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40 Must-Have Anchor Charts for Teaching Writing of All Kinds

Writing information and inspiration for all!

When it comes to writing, many kids struggle to get their ideas down on paper. That’s why we’ve rounded up all the best writing anchor charts, to help your students master narrative, transitions, punctuation, editing, theme, and so much more! Try some of these ideas in your classroom to give your kids the writing support they need.

1. Why Writers Write

First and second graders will draw inspiration from this fun-filled anchor chart about why we write. Make this chart applicable to older students by expanding on each aspect with a specific audience or goal. “To share experiences” can become “to share experiences with friends, in a postcard, or with readers of a memoir.”

Source: Cara Carroll

2. Expanding Sentences

Show students how a simple sentence can become a real powerhouse by exploring when, where, how, and why, along with adding adjectives. So powerful!

Source: Upper Elementary Snapshots/Expanding Sentences

3. Personal Narrative

Personal narrative is a style that all students practice in elementary school, and writing anchor charts can help keep them on track. Visit the link below for great worksheets to use with your students to prepare them to write their personal narratives.

Source: Rachel’s Reflections

4. Hook Your Reader

Want to know how to draw the reader in and make them eager to continue? You need a hook! Teach students how to grab a reader’s attention from the get-go, pulling them in with facts, questions, or even sound effects.

Source: Little Minds at Work

5. Point of View

Learn the differences between first person (I), second person (you), and third person (narrator), and talk about when each type is effective.

Source: Oh Boy … It’s Farley!

6. Organized Paragraph

Use a stoplight to help early elementary students understand and write clear paragraphs. As students are editing their work, have them read with green, yellow, and red pencils in hand so they can see how their paragraphs are hooking and engaging readers. See a video of this chart in action here.

7. Practicing Transitions

There are more stoplight writing anchor charts, and this one is perfect for helping students learn and practice their transition words. Draw the stoplight first and invite students to help come up with different words. Then encourage students to put the transition words into practice.

Source: A Happy, Hungry, Healthy Girl

8. Author’s Perspective

Sometimes, an author’s opinion comes out strongly in their writing, even if they don’t state it up front. Use this chart to help students find the clues to an author’s perspective.

Source: Crafting Connections/Author’s Perspective

9. Author’s Purpose Pie

This is a quick and easy anchor chart to help students see different types of writing. It’ll also help them do a quick check to make sure their writing aligns.

Source: Literacy Ideas

10. Dig Deeper

Keep going! Sometimes it’s hard to express what you mean by certain writing and revision requests, and writing anchor charts can show exactly what you mean. Now students can get a good look at what it means to dig deeper.

Source: Pinterest

11. Alternatives to “Said”

If your students are learning about writing dialogue, an anchor chart like this could really come in handy. Encourage students to try other ways to have their characters respond.

Source: ESL Amplified

12. Understanding Character

Before you can write about character, you first have to understand it. This anchor chart will help your young writers understand the difference between inside and outside characteristics.

Source: Teacher Trap

13. Diving Deeper Into Character

Now that your students understand the difference between inside and outside characteristics, dive deeper into describing a specific character. This anchor chart is a wonderful idea because students can write their idea(s) on a sticky note and then add it.

Source: Crafting Connections/Teach and Task Lessons

14. Six Traits of Writing

This anchor chart is jam-packed with things to help fourth- and fifth-grade writers remember the six traits of writing. Use the chart as a whole-class reference or laminate it to use in small groups. When it’s laminated, students can check off each aspect they’ve included in their own writing. Meaningful dialogue? Check! Problem and solution? Check!

Source: Working 4 the Classroom

15. Writing Realistic Fiction

This anchor chart reminds upper elementary students how to create realistic stories. It really walks your students through the process, so they have all the elements they need to create their own stories.

Source: Two Writing Teachers/Realistic Fiction

16. Sequence of Events

Help early elementary students stay organized with an anchor chart that’s focused on order-of-events language. Tactile learners can write their first drafts on sentence strips and use this format to put the events in order before they transcribe their work onto writing paper.

Source: Life in First Grade

17. Informational Text Structures

Focus upper elementary students on the most important aspects of informational writing while keeping them organized. This chart could be used to support paragraph writing or essays.

Source: Teaching With a Mountain View/Informational Text Structures

18. OREO Opinion Writing

This deliciously inspired opinion anchor chart can be used by students in grades 3–5 during writers workshop or when developing an opinion for discussion or debate. To build out student writing, have them “double-stuff” their OREOs with extra E examples. See a video featuring this chart here.

19. Features of a Great Report

Use examples of outstanding student work to make this anchor chart. Keep it relevant by updating the examples with student work throughout the year. In kindergarten, this will also showcase how students move from prewriting and pictures to writing words and sentences.

Source: Joyful Learning in KC

20. Write From the Heart

Sometimes the hardest part about writing is coming up with whom and what you should write about. This is the fun part, though! Use this anchor chart to remind your students that they have lots of good writing options.

Source: First Grade Parade via Cara Carroll

21. Argument Writing

Use this anchor chart with middle schoolers to make sure they’re considering all sides of an argument, not just the one that matters the most to them. One way to adapt this chart, as students develop their understanding of argument, is to write each element—claim, argument, evidence—under a flap that students can lift if they need a reminder.

Source: Literacy & Math Ideas

22. Writing Process

This is an anchor chart you’ll direct your students to again and again. The writing process has several steps, and it’s good to remind students of this so they don’t get frustrated.

Source: What’s Skow-ing On in Fourth Grade?

23. Writing Checklist

For those young writers in your class, these cover the basics in a clear way.

Source: Kindergarten Chaos

24. RACE for Writing

Use the RACE mnemonic when your students are working on persuasive writing. It reminds them to cite their sources and be sure to answer the question being asked.

Source: @mrspuffer

25. Cause and Effect

Cause and effect will always be an essential part of any story. Help your students come up with different scenarios for cause and effect. In many instances, you could have multiples effects, so challenge your students to identify three to four at a time. This will really give them something to write about!

