KWL

Type
DIRECT INSTRUCTION

Description
Students are asked to share their knowledge and questions about a new area of study. ALL of their responses are listed, without correction, on a three column chart labeled with an essential question from the new area of study. The first column (the //**K**//) is labeled //What I Know//. It also holds what students __think__ they know! The second column (the //**W**//) is labeled //What I Want to Know//. The third column (the //**L**//) is labeled //What I've Learned//. New and revised understandings are added to the L-column as instruction progresses.

Purpose
To probe for prior knowledge. To invite student investment in and ownership of their learning.

Range
Grades K+

Fruitility
Being put at the center of their learning gives students a positive experience right at the beginning of their instruction. Students like to say what they know and they appreciate being asked to pose their own questions. Making a **KWL** chart with students announces that their thoughts count and that their voices have weight.

Features
There are a lot of ways to collect student voices with this strategy. I put pads of purple sticky notes at each table group and asked students to write what they knew about geometry and then stick their note in the first column on the white board. I repeated this process with magenta notes for their questions. I think this hit the right balance of making private comments for public display. I collected and sorted their notes and then assembled a large, colorful pin-board to hold everything. We update the board periodically; most of the **K-column** stays put and most of the **W-column** moves to the **L-column**.