some input, therefore learning is more likely to occur, says theory. That’s great, except if your handwriting isn’t very neat and you are more focused on the teaching part of your lesson than on drawing on your chart paper, chances are you will end up with a mediocre looking anchor chart. At least not one that you would like to keep on display and look at for several days. If you are one of those teachers, you may want to ditch the theory, and create your anchor charts ahead of time.
WHY PRE-MADE ANCHOR CHARTS WORK
Size
Anchor charts on flip paper are great visuals. They can be seen from the distance, by those students in the far back corner of your room, as well as by those students who wear glasses and sit close to the board. However big anchor charts are hard to keep on display because they take up a lot of wall space. They also take up a lot of storage space, if you plan on reusing. Smaller anchor charts can be projected on an active board or used under a document camera during a lesson. They can be easily displayed on the wall because they don’t take up much space, and look neat and organized. and if you create a sort of easy-to-switch display, you can replace them in no time, when they are no longer needed or simply rotate them to maintain your students’ interest. You may want to keep the most important or frequent used ones, like the types of sentences, author’s purpose or parts of speech on a permanent display, especially if students are used to referring to them often for visual support.
Portability
Another reason why small anchor charts are great is portability. With students often struggling with retaining information, teachers need to be able to access resources quickly. Smaller visuals are great in that sense because they are easier to maneuver, move, and access than larger ones constructed on flip chart paper. If you are a resource teacher or a teacher traveling between multiple classrooms for remediation, you know that small anchor charts are so much easier to carry and access when serving a student in their regular education setting.
Efficiency
Pre-made anchor charts and visuals can save precious instructional time. Some special needs students have very short attention spans. Changing the focus from the text to creating an anchor chart can be distracting for the. While they would definitely enjoy participating in creating the anchor charts, they might lack the verbal skills necessary to engage in an effective brainstorming activity and might not be able to provide information necessary for the completion of the anchor charts. They can also get lost in drawing and have a hard time return to the main activity. Therefore, anchor charts and visuals created by the teacher, ahead of time, might be a more effective and efficient solution.
Visual Clarity
Last, but not least, pre- made, printed anchor charts and visuals feature clear, neat text in modern font, as well as vibrant images that are sure to capture students’ attention. The principles of visual design cannot be more impactful on the way students with special needs learn! Research shows that the ease with which information is internally processed affects a person’s judgment and decision making, which has strong implications for learning, because of the impact positive or negative feelings have on motivation, comprehension and retention. In special education (and not only!) this translates into a key principle: if it’s easy to read (a.k.a neat, clear, attractive), it’s easy to follow. Otherwise students will grunt and moan when presented with obscure visual or textual information (back to the point made earlier about the lack of neat handwriting skills), and compliance with teacher’s directions will be close to none.
Find all more anchor charts and visuals here.