The anchoring table is an instructional tool that practitioners can develop as a framework to help plan their lesson. The table is used to explain to learners how critical aspects of the new concept are related to something with which the learners are already familiar. During group time, the practitioner can use the table as a framework to direct the process of learning and together the learners complete the table.

The linking steps serve as a guide for the process of going through the comparison of the concepts. There are 7 steps:

1. Announce the new concept
2. Name the known concept
3. Collect known information
4. Highlight characteristics of the known concept
5. Observe characteristics of the new concept
6. Reveal characteristics shared
7. State understanding of the new concept

Prior to going through the steps, the practitioner cues the learners that they will be using this type of enhancement routine and encourages them to participate. The do phase is the actual process of going through the seven linking steps to construct the table. In the review phase, the practitioner reviews the learners' understanding of the concept, the related information and the thinking process that was used to construct the table.

An example of a new concept could be positive and negative numbers and showing how they relate to a thermometer (known concept).¹⁵ The learners would be encouraged to identify characteristics of the thermometer. By using the anchoring table and linking questions, the learners will begin to see the similarities of negative and positive numbers as relevant to a thermometer. This will help increase the recall of the new concept.