Source: 2nd Grade Superheroes

26. A Strong Lead

This upper-grade anchor chart gives students lots of ways to start their writing. Update it midyear with strong examples of leads that students have written or that they’ve found in books. Students could also copy this chart into their notebooks and keep track of the different ways they’ve started their own writing, seeing if they’ve developed a signature lead.

Source: Miss Klohn’s Classroom

27. Crafting Power Sentences

Inspire students to get crafty and creative with their sentences. Update the moods or keywords with every writing assignment, so students are constantly refining their clauses, verbs, and descriptions.

Source: Teaching My Friends

28. Show, Don’t Tell

“Show, don’t tell” is a cardinal rule of writing. This anchor chart, best for upper elementary writers, can be used to strengthen scenes in fiction and narrative nonfiction works. Build out this chart for middle school writers with additional ideas and more complex emotions.

Source: Upper Elementary Snapshots/Show, Don’t Tell

29. Narrative Organizer

Leave this chart up in your classroom for your students to reference often when they’re writing. It really takes them through creating a successful story.

30. Expository Writing

This chart makes it easy for students to remember key concepts, both with color-coding and simple metaphors. Give them colored pencils and ask them to underline the corresponding sections in their essays.

Source: Adventures of a Future Teacher

31. Peer Editing

Peer editing teaches kids a variety of skills, and not just with writing. They learn to read closely, offer (and accept) useful constructive feedback, and get more comfortable sharing their writing with others. This chart helps kids through the sometimes-challenging process.

Source: Taleof2Teachers

32. Strong Sentences

Get early elementary students to write longer, more descriptive sentences with this chart. Bonus: Use sentence strips to switch out the examples of strong sentences, based on student writing.

Source: The Good Life

33. Internal Story

This chart gives students the language to add their own thoughts to their writing. Modify this chart by highlighting key phrases for students with special needs. Or have students create different thought-bubble icons to represent each internal dialogue sentence starter.

Source: Totally Terrific in Texas

34. Evidence Supported

Upper elementary students will benefit from reminders on how to refer to and cite text evidence. Use this anchor chart during writing and discussion to help connect the language that we use across domains.

Source: History Tech

35. Publishing Guidelines

Kids are often quick to turn in their papers without making sure they’ve included all the necessary requirements (like their names!). Use this chart to remind them about the important things to check for before they hand in their work.

Source: Juice Boxes and Crayolas

36. Figurative Language

As you teach your students about figurative language and how to use it, you’ll want to have examples. This anchor chart dives into five different concepts. Each of these could actually be its own anchor chart. Perhaps have your students come up with examples on sticky notes and then place them on the chart.

Source: Willow Grove Elementary School

37. Forms of Poetry

Introducing poetry types to your students? This anchor chart covers the basics and helps kids remember that not all poetry needs to rhyme.

Source: ELA Anchor Charts

38. CUPS and ARMS

This is a popular method for teaching kids to revise and edit as well as the difference between the two. Simple acronyms keep the key strategies close at hand.

Source: Amy Lemons

39. Spicy Edits

Encourage your students to think of their writing like a recipe, which they can always tweak and improve. Have them choose one element, or “spice,” to add to their work as they revise.

Source: Beyond Zebra/Pinterest

40. Writing Buddies

Sometimes students can get stuck when working with writing buddies, but writing anchor charts can help. This one encourages students to be positive and make good, thoughtful suggestions.

Source: Apostrophe Books Twitter

What are your favorite writing anchor charts? Share your ideas in our  WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group  on Facebook.

Plus, find out why the “hamburger” essay has gone stale, and what to try instead ..

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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.

• Teaching , Writing

Create a Narrative Writing Anchor Chart That Will Compel Your 4th, 5th, and 6th Grade Students

Creating a narrative writing anchor chart for the upper elementary classroom can effectively guide students through crafting compelling stories. An anchor chart is a visual reference that remains displayed in the classroom, offering students a quick and accessible guide to enhance their narrative writing skills. Here’s a breakdown of what you might include on a narrative writing anchor chart, along with steps in the writing process and some prompts to inspire young writers.

Keep reading to learn more!

As you begin teaching the narrative writing process, you may find an anchor chart helpful to show students a visual representation of the work they will be doing. There are many different routes you can take with the anchor chart, and you will likely find yourself creating multiple throughout the lesson. Here are a few examples of narrative writing anchor charts you may create.

1. Elements of a Narrative

One of the first steps in introducing students to narrative writing is showing them the important parts of the piece. Here are the most important ones upper elementary students should see on a narrative writing anchor chart.

• Setting: Where and when the story takes place.
• Characters: Introduce and describe the main characters.
• Plot: The sequence of events that make up the story.
• Conflict: The central problem or challenge the characters face.
• Resolution: How the conflict is resolved or addressed.

2. Narrative Writing Structure

Once you introduce students to the pieces needed to create a compelling narrative, you have to show them the framework for the writing. No one wants a story that’s all over the place. Following this simple structure will help. Lay it out on a narrative writing anchor chart for clarity.

• Hook the reader with an engaging opening.
• Introduce the characters and setting.
• Develop the plot through a series of events.
• Build suspense and tension.
• Show character reactions and emotions.
• Resolve the conflict.
• Provide a satisfying ending.

3. Writing Techniques

Kids will begin to master the initial concepts of writing, and as they do, you can encourage them to better their writing each time they start a new piece. This is where you create a narrative writing anchor chart about making the writing better each time! Give them these tips:

• Descriptive Language: Encourage the use of vivid and sensory details.
• Dialogue: Teach students how to use dialogue to bring characters to life.
• Transitions: Show how to use transitional words and phrases to guide readers through the story.
• Show, Don’t Tell: Emphasize the importance of showing actions and emotions rather than just telling.

4. Revising and Editing

This is the step most students dislike the most, but it’s the most important. Emphasize to your students how necessary it is to check work. Here are some common ways to edit a draft and make it as perfect as possible!

