expository essay anchor chart 4th grade

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Opinion Writing Anchor Charts for Upper Elementary

January 16, 2021 by Cristy

Teaching new writers how to gather evidence and plan for text-based writing can be challenging. Transitioning them over to actually writing the essay where they must weave those ideas into a well developed and organized essay is just as big of a task. Below, are some ways you can use opinion writing anchor charts to give 4th and 5th grade students tangible examples of how to make their writing focused, well-supported, and engaging.

1. Opinion Writing Hooks

Once students have a plan of action for their writing, introducing a writing “hook” is a natural place to begin when starting instruction of actually writing the essay.

Start off by explaining that a “hook” captures the reader’s interest and makes them want to continue to read. It should relate to and tightly tie into the topic that will be discussed.

Introduce the four most commonly used (and easiest to use) hooks.

• Interesting Fact

2. Introductory Paragraph

Now that students know how they will start their essay, they are ready to complete their introductory paragraph. For this quick lesson, tell students to start with their hook. Then, specify that writers need to include words from the prompt. This helps the reader know what the paper will be about and also helps the writer stay focused as they write. They can also include a preview to their answers in this paragraph.

3. Introduce the Components of Body Paragraphs

Body paragraphs are the heart of the essay. This is where the writer needs to provide the reasons they agree or disagree with the prompt. They also need to support their reasons with text evidence and elaborations.   

Many teachers are familiar with the acronym R.A.C.E. as a form of responding to a question. I like to use the acronym T.R.A.C.E. because it reminds the writer to use transitions within the essay and within the paragraphs.

During this step of instruction, it is beneficial to break down the acronym for your students. Introduce what each letter stands for. Explain that this is not a specific formula, but a guide that shows what should be included throughout the paragraph.

As you explain each letter, have students create an anchor chart and color code the text . Later in the writing process, this will help them identify what they are doing well and what they may need to add more of in their paragraphs.

4. Writing the Body Paragraphs

Now that you’ve discussed the components of a body paragraph and have taught students how to color code each letter, it’s time to model the writing.

Write the first body paragraph along with your students. It is best to write it on the board where they can all see it. Have students copy the sentences as you write them. Think aloud as you write. This will help students understand why you are including and excluding certain information.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and cross words or phrases out. Have students copy a few of these errors too. This will allow them to see that they can change their mind or fix errors.

Once you have completed the paragraph, color code the text. This will allow students to visually see the components of a body paragraph.

5. Introduce Types of Elaborations

Once students have seen you model a body paragraph, focus on the elaboration within the paragraph.

Introduce the four types of elaborations most frequently used within text-based writing.

• Definition: tells the meaning of an unfamiliar word
• Anecdote: a short story inserted into the text
• Example: provides specific cases, samples, or instances
• Scenario: a description of a possible event 

Provide Students with Opportunities to Practice

Although this is not a specific step in teaching writing, it is included because it is important to give students multiple opportunities to practice.

Depending on your students, you may want to focus on certain areas of a text-based writing lesson when you offer opportunities to practice. Do not feel the need to have students complete an entire prompt each time they write, especially at the start of the school year. 

Starting off with an overview, then moving on to certain parts before moving on to a complete essay can be a great way to scaffold this process for students. Offering students the opportunity to refer back to their opinion writing anchor charts as they write is also a key component to helping them become proficient writers.

Looking for More Support with Opinion Writing Anchor Charts?

Hopefully, these tips have helped you organize your beginning opinion writing lessons. 

If you would like the opinion writing anchor charts discussed, you can click on the image to take a closer look.

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Just 23 Totally Perfect 4th Grade Anchor Charts

Add these beauties to your repertoire!

Anchor charts are one of the teaching tools that I’ve found to be useful for pretty much any topic that I’m teaching. Whether the anchor chart is teacher-made ahead of time or if it’s made with student input, in the heat of the lesson, anchor charts are a great way to reinforce the concepts we need our students to master.

Here are some of my favorite fourth grade anchor charts:

1. Story plot

Understanding plots will help students comprehend stories and write narratives more successfully. I love the colors and simplicity of this fourth grade anchor chart from  Rockin Resources .

