Mini Anchor Charts in my Special Education Classroom

I like to keep what I display on my classroom walls to a minimum.  Not just because my students get easily distracted, but also because in my classroom I teach ELA for students in grades 9-12 and three different level math classes. It’s often that I even teach three different classes at one time. There have been more times that I care to admit that students have had to ask me which anchor chart they should look at for help. It finally got to the point where I asked myself – “how helpful are my anchor charts when my students aren’t even sure where to look for help?” I didn’t want to eliminate anchor charts altogether from my classroom, because they are so incredibly helpful – and because I spent SO much time making them.  I just needed to make my anchor charts smaller… I needed to make them more specific for each student… and I needed them to be easily accessible. 

It’s funny how things happen. Around the same time I needed a better way to display my anchor charts, the Target Dollar Spot adhesive square label pockets (in the photo on the left) took over “Teachergram.” Of course I had a drawer full of those adhesive square label pockets already – that I didn’t know what to do with – and that’s when the lightbulb went off! I began re-creating my anchor charts into mini anchor charts that students could have at their desks!

About a year and a half ago I displayed my mini charts in the back corner of my classroom. Easily accessible, yet out of the way. I didn’t keep them in anything fancy, just a pocket chart I found on Amazon. I made a little sign that read “Take What You Need.” If you’ve been a follower of mine on Instagram, you might even recognize this old photo (on the right). I didn’t leave a large selection of mini charts out to choose from, just a few for my math classes and a few for my ELA classes. On Mondays I would choose the mini charts my students would be needing for the week.  On Fridays I refill the chart if it’s a topic we will still be working on, or I take down the mini chart topics we are done with.

Two students noticed I was printing off/adding more mini charts of the same topic to the pocket chart at the end of each week. They asked if they were able to store their mini charts somewhere, so they wouldn’t get lost and I wouldn’t need to keep re-printing. I thought it was a terrific idea – sometimes the best ideas come from their minds.  Luckily, I had leftover “task card boxes” and my mini anchor charts were the perfect fit! Now, their mini anchor charts could easily be stored away and still be easy for them to access. I added labels to each box, so students could find their mini chart box and even take them back to their desks if need be.

Mini anchor charts turned into something that just weren’t for my classroom alone. There have been several times I’ve had students want to take mini anchor charts with them to their other classes. For instance – I had a student for ELA but she was in a co-taught math class and saw that I had a mini chart for a topic she was working on in that class, so she asked to take it with her. Those small, loose binder rings – I call them small ringlets – became my best friend. Keeping the mini charts on the ringlets and then clipping the ringlet of mini charts into students’ binders became the perfect portable reference tool.  Some students didn’t want theirs on ringlets, and that was fine – more ringlets for me… jk, so they taped their’s into their notebooks. This worked just as well.  I can’t even begin to tell you the help they have been for students in the co-taught classrooms!

– I had mini anchor charts that weren’t distracting.
– I had mini anchor charts that were easy for my students to access in my classroom.
– I had mini anchor charts that allowed my students to use their independence when acquiring help.
– I had mini anchor charts that gave my students the individualized help they needed.
– I had mini anchor charts that could be easily taken out of my classroom.

Like any teacher, I found something that worked for me and my students and I continued to use it. This past year I displayed my mini anchor charts in about the same way. I had a whiteboard in the back of my classroom I didn’t use, so I choose to display them on the unused white board rather than in the back corner. This way I was able to keep other important resources and even write reminders close to the mini charts my students used – plus I no longer had to risk taking paint off the wall again when I needed to pack them back up for the summer. Oops. I still kept the mini charts in the same black pocket chart. It was so awesome to see my returning students STILL use them and telling my new students about them. It was, and still can be sometimes, quite chaotic teaching two different math classes and an ELA class at one time. I would get asked a lot of questions about different topics at once. I didn’t mind answering all the questions, but it’s SO nice that the majority of their questions are now being answered by my students accessing the mini anchor chart they need! Less interruptions during class for me. More independence for them.

When distance learning hit us on March 16th, 2020, and I started assigning math and ELA lessons on Google Classroom, I was wanting my students to still have access to their mini charts. This was a time my students TRULY needed that individualized extra help at their finger tips. I found myself daily coming up with creative ways to share a few mini charts – ones I brought home with me – I thought they might need for certain assignments. It worked, but it wasn’t providing them with that independence of finding help on their own. We worked for almost two years on that independence. So, for several nights a week in April, I turned ALL of my mini anchor charts into digital charts in Google Slides.  I wanted so badly for my students to still have that extra help while working from home. As soon as I uploaded them into my ELA and math Google Classrooms I immediately felt SO GOOD. It’s crazy what makes us feel good teachers – ha. I did make sure to make these digital mini charts interactive. I wanted my students to still have help at their fingertips, but I also wanted them to still get/look for the help on their own.

As this school year comes to an end – a weird end  – I’ve already started thinking about how I will be using BOTH paper and digital mini charts in my classroom next year. These have turned into the classroom help I didn’t know I needed – haha! Especially during distance learning.

Below I have attached links – my Amazon links are affiliate links – to all things mini anchor charts in my classroom. Each mini chart set on TPT has the topics listed in their product description. The pocket chart and “task card boxes” are the exact ones I use in my classroom. You can easily provide students with the individualized help they need at their fingertips, just like I did! …and as always, if you have any questions, feel free to email me!

Link to Teachers Pay Teachers