Visual Journal Entry 1

My first “Visual Journal” entry is on the topic of anchor charts, because this method of learning strikes me as an effective tool to use in the classroom. Some ways in which anchor charts can serve as a student tool include: studying for exams, summarizing readings, and presenting knowledge to others. First off, exams and tests can be a source of anxiety for secondary school students. Having gone through high school, and also having witnessed some classes at Vic High on Wednesdays, there is often a lot of information presented to youth in a short amount of time. Anchor charts can serve as an effective tool to categorize the main points required to know for a test, as well as their connections to each other. Secondly, anchor charts can be an effective way to summarize readings. As mentioned in the EDCI 352 classroom, certain people prefer learning visually over learning by written text. Visual learning can help with future memory of a topic. Therefore, summarizing readings into an anchor chart can help students with creating a visual representation of text. Finally, anchor charts can be a valuable way to present knowledge to peers, teachers, or parents. As a future teacher, getting students to make anchor charts for test review or a reading summary can demonstrate whether or not students have grasped a topic.

I have witnessed the effectiveness of anchor charts in two ways so far: in my personal use in the EDCI 352 classroom, and in scholastic readings online. As seen in the example image attached, our EDCI 352 class made anchor charts for the various dimensions of the multiliteracy framework. This helped to summarize the class readings, as well as present and share our knowledge with the rest of the class. I found this very helpful to grasp the main points of the article and to feel a sense of teamwork with the rest of the class. It was also interesting to read about the multiple uses for anchor charts in the article “Anchor Charts as an Effective Teacher/Student Tool.” As a future teacher, it is helpful to see the many ways that anchor charts can be used in the classroom according to this article. For example, anchor charts can be used to present a lesson plan for the day, to display classroom rules, or to make assignment checklists, ways which I have not yet explored in my personal use.

As a final thought, I would like to talk about one particular topic we made an anchor chart for in the EDCI 352 classroom: “Conceptualizing by naming.” I witnessed this method of teaching while observing a Biology 11 class and it seemed to be very effective. The teacher had students look at various organisms and try to name them, as well as attempt to group them based on their similarities to each other. The class was able to work on many attributes of the “conceptualizing by naming” practice, such as: identifying similarities and differences, categorizing with labels, drawing distinctions, and developing specialized vocabulary. This categorical naming exercise provided clarity and insight on the topic at hand, and overall seemed very effective.