Guru Anchor Charts for a Student Centered Classroom

Why Use Guru Anchor Charts?

These Guru Anchor Charts will feature your student as a reading comprehension guru for your class! If you want to keep your students engaged and taking ownership of their learning in your student-centered classroom, this is for you.

Let your kids help you “teach” the class and make learning permanent when using Guru Anchor Charts. Learning will linger and will be made permanent when students are “in charge”.

Now, they aren’t really teaching the lesson. YOU are, but they will help you facilitate the lesson.

Each anchor chart is designed to introduce a reading strategy or skill. The language used is simplistic yet sophisticated for young readers to understand testing vocabulary while also learning how recognize and identify which strategy to use while reading, testing or when simply enjoying a good book.

The visuals included on each anchor chart help children understand and conceptualize the strategy. They allow visual learners to attach meaning to the strategy or skill.

For example, our Visualization Guru taught the class that while reading, the author paints a picture in your mind using descriptive language. Each sequence of events is like a mind movie. Each mental image made comes together to tell the story. When the author paints a picture in your mind, you make a mental image and when those images come together its like a movie in your mind.

Like popping popcorn…. each mental image changes. The plot thickens, the stories evolves!

Gurus Make Learning Personal

Throughout the year, when you are asking children questions that require them to identify cause and effect relationships, to infer context clues or determine importance in a text, etc. Pause your instruction and thoughtfully ask, “Maybe the class guru can help us understand this question?” The class will instantly call out their peers name and identify the guru. The guru beams and the children take note of:

who is the guru?….
the guru of what strategy?
what is the strategy?
why is it important?
how can I remember next time?

Which results in the children having a deeper understanding of many reading strategies to help improve their reading comprehension.

Because now it is…. PERSONAL, relatable and meaningful.

Find the Guru Anchor charts HERE.

How Are They Used?

When it is time to introduce a new reading strategy, create the anchor chart and place it on display backwards. The children like to guess who is the next guru. When it is time for the big reveal, ask “Drumroll please?” and after a sufficient amount of time of lap clapping, flip the poster over and reveal the next guru.

Pause for cheers and a little bit of blushing.

Announce that today, “so and so” will help us learn a new reading strategy/skill to help us become better readers.

The anchor charts are designed to help teach the reading lesson. Follow the simple lesson plan provided in the resource. Have the guru help you read the speech and thought bubbles. You will explain and provide the instruction for the rest.

A graphic organizer is also included for each reading comprehension guru. You can use them throughout the year to revisit the skills. Sometimes I assign them as an independent reading activity while I am working with small groups.

Included With Each Guru Anchor Chart Set:

Colorful text and graphics to visually teach your lesson and refer to all year long
Directions on how to design your anchor chart and teach the lesson
Directions on how to print your guru’s photograph to fit your anchor chart
Poster graphics for each reading strategy and skill
Color Graphic Organizer to project on your smartboard
Black and white graphic organizer to print for your students

Strategies and Skills included in this GROWING BUNDLE of anchor charts:

5 Writing Process Gurus ( a bulletin board set)
Metacognition
Character Traits
Making Inferences
Summarizing
Sequencing
Author’s Purpose
Cause and Effect
Context Clues
Main Idea
Making Connections
Theme and Central Message
Mental Images/Visualization
Asking Questions
Determine Importance
Point of View
QAR: Question Answer Relationships
RADD Short Answer Response

As seen above, you will notice our consultant teacher is referring to the Character Traits anchor chart to refresh their memory of the skill during guided reading. She brought them over to the anchor chart and the children were able to locate a character trait to describe a character they were reading about in their small group.

By keeping the anchor charts visible or easily accessible, you can refer to them throughout the year. Your students will come to recognize the reading strategy through frequent use and meaningful interactions with their classmates (the guru of the strategy/skill).

BONUS Writing Process Anchor Charts Included

This Writing Process bulletin board will feature your students as the Prewriting, Drafting, Editing, Revising and Publishing guru! If you want to keep your students engaged and taking ownership of their learning in your student-centered classroom, assigning them as writing process “gurus” makes an impact. Big time.