Creating I-Charts with Students
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When introducing classroom behaviors, we use an I-chart to record expectations for students and the teacher. On this chart we post the goal behavior, the purpose of the behavior, and what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to engage in the behavior.
We have always created these I-charts in front of our students because we know the importance of visible learning and anchoring student learning to any information posted in the classroom that we expect them to use. The benefits of visible learning have kept us from creating premade I-charts for teachers to post.
And, the more we learn about the value of brain-compatible lesson length and student attention, the more we see that there may be other options. We understand that, depending on your class and resources, creating the chart by writing each component in front of your students may take time and attention away from the overarching goal of learning expectations and practicing behaviors.
We want to be clear about our goal of creating I-charts with students. Of course you can create these charts in the traditional way by writing them in front of your students as you introduce each component. You may also
- have them written ahead of time and covered, and uncover each component as you introduce it,
- print the components ahead of time and post them on the chart as you introduce each one, or
- write the components on sticky notes ahead of time and post them as you introduce each one.
We know the importance of adding the behaviors to the chart as you introduce them so students anchor their learning to the posted information. We also know the importance of keeping lessons brief and focused. Since we know the behaviors we want posted, and we know the amount of time students are able to focus during direct instruction is limited, we want to make the best use of this time.
If you like the idea of printing out the behaviors ahead of time and posting as you introduce to the class, you may want to download the behavior cards below.
