30 Reading Anchor Charts Your Students Will Actually Use (2024)

Anchor charts are a great tool for helping students remember routines and apply the strategies you’ve taught in class. Whether they’re helping students activate their schema, recording learning, or outlining strategies that students can use on their own, these visual resources are a must-have for elementary & middle school classrooms.

Today I want to share a few of my favorite anchor charts that I’ve seen for helping students master reading skills & recall strategies.

30 Reading Anchor Charts Your Students Will Actually Use (1)

Anchor Charts to Help Students Break Down & Organize Their Thinking

Note-taking Anchor Charts

When I worked with older students, I always had trouble with students wanting to highlight EVERYTHING when taking notes from a non-fiction text. I love the first anchor chart from Terra Shiffer because it helps solve that problem. The second anchor chart, from Mrs. O Reads Books, is another great option.

I think it’s great because it outlines WHAT they should look for when reading. It also gives them a way to code the most important information, making it easy to refer back to. I can’t wait to try this one the next time I’m working on notating non-fiction.

It can be easy to forget that annotating text and taking notes is a new skill and requires some serious higher-level synthesis. Students need to be taught how to do this and they need the visual reminders to be able to implement it independently. This anchor chart from Mrs. O Reads Books is a perfect classroom reference.

Responding to Literature – Citing the Text

So many students know what they want to say but struggle to get the ideas out on paper. Sentence stems can be a huge help for struggling readers and writers. They’re also a great scaffold for your students who are learning English. Here are two examples of what this can look like in the classroom:

Even if students don’t need sentence stems, you may consider outlining the steps needed for a high-quality response like this one. It offers a great way for students to check to ensure they have a complete answer.

Anchor Charts to Support Reading Strategies & Skills

While mini-lessons are great for introducing important reading comprehension skills and strategies. However, many students need more than one exposure to master the content. Visuals, like anchor charts, can be a great way to help keep these fresh in your students’ minds.

I love interactive anchor charts for reading. It allows me to reuse the same chart across multiple lessons instead of creating something new repeatedly. I also find that students are more engaged when the anchor chart offers some hands-on opportunities for engagement.

Retelling Anchor Chart

I love anchor charts that give a visual but provide a strategy students can use beyond the classroom walls. This retelling anchor chart from The Teacher with the Owl Tattoo is perfect for that! Eventually, students will internalize these steps and can move toward using only their hands or not needing any cueing system.

Main Idea

Main idea is a challenging skill for elementary students. I love that the first anchor chart, from The Animated Teacher, is interactive so you can use it repeatedly. I always have to teach multiple mini-lessons on this skill. The second anchor chart, from Jessica Tobin over at The Elementary Nest, is another great option.

Sometimes it is nice to have an anchor chart that models graphic organizers students might see on assessments or those that they may want to create to help them record their thinking. This interactive anchor chart captures that option perfectly! I really love this one.

Anchor Charts for Summarizing

There are a couple of different popular formats for summarizing. While many classrooms are moving toward the SWBST method, I prefer the three-sentence format because it more closely aligns with what kids see on state testing and it can work for fiction & nonfiction texts.

Cause & Effect Anchor Charts

There tend to be fewer interactive cause & effect anchor charts. However, I do love the idea of making a book-specific version during a mini-lesson. I think some of the other charts might be better for introducing the concept and posting to help students recall the skill. No matter which style you pick, these will all make a great classroom visual.

Point of View

If you’re looking for great anchor charts for point of view, look no further than The Elementary Nest. Both of my favorites were created by Jessica Tobin, the author of the site. I love the visual the first provides, but I am a sucker for interactive anchor charts so I love the second option for giving students the opportunity to get hands-on with the chart during reading.

Character Analysis – Character Traits & Change Across Time

I love teaching character traits and analysis. This is one skill that requires an anchor chart, especially if you’re looking at change across time. Here are a few of my favorite anchor charts for this skill.

After my students get the hang of the skill, I love finding ways to incorporate longer texts, like the novel Charlotte’s Web, so that students really have to dive into the text to look for causal factors. In fact, I even created some free resources to help with these lessons. You can read more and grab the free character development resources here.

Inferring & Drawing Conclusions

Both inferring and drawing conclusions are SO hard for students to master, and I’ve found anchor charts are an absolute must-have to remind them of the process & give interactive practice.

Here are a few cool anchor charts I found on Pinterest that I want to try the next time I introduce these skills with students.

Theme

Identifying the theme can be a challenge for many students because it requires synthesizing an entire story down to it’s the most basic idea. These two anchor charts are perfect for helping students remember what theme is and categorize the books they’ve been reading according to common themes in literature.