• Peer Feedback: Encourage students to share their writing with peers for constructive feedback.
• Self-Editing: Teach basic editing skills, focusing on grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Revising for Clarity: Emphasize the importance of clarity in storytelling.

5. Narrative Writing Prompts

To get you and your students started, use a few of these narrative prompts . Display them on a narrative writing anchor chart and let them choose as they begin.

• Write about a time when you faced a challenge and overcame it.
• Imagine you discover a magical object. Describe the adventure that follows.
• Create a story set in a futuristic world where technology has taken over.
• Write about a memorable moment from your summer vacation.
• If you could travel back in time, what historical event would you visit, and why?

6. Writing Process

To sum it all up, here is how students should naturally start and end their writing process! Practice over and over so they get the hang of it; in no time, they will be masters.

• Brainstorming: Generate ideas and plan the story.
• Drafting: Write the initial version of the narrative.
• Revising: Make improvements to the content and structure.
• Editing: Correct errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Publishing: Share the final, polished narrative.

By incorporating these elements into a narrative writing anchor chart, students can refer to it as a constant reminder of the key components and techniques needed for successful storytelling. This visual aid can be a valuable resource in fostering a supportive and creative writing environment in the upper elementary classroom.

More Posts about Narrative Writing

• 20 Inviting Narrative Writing Example Prompts for Upper Elementary Students
• Vocabulary Words for 6th Graders Can Be Exciting and as Simple as 1-2-3
• 4 Exciting Prompts for Narrative Writing That Will Spark Creativity
• A Useful Guide to Using a Narrative Writing Graphic Organizer for Kids

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4th Grade Anchor Charts: 24 Ideas For Math, Science, Arts, And Other Subjects

January 22, 2024 //  by  Eileen Zajac

Throughout my teaching career, I’ve learned that anchor charts are a sure-fire way to reinforce lessons I’m teaching in the classroom. Whether I’m using a pre-made anchor chart or a chart made in collaboration with the class, I know how much it’s helping my visual learners.

These charts are quite simple to make and they can be used for any subject. Stretching from math all the way to fostering social-emotional learning. Keep reading this blog post to see 25 favorite anchor charts for your 4th grade classroom !

Reading and Writing

1. reading is thinking.

Boost your student’s reading skills with this anchor chart poster. Create this with your class collaboratively to make sure students understand how to read strategically.

Source: Balanced Literacy

2. What’s Real, What’s not? 

This is for all of those fabulous teachers who LOVE watching your 4th-grade students grow into strong readers. Use this anchor chart philosophy as a mini-lesson to teach your students real reading v.s. fake Reading.

Source: Head Over Heels for Teaching

3. Theme V.S. Main Idea

Theme and Main Idea are constantly confused in reading and writing. Start your kids off strong with a clear, visually distinguishing difference.

Source: Team Togetherness

4. Making Connections

This is a handy chart that can be used throughout the year and throughout your classroom. It’s important for students to use language anchor charts like this to properly comprehend what they’re reading. Try making personal anchor charts for the library or student notebooks!

Source: Pinterest

5. Bye Bye Nondescription

4th grade is a time to build strong writers. This perfect anchor chart will be a reminder to students of which words we’re saying goodbye to this year!

Source: OneStopTeacherShop

6. Paragraph Planning

Bring about the power of anchor charts and students’ understanding of graphic organizer use will be sure to improve! Any primary teacher is sure to love it.

7. Modify or Describe? 

Teaching your 4th graders about adverbs can be a daunting task. A great introduction lesson to an adverbs unit would be to help students distinguish between adverbs that modify and adverbs that describe.

Here’s an idea provides an awesome anchor chart that does just that!

8. Prefixes and Suffixes Anchor Chart

A Mini-Lesson or reminder lesson on prefixes and suffixes is super important for all elementary grades. This type of anchor chart will serve as a reminder to students while completing independent work.

9. Context Clues Anchor Chart

This is a creative, colorful, and well-made anchor chart that will be sure to help your students understand context clues.

Source: Teach Starter

10. Long Division

Keeping engaged students during lessons on long division can be difficult. Incorporate some sticky notes and this fun anchor chart to receive student input and foster student independence.

Source: TeachersPayTeachers

Providing visuals can be a perfect reminder for students to perform their multiplication and division according to the common core.

12. KEYWORDS

Keywords are some of the most helpful and crucial parts for solving word problems. This is a favorite anchor chart because it is such a great independent resource for students during our word problem units!

Source: Fabulous Finch Facts

13. CUBES Chart

This CUBES chart is a colorful and well-made anchor chart that will serve as a generous reminder for students when solving word problems.

Source: Teaching With a Mountain View

14. Vertical and Horizontal 

This simple anchor chart wall decal can be used throughout the entire year. To engrain horizontal and vertical into your student’s minds. Constantly seeing this will give the constant reminder in their brains.

Science and Social

15. teaching behaviors.

Inherited and Learned behaviors are an important part of the science curriculum. Help students understand and differentiate the two by using a poster like this!

16. Structures and Functions

This eye-catching anchor chart will allow students to connect words and pictures throughout this science unit.

17. The Water Cycle

Make this diagram of The Water Cycle throughout an entire unit on anchor chart paper. Adding more and more after each science lesson. At the end of the unit have students create their own flipbook to match!

Source: Mrs. Martin’s Science Classroom

18. The Scientific Method

This is one of those charts that might just hang out in your collection of anchor charts. It’s one that’s important to have around, and will most definitely get used at some point throughout the school year.

Source: Springfield Catholic Schools

19. American Symbols

Instead of spending hours of lesson planning have students create their own excellent anchor charts displaying the American symbols! Have students each create their own and present it to the class.

Source: Elementary Nest

20. Water and Landforms

This anchor chart follows with the common core and can go along wonderfully with a book of your choosing. Printing smaller versions for students can be very beneficial!

Source: Mrs. Richardsons Class

21. Super Citizen

Fellow teachers will love this great chart interactive! A super citizen chart not only portrays character traits of a great Citizen but will also be sure to leave an imprint for students.

