Anchoring Your Instruction: Using Anchor Charts in Secondary English

Do you ever go on Pinterest (of course you do) and see some of the incredibly adorable anchor charts for the elementary classroom? They are so colorful, and they have little drawings of people and fish, and they rhyme and stuff. Can you imagine hanging something like that up for your middle or high schoolers to use? Me neither.

However…

I do see the value in having informational posters up. I just needed to find some that would vibe with my VERY secondary personality because I knew that, if the kids didn’t think I was being genuine, they wouldn’t bother to use the information.

Enter the Projector

I don’t know about you, but I cannot letter to save my life. I can trace LIKE A CHAMP though, so that’s what I started doing. I looked up some anchor charts on Pinterest, put them up on my white board with the projector, and started tracing.

Here are a few that I borrowed from Pinterest:

Point of View Anchor Chart

Analysis Anchor Chart

Inferencing Anchor Chart

Questioning Anchor Chart

Now what to do about the topics I didn’t find on Pinterest? Some I just lettered by myself. They are NOT cute in comparison.

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Then I had a stroke of genius. I made a sign in PowerPoint and put it up on the projector. That way I got to choose the fonts I wanted, and I could add borders and flourishes I liked.

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This is definitely my go to process now when I run across a topic that needs a bit more reinforcement but not necessarily a whole page of notes for their folders.

Students Comment

The students started commenting that they liked having something quick to look at to remind them of some of the skills they needed while working. I hang all the anchor charts from a magnetic curtain rod using binder rings. That way it’s easy to flip to the chart we need for the day and hang it back up. Also, when I rearrange my classroom, it’s simple to move the charts to another location.

Those are my anchor chart secrets! If you have any genius ideas, please share them in the comments. I’d love to hear them!