Do you know the difference between an anchor
chart and a public record? Bring
together a room full of teachers and I am sure no two will give the same
answer. So, when my clever team mate
posed the question to me I gave her my always witty southern remark of “Well
duh of course I do”. The truth is there
is no set definition for what an anchor chart and public record actually
is. Educational resources vary upon
criteria’s of each and it seems examples never seem to look the same. As one gets into researching both it becomes
a swirl of confusion and so overwhelming most give up the effort. In simple but direct terms my definition for
both is an anchor chart is teacher created and a public record is student
created. I decided to tackle both this
year head on after a 4 day training of Best
Practices in Math provided by our school system. In order to give myself a starting point I
came up with key factors each should have.
Anchor
Charts:
·
Teacher
Created
·
Students
can add to one
·
Must
highlight key points only
·
DON’T
make is busy try to be clutter free
·
Make
them student friendly
·
Remember
they are used as tools so display in an easily accessible way
Anchor charts are a great teaching tool for
students and are part of the learning process. However, they can sometimes become more of a
distraction if they are busy, contain too much fluff, and cannot be used
easily. To avoid making it busy I use
dark colors to address key ideas and light colors as an accent piece, this
helps students differentiate between each.
Lose the fluff! Anchor charts should only highlight key
teaching points, especially in lower grades.
Provide pictures or drawings if the vocabulary is a struggle for
students so that they can make connections between the word and picture. Last, make sure the anchor charts are easily
accessible. Once an anchor chart is
completed I hang it on my front board and it will stay there for the remainder
of the nine week period. At the end of
nine week period I take pictures of each chart and place them in a Math Anchor
Charts binder. Inside the binder each
topic is broken into dividers (i.e. Addition, Subtraction, Numbers, Money, and
Clocks). Just because you have moved onto
a new topic does not mean that the old chart is not needed.
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Public
Records:
·
Student
Created
·
Displays
students mastery of a skill
·
Try
to make connections with several skills
·
Remember
to teach them “how” to make one
·
Praise,
Praise, Praise, and Praise their effort no matter how big or small!
Public records have become a regular for my
classroom during assessments. Instead
of students simply taking a test a public record gives them the opportunity to
actually show mastery of the skill (And
honestly they are very excited to make their own poster). With my students public records I focused
mainly on Best Practices strategies
by using the four square mats/posters.
In each of the four boxes a student or students had to complete a
different skill using one given problem.
The student below was given the number sentence 23 – 9 and was told to
create a word problem, write the number sentence, show it in a picture, and
show how to regroup. Although she was
given one problem I managed to asses her on several different skills. Another example is using it with one given
number by showing it in longs/cubes, expanded form, place value house, and
odd/even. After using them quite a bit
students would expect them and ask to do them more then I required! Ownership is by far the best attribute for a
2nd grader to have! Now, I by
no means think that my definition, examples, or opinions are how anchor charts
and public records must be done. However
a teacher wants to do them is fine as long as it is used a successful
tool.
Jennifer Brown
Jennifer Brown is my partner in crime....the 'other' part of my brain and my 2nd grade teammate. She is currently working on her Master's degree at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