22. Culture

Culture is so much fun to learn about! Some great lesson ideas stem from these types of charts. Use this as a student reference for presenting material about culture.

Source: 4th Grade in Ya Face

A Successful Classroom 

23. mini-lesson groups.

At the beginning of the year, all of my fellow teachers know the importance of reminding students what it looks like to work in groups. Make this chart an interactive anchor chart by having your 4th graders come up with their own anchor chart ideas using sticky notes!

Source: Beyond Traditional Math

24. Character Traits Anchor Chart

Being a positive classmate might be difficult in 4th grade. Completing this chart together with your students will be a great way to remind and also a great reference for students!

Source: Crocket Classroom

25. Our Classroom

Building a positive classroom atmosphere is so important in 4th grade. Start the year off strong by using creative classroom management strategies, like this cute chart.

Source: Proud to be Primary

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Opinion Writing Unit FOURTH GRADE

Grade Level: 4th Grade

My fourth grade opinion writing unit includes 8 weeks of done-for-you writing lessons about how to write a strong opinion essay . This unit contains detailed lesson plans, mentor texts, anchor charts, student writing tasks, and rubrics –everything you need to be a capable, confident writing teacher with students who love to write.

More about this resource

If teaching writing has ever made you cry, weep, tear out your hair, question your existence, or binge-watch reality television—because it’s just that frustrating and overwhelming—this writing unit is perfect for you. 

If your students dread writing time more than meatloaf in the school cafeteria…this writing unit is perfect for them, too. 

Teaching writing can be tough. Teachers tell me that their district-provided writing curriculum is:

• too complicated

Or worse, they don’t have any curriculum at all. Yikes! 

But my fourth grade opinion writing unit makes teaching writing easy . It takes all the guesswork out of teaching writing and gives you the tools you need to teach engaging and effective writing lessons without breaking a sweat.

The ready-to-use lessons and activities in this opinion writing unit will teach your students h ow to use supporting facts, reasons, and examples, consider opposing viewpoints, write topic and concluding sentences, and structure paragraphs . And all you have to do is print and teach . The lesson plans are that simple. Seriously.

Student-friendly mentor texts  make it easy to provide illustrative examples of new writing skills. You don’t have to waste your time and money hunting down just the right book.   Focused mini lessons  and  daily writing tasks  simplify the writing process helping ALL students, even reluctant writers, experience success.  Preprinted anchor charts  make it easy to model new skills and engage in shared writing without wasting valuable time.

And best of all, my opinion writing unit  makes writing fun  for  ALL  your students – from  reluctant writers  to  excited writers . The  Student Success Path  helps you identify where your students are on their writing journey and plan just-right lessons and  interventions .  Short, focused lessons  keep students engaged. Simple, direct writing tasks help kids develop confidence.  Conference materials,  including outlines and topic cards, you can use to guide small group discussion make it easy for you to  differentiate lessons.

Choice empowers students  to write about things they care about and makes them more invested in their writing. And that’s a big deal because  students who enjoy writing and get lots of practice perform better on standardized testing.

Plus, these materials are  easy-to-use . Everything is organized in folders to help you find just what you need. A  Quick Start Guide  makes it simple to get started and provides tips on how to prep materials for long-term use.

The 2-week  Starting Writing Workshop mini-unit  will help you start your writing instruction on the right foot. Detailed teacher directions show you exactly how to use all the resources and activities.

How Our Writing Curriculum is Aligned with the Science of Reading :

• Structured writing routine: Our writing curriculum is organized into 4 genres. Each 8-week unit is carefully structured, beginning with foundational skills before moving into more advanced skills. Students are taught a systematic approach to writing including: brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
• Explicit instruction: Daily lessons begin with explicit instruction including access to examples via mentor texts, modeling, and directed practice. Each skill is broken down into bite-size pieces so that students can learn one skill at a time. Students practice skills independently, working on one sentence or paragraph at a time.
• Differentiation: Writing is differentiated through small group instruction that provides reteaching, additional practice, and support at appropriate levels.
• Daily opportunities to write: The majority of the writing lesson is reserved for independent writing time, providing students with large blocks of time to write and practice skills every day. 
• Demonstrates the connection between reading and writing: Mentor texts provide concrete examples of writing skills and allow children to experiment with and apply sophisticated skills and language in their own writing. In addition, constructing their own writing pieces helps students recognize, connect, and understand these strategies when reading.  

What’s Included:

• Detailed teacher directions and suggestions for simple implementation
• Unit-at-a-glance calendar for each unit
• 7 exclusive videos walking you through how to get the most out of these writing units
• 40 days of lesson plans that include guiding questions, materials, mini lessons, student work tasks, student share tasks, intervention, and several extension activities
• 14 original mentor text passages
• 24 opinion writing task cards (identifying whether a topic is an opinion)
• 24 opinion writing prompts task cards
• 11 teacher anchor charts (blank and filled in versions)
• Student anchor charts and printable for writing notebooks
• Conference and goal tracking forms
• Writing grades tracking forms
• List of 10 additional mentor text books (Remember, using them is optional, because I’ve included all the mentor texts you need) 
• 6 different writing publishing papers
• Student writing notebook cover and dividers
• Teacher notebook covers and binder spines
• Multiple ideas for author share celebration
• DIGITAL writing notebooks on Google Slides
• Conferencing Materials – Conference outlines, a sample conference, and topic cards you can use to guide your small-group conferences
• Student Success Path – Identify where your students are on their writing journey
• Starting Writing Workshop Bonus – Two weeks of writing lesson plans to help build stamina and set your students up for writing success

Skills Covered:

Students learn h ow to craft a strong opinion essay using supporting facts, reasons, and examples, topic and concluding sentences, and structured paragraphs. Lessons include:

• Setting goals
• What is an opinion essay?
• Generating essay ideas
• Writing strong opinion statements
• Writing a lead
• Supporting your opinion with reasons
• Considering your audience
• Consider opposing opinions
• Supporting your opinion with examples
• Topic and concluding sentences
• Word choice
• Transitions
• Writing a conclusion
• Generating deeper topics (research based)

How to Use it in the Classroom: 

A typical day of writing:.