2. Character education

Character ed is a perfect place to incorporate anchor charts. This one, from  What I Have Learned , is about responsibility, but each character trait could have its own unique anchor chart.

3. Word problems

Word problems can be tricky! This CUBES chart from  Teaching With Simplicity  reminds students of strategies to use to solve a variety of word problems.

4. Prepositions

Grammar is a good time for an anchor chart! This one uses mice to help students better understand the meaning of prepositions and comes from  The Teacher Next Door .

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5. Sentence structure

Even in fourth grade, students can use a few reminders about writing good sentences. I would slightly edit this version from  Croft’s Classroom  to make it clear that the predicate includes the verb.

6. Story elements

The puzzle pieces on this fourth grade anchor chart help teach about the different elements of a story. It’s a great concept from Teaching with a Mountain View .

7. Speaking and listening skills

This would be a really helpful chart for a discussion about Accountable Talk. I love how it shows both the listener’s and the speaker’s roles! This anchor chart comes from  Owl About Us .

8. Long division

Teaching long division is a rite of passage in fourth grade. This chart’s purpose is to help students remember long division’s sequence. I love how  Caffeine Queen Teacher  uses sticky notes, so the chart may be used over and over as an example!

9. Classroom expectations

Anchor charts are great for classroom management purposes. This one from  The Teacher Studio  helps set expectations for writing time.

10. Reading

Reading has so many components! This anchor chart from  Teacher Trap  serves as a great reminder for students about how reading really is thinking.

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11. Math vocabulary

This division anchor chart is a good reference to help increase a student’s math vocabulary. It comes from  The Owl Teacher .

12. Fairy tales

Fourth graders love fairy tales! This anchor chart from  Teaching Fourth with Kelly B.  helps kids identify the elements of a fairy tale and also helps students write original fairy tales.

13. Compare and contrast story elements

The Venn diagrams on this anchor chart illustrate ways to compare and contrast characters, settings, and events! I also like the examples of keywords which may signal either to compare or to contrast. Thanks to  Deb Hanson’s Crafting Connections  for this idea.

14. Reading expectations

This anchor chart from  Head Over Heels for Teaching  would make a great mini-lesson for reading at the beginning of the year. A discussion like this could help all of our students to become real readers!

15. Similes and metaphors

This figurative language anchor chart is so cute but so meaningful! I love the way  Teaching in Paradise  made the illustrations part of the examples for the lesson.

Theme is a challenging concept! I like how this anchor chart from  The Pinspired Teacher  not only defines theme, but provides lots of good examples. The sticky notes have examples of books with the highlighted theme.

17. Ecology

This fourth grade anchor chart is perfect for Earth Day. I love all the pictures and the examples that were included by  A Cupcake for the Teacher .

18. Conflict resolution

Anchor charts work well for social-emotional learning (SEL) and can be incorporated into morning meetings. This chart from  Literacy Loves Company  is great to leave up as a reminder of all of the different ways kids can solve conflicts.

19. Word choice

This anchor chart works well with a writing mini-lesson, such as said is dead . I love the way it offers helpful synonyms for overused words. It comes from  One Stop Teacher Shop .

20. Earth science

How Earth changes, both rapidly and slowly, is the subject of this anchor chart. I really like the simple but effective illustrations included by  Sharpening the Minds .

21. Adverbs

Adverbs can be difficult for kids to grasp. I like how this anchor chart from  Here’s an Idea by Lucy  breaks them down into different types and also gives examples of each.

22. Area and perimeter

Kids frequently forget the difference between area and perimeter. I like how this anchor chart from  Teaching With Simplicity  visually shows them the difference and includes formulas and examples.

23. Liquid measurement

This anchor chart from  Fourth Grade Weebly   is my favorite way to help students memorize units of capacity: cups, pints, quarts, and gallons.

Do you have a favorite anchor chart that wasn’t included? I’m always looking for new ideas and would love to see a picture if you have one!

