KWL: Know/Want to Know/Learned

How do I use it?

• Use provocations to encourage students to make connections to prior knowledge.
• Model with students how to use a KWL chart or table to record their prior knowledge, their wonderings/want to knows, and what they learned.
• Identify and document any preconceptions/ misperceptions and/or misconceptions that may present themselves as students share what they know and have learned.
• Encourage students to think about new questions that they might want to investigate as a result of what they learned.

Variations

• Use a Think/Pair/Share learning strategy to have students share with each other what they know and what they wonder about/would like to know.
• Have students use different coloured markers, pencils or crayons to record and represent visually their new learning.
• The KWL strategy can be incorporated with other learning strategies (e.g., Collaborative Learning, Question Matrix, or Inquiry Journal learning strategies).