I recommend you set aside thirty minutes for writing each day (or more if you have it). Check out the sample schedules below. Each day follows the same plan:

• Mini-Lesson (8-10 minutes):  The day kicks off with a mini-lesson to teach a particular skill. The mini-lesson uses mentor text (remember, it’s included in the unit) and anchor charts. For the teacher version of the anchor charts, you can project and fill them out with the class, or print and display them in your classroom. The student versions are smaller so they can fill them out and keep them in their writing notebooks for reference.
• Work Time (18-20 minutes) : Students will apply the skill they just learned into their writing each day. The included writing tasks make it crystal-clear what to do during independent writing time–for you and your students. By the end of the unit, they will have completed two full masterpieces and many other independent writings.
• Share Time (2 minutes) : Students are encouraged to share a piece of their writing with a partner or with the entire class. This makes writing more meaningful to kids and holds them accountable.

Organization Made Easy:

• The opinion writing unit is organized into multiple folders and files so it’s easy for you to find what you need.
• A 40-day daily schedule so you know exactly what to teach each day.
• Detailed daily lesson plans make teaching writing easy.

Differentiation:

There are many ways to differentiate writing assignments:

• Use the Student Success Path to identify where students are on their writing journey and use the suggested interventions to modify lessons.
• These daily writing prompts are intentionally short and sweet so that all students, even those below grade level, can feel successful. Most tasks can be completed in 1-2 sentences.
• More advanced writers can write longer responses, or work on a second masterpiece if they finish early.
• Students can complete fewer task cards or work with a partner; you can also provide support to students as they work on task cards.
• The process for teaching writing includes group conferencing time. These groups should be based on ability so that you can individualize your instruction to meet the specific needs of the group. Use the topic cards to guide your small group lessons.

Why you’ll love this writing unit: 

• You’ll save hours of prepping and planning time. The daily lesson plans are easy to implement. All you have to do is print and teach. 
• Mentor texts are included. You do not need to hunt down or purchase any additional books! (Unless you want to. Far be it from me to stand between a teacher and new books.) 
• Digital anchor charts project onto your white board-so you don’t have to be Picasso or Renoir to anchor your kids in the lesson.
• Pre-printed student anchor charts make it easy for students to follow along without having to write every word and draw complicated diagrams.
• Digital student notebooks are perfect for 1:1 classrooms and a great way to save paper.
• These lessons work for all students, even students below grade level.
• Task cards incorporate movement, reinforce concepts, and make learning fun. Daily share time encourages students to take pride in their writing.
• Direct writing instruction provides a solid foundation of writing skills that leads to increased test scores.
• Aligned with the Science of Reading.

*****************************

More Fourth Grade Writing Units:

Personal Narrative for Fourth Grade

Informational Writing for Fourth Grade

Fiction Narrative for Fourth Grade

Frequently Asked

Yes. I also have personal narrative , informational essay , and fiction narrative writing units available.

This opinion writing unit is available for grade 4. I also have opinion writing units available for grades two , three , and five .

I prefer composition notebooks because they are sturdy and easy to use and store. But other teachers have used spiral bound notebooks or three-ring binders.

Yes. These writing lessons are based on Common Core standards.

The lessons for consecutive grade levels are very similar because the standards are similar. The biggest difference is that the reading level on the mentor text passages is modified to meet the specific grade level. Other differences include new examples in the lesson plans and anchor charts and new task cards. It is generally fine to use units that are one level above or below grade level. You might want to select the lower grade level to ensure that the mentor texts are easier for students to read.

Each unit includes eight weeks of materials. I recommend spending 30-45 on writing each day. The lesson takes 8-10 minutes and the rest of the time would be used for independent writing.

Students complete two masterpieces in each unit. But they may work on additional pieces if they finish daily assignments early.

My writing units are a standalone curriculum. They are not based on or aligned with any other curriculum. However, they are based on the writing standards. My curriculum is organized into units of study and formatted in the workshop model and hundreds of teachers have successfully used my writing units with their district provided curriculum.

My writing units are a standalone curriculum. They are not based on or aligned with any other curriculum. With that being said, I have hundreds of teachers who have chosen to use my units as a supplement to their Lucy curriculum because it is more manageable and engaging for students.

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Essential Opinion Writing Anchor Charts

January 18, 2023 | Leave a Comment

Opinion writing anchor charts are a must-have in my classroom. While I don’t usually feel I have the time in my day to make a cute anchor chart, I like to project my charts during lessons. 

The opinion writing anchor charts that I'll walk you through today are posted in my room during my opinion writing unit for students to reference frequently. I just simply print them from my computer rather than hand make them.

Understanding Facts and Opinions

When introducing opinion writing, I like to go over what makes an opinion. For me, that is teaching my students to recognize a fact versus an opinion. Although it seems like a simple concept, the majority of my second graders struggle with this. 

Reviewing my opinion and fact charts each day during my lessons, helps them grasp the difference. Every time I review these opinion writing anchor charts, I provide specific kid-friendly examples. 

• I believe slime is horrible.
• I feel there should be longer recess times.
• I think second grade is the best grade.

Using these examples are always guaranteed to get my students joining in on the conversation.

Stating an Opinion

After I teach my students how to identify between facts and opinions, the next step is to teach the introduction. In my second grade class the introduction and stating their opinion is taught as the same thing. I tell them, “When you state your opinion, you are introducing it.” 

As I move through my opinion unit, we expand on the introduction to be part of a paragraph. Like most of my lessons we take small steps to get to our end goal. My opinion writing anchor charts are kept simple so students can focus on the one skill I want them to learn for the lesson (or lessons).

Proving Reasons for an Opinion

Are you noticing a pattern? My recommended opinion writing anchor charts are taken from the Common Core Standards. Each poster is based on one of the necessary skills that the standard requires students to learn and this next anchor chart is no different.

After we talk about what our opinion is and stating it, we move onto providing reasons for our opinion. This is perhaps my most simple anchor chart where students learn the answer to the question “Why?” is providing the reason. I like to put the linking words on the chart to help students get started in providing multiple reasons.