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Super Writing Lessons | Student Writing Lessons | Expository Writing

Informational/Expository Student Writing Sample- Grade 4

Read Time 8 mins | Mar 25, 2020 11:43:49 PM | Written by: Toolbox

7-Day Process Piece Student Sample Grade 4

One way that I found to ease the tremendous stress of a research project was to break it into manageable chunks for my students. Upon introducing the topic or subject of writing we began by creating a list of everything we knew about the topic and then sorting and categorizing that list.  

Our journey into the research then became much easier to manage. Students focused on one aspect of the big topic and then began to notice severa l smaller main ideas that matched each focused area. Students found information about the main ideas and then it was time to write. The following piece of exposition is a result of   breaking the writing process down into small chunks   and wr iting one section of the piece each day for a total of seven days ( see the Expository/Informative Writing Summarizing Framework . ) In the real world, authors do not just write in one big blur, or what some might call flash drafts.  They in fact write a section, reflect on that section, and revise it as they go. That is exactly what my students were able to do quite successfully.

What really works in this piece:

• Organizational structure – the pillar
• Word choice – word referents
• Distinct Main Ideas
• The use of research: quote, amazing facts, anecdote
• The voice and tone

Note the use of informative verbs and the way the author states each main idea in this introduction paragraph.

Note the use of “word referents” instead of “the horseshoe crab…the horseshoe crab…the horseshoe crab…”  The author uses the productive questions  “What does it look like, why is it important?”  to add meaningful detail to support the main idea – appearance.

The student states the main idea of this paragraph as a question.  This is one strategy taught for revising boring main idea sentences.  Note the use of an anecdote to provide interesting detail to support the main idea – habitat.

In the conclusion paragraph, the author uses a hypothetical anecdote, informative verbs, a definitive phrase, word referents, and a general restatement of the topic sentence.  All of these are strategies taught in EW instruction.

Recommended Resources

• Empowering Writer's Methodology
• Informational & Opinion Writing Guide for Grade 4  

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June 23, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Types of Writing Anchor Chart

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This handy anchor chart reminds students of the purposes of the four types of writing: narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive.

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Great Informational Writing Leads Anchor Chart and Tips

Informational Writing Leads Anchor Chart and Tips

Are you looking for ways to help your students with their informational/expository writing? This informational writing leads anchor chart is a great addition to your writing lessons!

I’ll admit, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with teaching writing over my teaching career. Teaching students to write can be exhausting, frustrating, and demanding, but it is also very rewarding to see students develop into young authors. Years ago at a writing workshop, a presenter shared a statement that freed me and allowed me to view my job as a writing teacher in a new way. Her secret, “Don’t think that you have to read entire papers and/or grade every piece that students write.”

What? How will students improve? How will their writing be perfect? That’s just it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Students are growing as writers, each at her own pace. Instead of expecting perfection, celebrate each child’s growth as a writer.  In order to grow, students must do a lot of writing. Now, writing is one of my favorite things to teach, and one of my favorite parts of teaching writing are the mini lessons.

Recently, I spent several days presenting mini-lessons on writing introductory paragraphs for expository (informational) writing. Yes… For 3 days, we focused only on the first paragraph. I know that seems like a long time, but I wanted to give students a firm foundation on ways to introduce papers, not just for today, but for future papers as well.

For our writing lesson, I used writing prompts and graphic organizers from my Month by Month Writing Prompts and Posters Packet . I love using these prompts, graphic organizers, and posters throughout the entire year to help teach my students how to write narrative, opinion, and informational writing. My students love choosing from these fun, out of the ordinary, writing prompts, but sometimes for focus lessons, I like to give everyone the same writing prompt.

Grabber Leads: A Must for Introductory Paragraphs

On day 1 we began with learning how to write the grabber lead. Students were already familiar with writing grabber leads for narrative writing, but writing a grabber lead for informative or expository writing can be slightly different. We used an anchor chart to discuss five great ways to write a grabber lead for informative writing: questions, dialogue, onomatopoeia, personal opinions, and strong persuasive statements. There are many other ways that I could have also included, but I limited our study to five, so that hopefully, the students would internalize these five ways and be able to use them in future writings as well.

