Certified Teacher Nicole Lane introduces anchor charts to her incoming students at the Summer Transition Program for rising 6th graders at Nathan Hale Middle School.

An anchor chart is a large, poster-sized visual with information on it that students learn and retain. They don’t need to be perfectly drawn out. Imperfections make these charts unique and memorable to our students.

Character Traits Anchor Charts are the best way to help our students analyze, compare, and contrast characters in the books they are reading in a meaningful way.

Once students understand the character traits concept, it’s time to dig deeper. Categorizing character traits by internal and external character traits is the next step. The final lessons on character traits have students digging even deeper. Instead of students just identifying the trait, they have to explain what happened that makes them think of that character trait. They have to explain their reasoning. This activity really takes students up the spectrum of higher-level thinking.