Using Linking Words

Now of course my second graders need a bit more discussion and practice with linking words than the previous opinion writing anchor chart. For second grade I am pushing my students beyond first, next, and last linking words they hopefully learned in first grade. First grade teachers, take note!

Using the linking words anchor chart during my opinion writing unit, I am wanting students to learn that different linking words are used for different parts of the writing piece. I designed this anchor chart with that in mind and labeled the linking words for reasons and conclusions. 

Writing a Conclusion

The last of the essential opinion writing anchor charts is writing a conclusion. I actually have a series of anchor charts for conclusions as they can be a difficult concept for second graders. I like to be explicit in my lessons that the introduction and conclusion are closely related sentences.

My initial anchor chart for conclusions shows students a visual of where they can find a conclusion. The second anchor chart I introduce references an introductory sentence and a concluding sentence so I can point out the different word choices between the sentences. I really want students to see this relationship between the two sentences.

Want Ready-to-Use Opinion Writing Anchor Charts with a Full Curriculum?

You can be one of the first to get my Second Grade Opinion Writing Unit when it is ready at the end of January 2023. I am pre-selling it in my store now. This unit includes over 300 teacher slides walking you step-by-step through all the mini lessons, student worksheets in print and digital formats, and printable anchor charts (including the ones in this post). 

Check it out by clicking on the picture below.

Related Post: How to Teach Opinion Writing in Primary Grades

What anchor charts do you feel are essential when teaching opinion writing? Feel free to share below!

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Shared Ideas

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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7 strong narrative writing anchor charts.

Narrative Writing is my personal favorite type of writing to teach. The creativity and possibilities that come with this type of writing are endless! Today, we are going to take a look at 7 strong anchor charts for teaching narrative writing. Anchor charts are always a great tool for introducing or even revisiting a skill. In this case, the anchor charts are going to help students better understand the requirements and structure of narrative writing.

Introduce the Narrative Writing Structure

First, students will need to know what Narrative Writing is! Students will be tasked with writing narrative stories throughout their education. The anchor chart above divides the topic into personal and fictional narrative writing. Initially, students will be writing stories about events that they experienced, personal narratives. However, writing those personal stories will help students develop writing skills that will enhance their fictional narratives, too!

Next, you will want to show students the narrative writing structure. This anchor chart displays the narrative writing structure as a hamburger [or veggie burger :)]. I like to think that this structure image helps students remember that you can fill your burger with yummy ingredients (events and details), but it also needs a top and bottom (an introduction and conclusion).

Teach Students to Focus on Small Moments

Now, students will need help narrowing their writing ideas down to a specific event. This concept is more difficult for students to understand than one would think. So, we like to use a watermelon as a metaphor.

The whole watermelon represents a broad topic or big idea, like “Summer.” You wouldn’t want to write about your entire summer in one story. So, you take a slice out of that watermelon. Maybe your family took a trip or did something fun together over the summer. The slice may represent a “Family Trip.” Within that slice, there are seeds or specific events/things that were memorable on the trip. For example, maybe it was your first time riding a big roller coaster, you made a friend at the playground, built a sandcastle at the beach, made cookies with your grandmother, etc.

Choosing one of those memories and zooming in on the details and feelings of the moment will make for a much better story than simply writing about summer.

Focus on Aspects of the Body of Writing

Our next Narrative Writing Anchor Chart will focus in on the Body of the piece. This will be all of those yummy ingredients within your story burger! You will want students to remember that a story has a beginning, middle, and end. They also need to know that within those parts, there needs to be detail and description that engages the reader. *This chart can also be made with a simple, 3-row chart where you could provide an example of each event with details. OR laminate it and reuse it over and over!

Feelings and actions are very important to narrative writing. I recommend having a mini-lesson where students can get involved in the making of a feelings and actions anchor chart. Discuss different feelings and emotions you may experience during a memorable event. Then, talk about the actions that you may do during the event or during those emotions.

Teaching Introductions and Conclusions Explicitly

Finally, you are going to need to talk about those buns! The introduction and conclusion parts of your story burger are just as important as the middle. Many times, it is more effective to write introductions and conclusions after the body of the piece has been written. Be sure to provide examples of different types of hooks and closings from narrative stories you may have read. This is a great opportunity to refer back to mentor texts you have already read. Revisiting just the introduction and conclusion, students will remember how those stories were as readers. It will help them, creatively, and keep them developing their skill!

These simple narrative writing anchor charts are going to be great tools to refer back to throughout the year!

Interested in Free Graphic Organizers for Your Writing Unit?

Or do you want ready-made lesson plans for narrative writing.

If you’re interested in getting your students to master writing without having to spend hours on planning and prep, I have all-inclusive units for you! These no-prep units have everything you need to teach opinion writing in your classroom!

Narrative Units come complete with anchor charts, lesson plans, graphic organizers, writing prompts, and more! Click the button for your grade-level below:

Want to learn more about teaching Narrative Writing?

• Mentor Texts for Narrative Writing
• How to Teach Narrative Writing
• The Importance of Pre-Writing
• Read more about: Anchor Charts , Common Core Aligned , Writing Blog Posts

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Teaching with Jennifer Findley

Upper Elementary Teaching Blog

Persuasive Writing Anchor Charts for Struggling Writers {Lots of Pictures}

Here are some of my favorite persuasive writing anchor charts that I have used to help my struggling writers write strong, detailed persuasive papers. These charts contain a lot of sentence stems and step by step directions for each paragraph. It may seem a bit formulaic in nature, but once the students feel comfortable, they will branch out and add their own style and unique voice.

Here is a brainstorming poster. A Yes/No chart is one way that I teach students to organize their thoughts before they begin writing. This particular prompt showed a picture of an old, abandoned house and had the students determining if the local children should be allowed to play in the house.

After the students brainstorm several reasons for each side of the argument and they choose a side, we move into writing a clear and strong position statement. Here are some of the stems I offer the students as options.

