Create Interactive Anchor Charts

There are some wonderful ideas out there floating around about ways to engage your students in learning. We all know each lesson should have an engagement component to get our students excited about learning or to awaken their minds to the content that we will discuss for that day. Well, I want to share one of my ways to create enthusiasm about a lesson before I even get to the actual engagement component of the lesson. 

I like to use anchor charts. Not just an anchor chart I pulled out of the drawer and was created a few years ago (definitely have done that). Not an anchor chart I made last night for the kiddos with all the information they will need to know for the lesson (guilty of this one also, but there is a time and place for them). Not an anchor chart that the students and I create together during an authentic discussion (we do this often to recap our learning). Instead of those three amazing ways of using an anchor chart, I choose to use interactive anchor charts for my engagement. The use of these charts is slightly different than the others. 

Here's how:

1.    Theme

2.    Illustrations 

3.    Student Comments & Thoughts

4.    Kinesthetic Movement

5.    Multipurpose

THEME

These interactive anchor charts allow you to create a theme for the unit or make a connection to another content area. When my students started the fraction unit we were in the beginning of winter, so I came up with, Frosty Fractions. That got my wheels turning about my first interactive anchor chart of the unit. I decided it needed to have blank spaces for each representation of a fraction. I added a snowman illustration to the chart to kick off the theme and boom (Pinterest is also your bestfriend.)! My students and I added examples of each representation of a fraction as an introduction to my lesson for each representation. They loved it! Once we were done with our anchor chart, we kept the theme going using white and blue linking cubes. We used our imaginations to pretend they were snowflakes throughout the unit. When we linked them as wholes, we pretended they were snowmen! 

ILLUSTRATIONS

One of my favorite things about interactive anchor charts is the array of illustrations you can use to capture your students. They also love the images and enjoy admiring them throughout the day.  Sometimes I allow them to give suggestions of illustrations for an upcoming unit.  There are no rules, you can literally be as detailed or vague in your drawings as you would like! I included a few examples of some interactive anchor charts I have done this school year. Also check out @cutiepatwoziehq and @thejoysinmrsjohnsonsroom on Instagram.

STUDENT COMMENTS & THOUGHTS

Another benefit of using these wonderfully illustrated interactive anchor charts is capturing student thoughts, connections, and understanding of the concept being taught. Hearing their thoughts really allows you as the educator to reflect on what went well, what needs to be retaught, and when it is time to move on from a skill. The open discussion of a skill also allows other students to be a part of the discourse and reflect on their own understanding. When we have our discussions around our interactive anchor chart the length of time varies. When I use it to model a strategy or representation, we meet for about 5 to 10 minutes, then practice and come back to close out the lesson. The closing is typically when students will share their understanding of the skill or sequence the steps for a skill, this can take up to 15 minutes. This is a powerful time in your day to truly listen to your students. I highly recommend you carve out a few minutes for your students to reflect on their learning and take note of small group reteaching opportunities.

KINESTHETIC MOVEMENT

Using interactive anchor charts not only lends itself to illustrations and accountable talk, but also to the students moving around. Once your students have gotten used to the idea of these charts, you can encourage them to record their own thoughts and post them when they are done. A gallery walk of their responses around the room prior to them all being placed on the interactive anchor chart is another great way to get the kiddos moving around. Another, great strategy I use is, act it out. For this, I have a few students volunteer to act something out. Going back to my fraction unit, for example, I would select 4 boys and 2 girls to come and represent the fraction 2/6. I would not tell the students the fraction is 2/6, but rather listen to all their fractions about the group of students and jot down their thoughts on post-its and hang them on the chart. Thinking of a quick way to get your students to move and be engaged with these interactive anchor charts creates a meaningful learning experience.

MULTIPURPOSE

Checkout all the ways you could use an interactive anchor chart in your class tomorrow:

• whole group engagement 
• unit/lesson introduction
• unit/lesson review for an assessment
• unit/lesson reflection
• group discussions
• small group instruction
• teach individual skills in a unit
• model strategy or skill
• vocabulary discussion
• text features (diagram with labels)

Implementing these FREE interactive anchor charts in your classroom are an easy and quick way to instantly boost your student engagement and excitement. So, break out the crayons, markers, colored pencils, and sharpies. You know you need a coloring break!