We spent time discussing and reading examples of each type of lead. Then each student practiced writing great grabber leads by creating sentences for each type. Of course, students shared their leads with their partners, and I shared some of the best on our document camera. I firmly believe that our sharing time in writing is a very important step. I encourage students to listen to other students writing styles and ideas to help them become better writers.

For day two’s mini-lesson, students wrote 1 to 3 more sentences expanding on their grabber leads. We simply spent a lot of time talking, sharing ideas, and modeling what these sentences should sound like. We discussed what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve.

The Thesis Statement: What It’s All About

On day 3 we focused on the thesis statement, the last part of the introductory paragraph. I explained that the thesis statement is the main idea statement that lets the reader know what the paper will be about without saying, “I’m going to tell you about…” To help students begin the thesis statement, they referred to this anchor chart. The idea for this chart was borrowed from the amazing Teaching with a Mountain View . Students chose one of the four ways to begin their thesis statement. I must admit, I was surprised at how well they did! I was expecting a lot more questioning looks, but the students got busy, and Wow! What some great results!

Glow and Grow

Finally, students shared their finished introductory paragraphs with their partners. Then each partner shared a “glow and grow.” They shared one glow (one thing they like about the writing) and one grow (one thing the writer could improve).

Hopefully, my students are now armed with strategies for writing excellent introductory paragraphs for their informational writing, and I hope you have a new idea or two for your writing lessons as well!

Have a blessed day!

• Read more about: language arts , language arts lessons , Uncategorized , writing

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Home » Anchor Charts » Informational Writing Anchor Charts—What Types There Are

Informational Writing Anchor Charts—What Types There Are

Teaching writing can be challenging. Students have different learning abilities and take more or less time to take in information about writing and various styles. In the early stages, they all struggle with consistency in their writing and often overlap between writing styles and formats, which only practice and repetition can fix.

An anchor chart is a great tool to help you with that. This chart can help them visualize different writing concepts and stay on track while writing. They can use it as a reminder they can always go back to when they get stuck .

In this article, we’ll explain what types of informational writing anchor charts there are. We’ll also show you how to find top-quality anchor charts on Teach Simple.

Table of Contents

What is an informational writing anchor chart, different types of informational writing anchor charts, what you should look for in a good informational writing anchor chart, use teach simple to find informational writing anchor charts easily, informational writing resources from teachsimple, informational writing anchor charts from other sources, thoughts to take away about informational writing anchor charts.

An informational writing anchor chart is a teaching resource that helps students get a visual idea of what informational writing is. It also gives them a reference point during revision . As such, your anchor charts should be colorful and playfully designed so that students can memorize information more easily and find learning about it more fun.

You should use these charts to help your students distinguish between informational writing and other forms of writing. For example, you should show that they need to present facts and information in a specific, unbiased way, while opinion writing should focus on their opinion and feelings.

Depending on your lesson objective , you can use various anchor charts to help you present the information to students. Informational writing anchor charts can focus on different writing formats, ideas to enhance the writing style, or general approaches to writing.

The most common types of writing anchor charts are:

• How-to writing anchor chart
• Adding details anchor chart
• Thesis anchor chart
• Letter format anchor chart

The point of informational writing is to tell the reader something. A good anchor chart must make this clear. It should be stated that the aim of informational writing is to explain something, by giving points and evidence.

The chart will thus make it clear that the content is important. It must also make sure the students know that the way the content is organized is also important. This means that a good informational writing anchor chart must have at least two elements:

• An explanation of what elements should be included in a piece of informational writing.

This can be done by using a text, or giving specific examples on the chart.

• An outline template to serve as a guide to structuring a good piece of informational writing.

A good informational writing chart must also tell the students that the technique is to write the content step-by-step. This can be demonstrated to them using an example. Even more effectively, they can do an activity where they are given a template and the must follow certain steps, or answer key questions.

How-To Writing Anchor Chart

How-to writing consists of explaining the process of something to the reader. Students should think of the steps the reader needs to take in order to complete something. A how-to writing chart should show students they have to focus on the structure to make instructions clear to readers. This chart can also be split into several charts that explain different text elements, such as introduction, body, and conclusion.