After the students have a solid position statement, we move into our introductory paragraph (nicknamed Top Bun from a hamburger model). I instruct the students to explain what the situation or problem is then to state their position. Finally, they finish their top bun by listing out their three main reasons in a sentence.

Before writing the body paragraphs (or Juicy Middle), we make a chart together with opinion words and phrases to link reasons and details together.

Next, we move into different details that the students can use to support their reasons. This is a chart that I print for the students to glue in their interactive notebooks. Click here to download this printable. At this point, I tell my students about the Power of 3: 3 reasons with 3 supporting details for each reason. Using the charts to guide them, they write their body paragraphs (using transition words and phrases and varying details).

If you want the prompt pages that go along with this download, click here to subscribe to my newsletter to have access to my freebie library. The prompt is an an older newsletter freebie that is now available in my exclusive freebie library for email subscribers only.

Finally, we discuss the concluding paragraph (Bottom Bun).  This is where I tell my students to mention the “nod to the other side” or counter argument and prove it incorrect. Then they restate their main point and end their essay. I also offer a few suggestions with ways to end the paper.

These anchor charts and scaffolds have worked wonders with my struggling writers in the past. Do you have any charts or scaffolds that help your students write persuasively?

Share the Knowledge!

Reader interactions, 13 comments.

November 22, 2015 at 10:13 pm

November 23, 2015 at 7:18 pm

You are very welcome, Collette!

February 12, 2016 at 12:41 am

Hi Jennifer I just subscribed to your blog and pages but cant find where to download the persuasive writing prompts from last year

February 13, 2016 at 9:30 am

Hi Elizabeth, you can access it by signing up for my newsletter at the link below. Once you sign up, the first email you get will have directions for accessing the freebie library where you can find the prompt. it is a Halloween Persuasive Writing prompt but can be used at any point of the year.

http://teachingtoinspire.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3277466fc24e8e08f8d489936&id=939cf54793

February 13, 2016 at 8:26 pm

Ok. Thanks. I got that but was interested in the poster type help which I first saw on Pinterest. Is that available to print.

February 15, 2016 at 11:21 am

Oh I am sorry. I was confused by what you were asking for and still am a little. Are you referring to this poster? https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8DtIUhMGc9qMG1nalRmNWhMaWs/view

February 15, 2016 at 2:29 pm

Oh dear. Going round in circles. I think you call them anchor charts. Or brainstorming charts. There are 5 I believe , relating to the hamburger bun poster. Yes/no, statement etc. they’re above on this page. Handwritten on large sheets.

February 15, 2016 at 3:54 pm

Okay, I understand now. Unfortunately, I don’t the anchor charts available in a printable form. You are free to print the pictures from the blog for reference or retype them for your own use. Glad we were able to finally get on the same page. 😀

December 7, 2016 at 9:01 am

Hello, Jennifer. I’m a Third Grade teacher and am loving your blog. Thank you for reaching out and supporting us. I am looking for better ways to teach Information Reading and Writing, specially Text Structures. Do you have any tips?

October 25, 2017 at 6:46 pm

I’ve tried 3 times now, with 2 different email addresses to sign up for you freebie newsletter and it is not working. I am not receiving an email. Is the freebie library not an option anymore? Or has it changed in some way?

Thanks, Jessica

May 12, 2020 at 9:04 am

Hi Jennifer! I just subscribed to your blog and started following your TPT account! I am loving the amazing resources I am finding here! I am currently teaching 6th grade math at a middle school, but am changing schools after this year because of changes I don’t agree with (Who knows what education will look like with the pandemic though.). Anyway, I have accepted a position at an elementary school and will teach 5th grade. Even though I have K-6 licensing, I have have always taught departmentalized in my short career. I say all that to say THANK YOU for this blog! It is already easing my fears as I look through many of your posts. I am already starting to work through how I might teach the core subjects and what items I want to purchase through TPT.

October 25, 2020 at 6:49 pm

HI, I had a question about your abandoned house writing slide. I am new to teaching fifth grade and writing and was wondering if it is asking students to write five paragraphs or just three.

September 25, 2021 at 2:07 pm

This was super awesome! I just did a quick write on persuasive writing to see where my students are at…CLEARLY, they need these anchor charts. THANK YOU!

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I’m Jennifer Findley: a teacher, mother, and avid reader. I believe that with the right resources, mindset, and strategies, all students can achieve at high levels and learn to love learning. My goal is to provide resources and strategies to inspire you and help make this belief a reality for your students.

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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

More about this resource

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

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “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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Great Expository Nonfiction Anchor Chart

Expository or informational text can be challenging for students if they are unfamiliar with nonfiction text features. Therefore, it is important to help students understand these text features when teaching nonfiction texts. Using an expository nonfiction anchor chart can be very beneficial to your students.

Creating an anchor chart does not have to be time-consuming and difficult. Also, don’t feel that you have to draw everything free-hand.

To make this anchor chart, I found a copy of a nonfiction book that I had in my classroom and did the unthinkable:  I cut it apart!

This book on volcanoes had excellent examples of expository text features:

• bright photographs
• colorful headings
• bold-faced/highlighted words

Expository Nonfiction Anchor Chart

Another advantage of choosing this wonderful book for my expository nonfiction anchor chart was that I had several copies on my shelf, so I still had plenty of books that I could use in small groups or that students could read independently.

I have to admit, I debated several minutes before I actually took my scissors and began cutting, but after I saw the end result of the anchor chart and after the students oohed and awed over it, I knew that this book was benefiting the students much more as an anchor chart than it had on my shelf. Yes, I think it was a brave move, but I have no regrets. 

I used this expository nonfiction anchor chart as a class introduction to expository nonfiction texts and the students referred to it in several activities that we did in class.  Use this anchor chart in a variety of ways. Here are a few suggestions.

• With an introductory mini-lesson
• With review lessons
• In small groups
• As a reference for a text features scavenger hunt
• As reference for mini-lessons on each type of text feature

If you feel brave, try creating an anchor chart of your own. I think it will be worth it!