Author’s Purpose

Identifying the author’s purpose is taught in many different ways. While some teachers use the P-I-E acronym, other strategies are also gaining traction as students are being asked to think more critically about what the author is trying to convey through their writing.

Need more ELA anchor chart inspiration?

Want to see more amazing language arts anchor charts? Click here to see my Language Arts Anchor Chart board on Pinterest.

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30 Reading Anchor Charts Your Students Will Actually Use (2024)

FAQs

What is the use of anchor charts in a classroom? ›

Teachers often use anchor charts to convey an independent work directive. They guide students during independent work. For example, if you were using an anchor chart in an ELA class for an activity like close reading, anchor charts can remind your students of key reading strategies they can use when they get stuck.

What is reading an anchor chart? ›

Anchor charts are posters you create to help students remember important aspects of a specific topic or concept you've explicitly taught. They're visual reminders that students can return to at any time for ongoing support in the classroom.

What do you use for anchor charts? ›

You really don't need any special materials or artistic skills—just chart paper and a colorful assortment of markers. It's easy to incorporate anchor charts into your lesson plans. All it takes is a clear purpose and some pre-planning.

What are the benefits of using charts in the classroom? ›

Charts are highly effective in teaching for several reasons: Visual Learning: Many students are visual learners and understand concepts better when they are presented visually. Charts provide a graphical representation of information, making complex data or ideas easier to comprehend.

What are the benefits of student created anchor charts? ›

Anchor charts help organize this information, making it more accessible and easy to understand. By breaking down complex concepts into smaller, more manageable parts, anchor charts allow students to build connections and develop a deeper understanding of the material.

What are the qualities of a good anchor chart? ›

Effective anchor charts have three characteristics; they are co-constructed, simple, and useful.
  • Characteristic 1: Anchor Charts are Co-constructed. ...
  • Characteristic 2: Anchor Charts are Simple, Clear, and Organized. ...
  • Characteristic 3: Anchor Charts are Useful Learning Tools.
Nov 14, 2022

What are the 4 types of writing anchor charts? ›

This anchor chart provides basic definitions for narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive writing and supports Common Core writing activities. It works well as an addition to a writer's notebook or as a poster to hang on the wall or bulletin board.

How do you hang anchor charts in the classroom? ›

Clip the anchor charts together with binder clips or a pants hanger, and hang it from the hook. The great thing about hooks is that they can be easily placed all around the classroom, so you always have a spot ready for anchor charts (front of the room, small group table, center space, reading corner, etc.).

What are the three types of anchor charts? ›

There are three common types of anchor charts: procedural, process, and strategy. The hallmark of an organized classroom is how well the students follow the classroom routines.

What is a main idea anchor chart? ›

Anchor Charts for Main Topic

It tells the students how to find the main topic when reading a text, by looking at the title and pictures and then rereading the first and last sentences.

Why do teachers use anchor charts? ›

By adding to anchor charts throughout a unit or module or across an entire year, students are able to clarify, update, and expand their growing knowledge. In this way, the charts remain relevant and supportive over time and ensure that all students have access to the same information.

Is an anchor chart an assessment? ›

Interactive anchor charts are an easy to prep (and highly engaging) form of formative assessment that you can use across content areas for any objective or skill that you are teaching, as well as with social-emotional topics and behavior management lessons.

What is an anchor chart template? ›

An anchor chart is a way to display procedures, processes, strategies or concepts that are important to current units of work. They serve as instructional support tools or 'anchors. '

What are the benefits of anchored instruction? ›

Anchored instruction challenges and motivates learners to find the story's embedded data through a realistic, narrative, storyline format. Solving the larger problem often requires that students generate sub-questions that help guide or support their thinking.

What is the importance of using anchor activities? ›

More than a plug to fill in extra time during a lesson, anchor activities keep students productive throughout the day and prime them for learning between activities and classes. Having a set of activities that students can turn to helps them: Build and hone the skills they gain in class.

What is anchoring in the classroom? ›

Anchoring the Learning is a term used to describe best practice in closing or summarizing the learning at the end of a lesson or unit. During Anchoring the Learning teachers revisit the mastery objective and essential question and guide students to reflect on their learning.

What is the anchor method of teaching? ›

Anchored instruction incorporates engaging stories, complex reasoning, problem-solving, and collaboration to make learning engaging and authentic. Students anchor their knowledge to a story presented by the teacher as a way to dust off their understanding of key concepts and use them to solve meaningful problems.

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