Adding Details to Writing Anchor Chart From Fishy Robb

Students tend to keep their writing minimalistic, but that’s rarely by design. An adding details anchor chart helps them enrich their writing by giving them something they can look to for more details until it becomes natural for them to start writing more colorfully by themselves.

This chart should have several segments to it, including:

• Visual description
• Emotional description

Thesis Anchor Chart From Teaching With A Mountain View

A thesis statement is the main idea statement that lets readers know what they’re going to read about without being too direct about it. A thesis anchor chart introduces various statement starters and examples in which you should use them. You can make these charts interactive by getting students to make up a sentence for each starter.

The most common thesis statement starters include:

• Even though

Letter Format Anchor Chart From Mrs. Ferrari’s Grade 3 Class!

Writing letters has strict rules you should abide by. Every letter has a format it needs to stick to and different sentences you have to use, depending on who you’re sending the letter to and for what reason. A letter format anchor chart lets students remind themselves about different rules, such as when to use faithfully or sincerely , whether they should go formal or informal, and so on.

Creating informational writing anchor charts can be time-consuming, especially if you’re not too familiar with the process. If you’re looking for anchor charts online, you should use a trustworthy source, such as Teach Simple.

Teach Simple offers thousands of lesson plans , anchor charts, and other materials for students from preschool to high school. The platform covers dozens of subjects and topics, including writing. The best part is that all contributors are experienced teachers who know what it takes to keep students engaged and motivated to learn.

Informational Essay Prompt on Hurricanes and Outline Sheet with articles By Educate and Create

This is an informational resource about How are Hurricanes Formed? It is aimed at Grades 5 – 8. You can create your own anchor chart from the content of the resource. The pack includes two articles and a graph that you can use as a reference. There is an outline sheet for the structure of an expository essay, which you can use as a template for the anchor chart. Work with the students to fill this in, then they can write the essay on their own. You can also use the basic pattern as the template to write from other sources.

Trail of Tears Informative Writing Unit By Life Beyond the Gradebook

This Trail of Tears Informative Writing Unit is a whole resource pack. It is aimed at grades 3 – 6. The pack contains a poster that you can use as an anchor chart. The aim of the unit is to teach the students the process of informational writing. Students can work with the three articles that are supplied. Part of the resource is a guide to construct a response to the texts. You can also use the graphic organizer as the basis for a referential anchor chart in your class.

How To Wash A Dog By Simply Schoolgirl

This resource guides the students How to Wash a Dog . It is aimed at Grades 1 – 3. Three anchor charts are part of the contents of the pack. You can display these in the class, or use them as the basis of individual or group work. One of the anchor charts is an editing checklist the students can apply to their writing. You can use the anchor chart on transition words to teach the students the vocabulary, or revise words they already know.

Informational Paragraph Writing Graphic Organizer By The Language of Learning

This Graphic Organizer is the perfect template to teach students to plan and structure an informational paragraph. You can also print the chart as a worksheet the students can use when you give them an exercise to write an informational piece of writing. A good way to use this template would be as part of a group work assignment. Give the students a piece of informational writing to work on in groups. Each student could be assigned a paragraph to work on, using this sheet as a guide.

Informational Writing From Mama Teaches

This chart gives important for Informative Writing. This eye-catching chart is a memorable and engaging method to introduce the idea of informational writing. The image has been used effectively to show the logic of the way an informational text develops logically.

Informational Writing From The Creative Colorful Classroom

This anchor chart on Informational Writing is great to be used in the lower grades, but can be adapted for just about any grade. What is most valuable about the chart is the use of a real idea to work with. This chart and image of a hand were used to assist students with the structure of an informational writing work.

Informational Text Structures From Teaching With A Mountain View

This anchor chart is presented in the form of a game based on Text Structured Sort . The approach is an impressive way of teaching the students about how to structure an informational text. The different columns identify different aspects of a text. There are 20 cards, each with a sentence written on it. The cards work in sets of five that can be put on the chart to create a short informational paragraph on one of the topics. The students can solve the ‘puzzle’ of filling in all the blanks. You can also simply use the basic chart as a template for the students to work on their own topics.