For another article on ideas for teaching nonfiction, check out this article on reading strategies .

Have a blessed day!

• Read more about: anchor charts , reading , Uncategorized

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What's Skow-ing on in 4th Grade??

A blog about the 4th grade classroom of Mrs. Skowronski

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Anchor charts for writing.

5 comments:

I'm glad you found the ARMS/CUPS useful!! I definitely have found them helpful with 4th graders! Welcome to blogland!! Tammy Confessions of a Fourth Grade Teacher

Wonderful writing resources. Thanks so much for sharing. :) Antoinette and EmilyK

I am in LUV with these charts! Thank u 4 sharing!

What great charts! I'm finally starting up a writers workshop model and I am so glad to have found your post with wonderful ideas! Thanks!

Home » Anchor Charts » 9 Compare And Contrast Anchor Charts with Resources

9 Compare And Contrast Anchor Charts with Resources

Pitting two things against each other sounds like a strange thing to do in class. When students compare and contrast two texts, that is essentially what they are doing. You can use anchor charts as a visual aid or reference to help students learn to look at two texts critically to find differences and similarities.

In this post, I discuss what should go into a compare and contrast anchor chart and give you some examples of useful charts. There are resources you can access from TeachSimple. Others are ideas you can adapt to your classroom.

Table of Contents

The elements of a good compare and contrast anchor chart, resources on compare and contrast, final thoughts on compare and contrast anchor charts.

A good compare and contrast anchor chart should make it absolutely clear what the two ideas mean. This can be something like: ‘compare’ means to look for similarities and ‘contrast’ is to look for what is different.

Any good anchor chart must be set out efficiently and use elements like font, color and shape to organize the content. With a subject like compare and contrast, this is especially important, as the students will be learning to work with two texts separately and then together. The anchor chart can use columns to separate the texts . A different color for each text is also useful, so is using different colors for differences and similarities. Essentially, a good compare and contrast anchor chart should be highly visual.

The chart must make provision for being able to work with specific texts. There are some different approaches you can use to achieve this. The chart could have a blank space at the bottom, where you can fill in information about different texts. Another effective way of doing this is to have two columns on the chart, labelled ‘similarities’ and ‘differences’. The students could fill in the two columns from specific texts. You can also have a grid that features the texts and similarities and differences.

One element that a number of compare and contrast anchor charts features is that of two circles that intersect. Each circle represents a text. The students would fill in the points about each text in the relevant circle. These are the differences between the texts. The intersection between the two circles is the space to fill in the similarities between them.

So many of my students don’t understand how to compare and contrast effectively. It’s a natural step from analyzing a text (or other source) and picking out similarities and differences should not be difficult. I’ve selected some resources that will give you ideas to help your students develop this skill.

Compare and Contrast Anchor Chart

This anchor chart is useful when you are teaching your students to compare and contrast two things. It is aimed at grades 1 – 3. There are four charts in the set that you can display in your classroom. I suggest beginning by working on the charts themselves with the students, so they can be guided to fill them in. This will make sure that they are involved, and invested, in the activities. You can also use the exercises and examples on the charts for ideas for worksheets for the students.

Authors Claim Anchor Chart

This resource consists of four anchor charts which allow the students to understand how authors give reasons to support their points. They are aimed at grades 1 – 4. The key to the process is for students to find keywords that relate to the claims the author makes. They apply this to two texts, to be able to compare them and also find the contrasts between them. The language in the charts may be a little sophisticated for the lower grades, but you can adapt it and keep the same ideas. This is a valuable resource for beginning the process of analysis, which could be adapted for higher grades as well.

Compare and Contrast Diagram

This is a great basic resource for students to use when they are working on comparing and contrasting two texts, or two versions of the same text. The circles with the intersection is the perfect graphic representation of differences and similarities. The chart gives cue words to direct the students in their analysis. It is aimed at grades 2 – 4. By adjusting the topic and the signal words, it can be used to teach any student in any grade the techniques of comparing and contrasting.

Compare & Contrast by Elementary Nest

When you look for an anchor chart that will introduce compare and contrast skills, this is a good starting point. The main attraction is its simplicity. The table with two columns brings together the very basics of the process of contrasting and comparing. This is a starting point for younger grades, a revision for middle grades, and the basis of independent work for higher grades.

Compare and Contrast Story elements anchor chart

This resource presents the Compare and Contrast Story Elements. It is quite a busy chart, but the layout and the use of colors and fonts does organize the content quite well. It is the sort of chart you would build up with your students and then display as a reference in the class.

Comparing Characters Graphic Organizer

Students may be asked to compare and contrast whole texts, or elements of a text at times. This chart on Comparing Characters is very simple, but an excellent starting point for a focused look at two features of a text. You can adapt it to just about any element of two texts or subjects. I suggest working on filling in the first chart, so that it becomes a true anchor for the students’ individual work on other texts.

Comparing and Contrasting Stories by Grade School Giggles

This is a truly interactive and fun activity to teach Comparing and Contrasting. The anchor chart itself is a bright and adaptable base. What really appeals to me, though, is the way you can use sticky notes, or pieces of paper and even the texts themselves in the circles. The two plastic hoops are a lovely touch. The students have to engage with the chart and the activity for it to work. I know this is aimed at lower grades, but just love the idea of higher grades getting ‘down and dirty’ with texts to compare and contrast them.

Compare & Contrast Non Fiction Text Structures by Raise the bar reading

Your students will be tasked to work with different types of texts. This resource is about how to Compare and Contrast non-fiction texts and is a more formal approach to what can be a methodical and precise process. The basic chart will work well as a template for activities with different texts. The bottom half of the chart can be left blank for different texts to be filled in.

Most students understand the idea of looking for ‘what is the same and what is different’ between two things. They aren’t always able to articulate this as ‘compare and contrast’. Using anchor charts can help them to understand the basic concepts and to apply them more effectively.

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Jane B has been in education for 37 years, teaching at all levels of school and at university, with extensive experience in developing educational resources.

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Last Updated on July 18, 2023 by Teach Simple