Learning Math Anchor Charts

Anchor charts are a way to summarize learning that you wish to preserve, build from, or be able to reference.  While they started out in my classroom as lists or concept maps, students building from previous students' work have started edging into metaphor territory as well.  I had the camera with me to capture the charts, and the students wanted to present them, so I taped it.  I think it would have been more valuable to capture them working on it.  The worked very intently, quickly going from "what does he mean?" and "what did we do about this?" to debating relative importance and discussing key features.  Very cool.

The research they're referencing includes:

• Conditions of Learning by Brian Cambourne 
• Relational/Instrumental Understanding by Richard Skemp
• The Learning Principle by the NCTM
• "Active Learning of Mathematics" by Jim Smith, in the March 1996 Mathematics Teaching or the October 1999 Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
• Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. (My favorite article about this.)

The video with the students explaining their posters is below the poster images.













This is a solar system model - a little hard to see. They had fun developing the metaphor and the extending it. Used the idea of earth, other planets, the sun, constellations to all symbolize different roles.

















(Students knew they were being taped for publication, and had a later chance to withdraw.)