Informational Writing From Ashleigh’s Education Journey

This chart presents the logical structure of a piece of Informational Writing . You can take the students through the numbered steps to teach them to structure their work. Begin by leaving the blocks blank. Then, guide the students through what they need for each stage of the writing. When you have the plan on the chart like in the picture, the students can use it as a guide to write specific informational texts.

Introduce The Topic From Asleigh’s Education Journey

This is a fairly straightforward chart that aids the students in determining how to present their topic. It drives home to the pupils how well-structured informational writing is. This is also made clear and the internal structure of the writing is identified by the steps that are stated.

You can sign up for Teach Simple for free during a 30-day trial and make unlimited downloads free of charge. You’ll find thousands of informational writing anchor charts and other charts for writing.

Check out our top pick:

• Writing With a Purpose Anchor Chart
• Anchor Charts for Writing
• Trail of Tears Informative Writing Unit
• How to Wash a Dog – Writing and Sequencing Activity
• How To Mail a Letter—Writing and Sequencing Activity
• How To Make a Valentine—Writing and Sequencing Activity
• Organizing Writing Paragraphs Worksheet
• How To Carve a Pumpkin—Writing and Sequencing Activity
• How To Wash a Car—Writing and Sequencing Activity
• Types of Expository Writing Worksheet
• How To Decorate a Christmas Tree—Writing and Sequencing Activity
• Tell Us About It Expository Writing Activity
• Story Writing Organizer
• Daily Bell Ringers Writing Prompts for Winter
• Informational Paragraph Writing Graphic Organizer
• Reading and Writing in Cursive
• Comparing Expository Texts Worksheet

Because informational writing needs to be precise and well-structured, anchor charts are one of the best tools to use when teaching this form. A good anchor chart will present an outline for organizing the content of the text logically and efficiently. It will also allow the students to work at writing their own informational texts while using a pattern.

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What Is An Opinion Writing Anchor Chart And Where To Find One Online

How to use a rounding anchor chart and where to get one online.

Last Updated on September 10, 2023 by Teach Simple

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Engaging Resources for Teaching Literacy

The Writing Process Posters & Anchor Charts

Are you a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade teacher who needs help teaching or reviewing the writing process with your students? These writing process anchor charts will help you teach the writing process in way that your students will remember. This set of anchor charts includes 13 ready-to-print anchor charts that will help you effectively teach your students the steps of the writing process as well as attributes of effective writing. These anchor charts will be your teacher bestie during your writing lessons!

Filed Under: *All Non SLC Resources , *Non SLC Resources (Writing) , 3rd , 4th , 5th , Anchor Charts and Posters , Homeschooler , Printables , Under $5 , Writing

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Even though your students have probably been exposed to the writing process, sometimes they forget the steps or what exactly they should do at each stage in the process. These anchor charts clearly define and explain each step and provide acronyms and strategies to help students effectively complete each step of the writing process. Having these anchor charts will help you teach the writing process in a clear and concise way.

In this resource, you’ll get 13 Writing Anchor Charts formatted in the following ways:

Half-page anchor charts – perfect for students journals

Full page anchor charts – works great for whole group lessons

Digital version – created using Google Slides

FIll-in version – available for both the half-page and full-page versions and are great if you want your students to take notes during the lesson

LOVED BY BOTH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS: 

Your students will love having access to these anchor charts during the year. They won’t feel the pressure to remember every little grammar rule during the lesson because they know they can look back in their journals anytime they need a reminder.

You’ll love these anchor charts because they have easy-to-read font and are written with clear and concise language. Your students will understand the writing concepts you teach with these anchor charts.

So many upper elementary teachers love these anchor charts because they aren’t cluttered with excess clipart or fonts that are too “cutesy”.

And, you have options. You can choose to print them in half pages for students to glue in their journals… or you can share them with your students in Google Classroom… or you can give students the fill-in version so they can take notes during your lessons. You can pick the version that will work for you and your students.

Prep is quick and easy… Just print the anchor chart option you want to use before your writing lesson and you’re ready to go.

ANCHOR CHART TITLES INCLUDE: 

The Writing Process

Brainstorming

Characteristics of Strong Writing

Organization

Conventions

Expand Vocabulary

Sentence Fluency

TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Great resource! I use these anchor charts to support our writing lessons. Student can refer to the bulletin board or, if a student needs extra support, I give them a small anchor chart for their notebook.” Shannon M.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Thank you so much for this resource! My students always have difficulty in knowing what they need to do when revising and editing and this resource will be a great resource for them when they revise and edit their writing pieces!” -T.L.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I have these hanging in my classroom, and they’re a perfect display of the writing process. I also printed them out on a smaller scale for my students to glue into their writer’s notebooks so they always have a reference.” Kristen S.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Thank you for creating this writing resource! It has made my writing interventions run a lot smoother. There are great anchor charts for students to be able to use not only in small group but also in their general education classrooms.” Terry G.

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Anchor Charts to Improve Writing Skills

 WHAT ARE ANCHOR CHARTS?

Anchor charts are tools that support learning in the classroom. They can be used to support everything from classroom management strategies to the teaching of writing.

Essentially, they are visual prompts that provide students with information regarding their prior learning on a given topic. These visual prompts are used to provide a scaffold to support the students during guided practice and independent work.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ANCHOR CHARTS FOR WRITING AND READING?

Anchor charts are becoming increasingly popular in classrooms for some very good reasons. They offer a wealth of benefits for students and teachers alike.

Here are just a few of the great benefits of using anchor charts as writing tools in the classroom.

  Anchor Charts Provide Increased Student Engagement

Anchor charts are an effective way of encouraging student engagement. Not only do they increase student confidence when engaged in a writing task, but they help to keep students on task by offering support in the form of visual prompts that help unstick the stuck! These anchor chart examples below provide students with a great visual point of reference to learn from.

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Anchor Charts Deepen Comprehension

Often, students get involved in the actual production of the anchor charts themselves. When helping to produce the anchor charts, students will have opportunities to reconstruct their learning and thereby deepen their comprehension of the material in the process.

As they construct their charts, students begin to make new connections between the various aspects of their learning as they organize these aspects in a visually comprehensible manner.

 Anchor Charts Supports Independent Work

Learning to write well can be one of the most challenging things a student learns to do at school.

As students learn to navigate the demands of various writing genres , seemingly endless questions arise at word, sentence, and whole text level.

This, in turn, makes heavy demands on the teacher’s time as individual students struggle with the various challenges of a given task.

Fortunately, anchor charts can help alleviate some of that burden by providing a visual resource and reference point that help students to answer many of the more commonly asked questions for themselves. This frees up the teacher from having to repeatedly answer the same questions throughout the course of a lesson, making more time to offer support where it’s most needed.

WHAT DO ANCHOR CHARTS LOOK LIKE?

Anchor charts come in all shapes and sizes and can be commercially bought or produced collaboratively by students and teachers in class.

Commercially bought Anchor Charts are great for permanent displays within the classroom.

Usually well-presented in bold lettering using dynamic colors, professionally-produced charts work well for topics that recur throughout the course of the year and are complex enough to require ongoing reinforcement.

When anchor charts are self-produced, they are usually handwritten in large print and displayed in a prominent position in the classroom for easy reference.

Usually, a co-creation between the student and the teacher, the charts should contain only the essential information regarding the topic.

When deciding what to include on a chart, think about the concepts, strategies, and prior learning that will most help students to work independently when engaged in their work.

HOW ARE ANCHOR CHARTS CREATED IN THE CLASSROOM?

To produce an anchor chart in the classroom requires very little in the way of resources other than some chart paper and some colored markers. Other than these, and defining a clear purpose and focus for your anchor chart, there is no specific preparation required.

However, there are a number of common elements to consider when producing anchor charts for use in the classroom. Some of these include:

●      Paper: Decide whether you are using adhesive paper, lined paper, blank paper, colored paper etc

●      Font-Size: This should be large enough to see from the various working areas of the classroom

●      Collaboration: Is it teacher-produced or a collaboration? What is the level of student involvement?

Where Anchor Charts are to be co-created with students, generally, they will be produced in collaboration with the students as you teach the lesson.

The chart will include the most important content and relevant strategies. In the case of the various writing genres, a list of the main criteria that must be included works well.

The anchor charts can then be used by the students as a checklist to refer to as the writing is produced. They can also serve for a final check when the work has been completed.

Here are some general tips to help ensure you get the most out of Anchor Charts in your classroom:

●      Keep things simple

●      Be sure the writing is well organised and easy to read

●      Use headings and bullet points to help display the main points

●      Use different colors for headings, bullet points etc

●      Use simple pictures, graphs, illustrations etc to help reinforce points

●      Don’t fill with lots of distracting details or graphics

Anchor Charts as Writing Tools – Examples

Anchor charts can be used very effectively to break down many of the more complex aspects of writing.

From punctuation use to the specific criteria for various writing genres, Anchor charts are a fantastic way to visually reinforce student understanding of these diverse processes.

The content of each chart will be dependent on their focus. But, let’s look at the possible content of two examples of Anchor Charts to help serve as models for what might be contained in an anchor chart produced in your classroom.

1.  Point of View Anchor Chart

The Point of View Anchor Chart can be used both to help guide students in identifying the point of view in a text as well as to help in the creation of the student’s own texts. We have an excellent guide on point of view that can be found here.

Looking out for keywords is an effective way to determine the point of view in a piece of writing. Point-of-view keywords are generally centred around the pronouns and the level of insight and perspective we are offered.

Let’s look at some of the more common points of view used, first in a little detail and then at how they might appear on an Anchor Chart.

First Person – a character is telling the story (narrator), and we often gain insight into the characters’ thoughts. Clues that indicate a first person will be the use of pronouns such as I , my , me , mine , we , us etc.

As bullet points, this might look like this:

●      First Person

○      Character narrates the story

○      Narrator is in the story

○      Narrator’s thoughts are revealed

○      Uses pronouns: I , my , me , mine , we , us etc.

Third Person Limited –  the narrator is outside the story and telling the story. In third-person limited, the writer sticks closely to the point of view of a single character, so we are usually only privy to that one character’s thoughts and experiences. The narrator does not know everything about the events that occur in the story. Indications that the third person is being used may be the use of characters’ names and pronouns, such as he , him , his , himself , she, her , hers , herself , it , its , itself , they , them , their , theirs , and themselves .

●      Third Person Limited

○      Narrator is outside the story

○      Narrator tells the story primarily from one character’s POV

○      Only the main character’s thoughts and feelings are revealed

○      Narrator has limited knowledge of events

○      Uses pronouns: he , him , his , himself , she, her , hers , herself , it , its , itself , they , them , their , theirs , and themselves .

Third Person Omniscient – the narrator tells the story and is privy to everything. Not only all the details of every event in the story, but the interior life of each character, such as emotions, opinions, and feelings, whether expressed or not. The usual third-person pronouns are used along with the character names.

●      Third Person Omniscient

○      Narrator tells the story from ‘above.’

○      Narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of every character

○      Narrator knows everything that happens

2. Instructional Writing Anchor Chart

The criteria for writing clear instructions can be very handily displayed as an anchor chart.

When writing a set of instructions, students can refer to the chart to help organize their writing. The same chart will also serve as a checklist for self-assessment at the end.

An instructional writing anchor chart may include information such as:

Instructional Writing:

●      Includes an explanatory title, e.g. ‘How to…’

●      Laid out in bullet points or numbered instructions

●      Uses time connectives to organise, e.g. ‘first’, ‘then’, ‘finally’ etc.

●      Uses imperatives to instruct the reader

●      Use straightforward, functional language

●      Supported by illustrations or diagrams

●      Diagrams and illustrations contain captions

In Conclusion

As we can see, anchor charts can serve as useful writing tools that support the development of student writing skills in the classroom.

When displayed prominently in the classroom, they can help students efficiently bridge the gap between being emergent writers lacking in self-confidence to becoming self-assured, independent writers.

It is important to remember, too, that though anchor charts are great tools that support students, ultimately, the intent is for the students to internalize the knowledge and information they contain. So don’t allow them to become a permanent crutch!

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