K-W-L What we Know, What we want to know, What we learned.  

Purpose:  To help the teacher tailor the lessons to the students knowledge level and to facilitate what the students want to know.  Also can be used as an assessment tool.  ***note:  should not be used with units less than 4 weeks***

Rationale:  By using KWL, the teacher will be able to find the level of knowledge in their class.

Procedure:

1.  Hang up a long peice of paper.  (bulliten board paper would work great!)
2.  Divide chart into 3 sections.  Label each section:

* what we know
* what we want to know
* what we learned

3.  Ask class to answer what we know about the new topic.
4.  Write all the responses down in the first column.
5.  Ask class what they would like to know about the topic.
6.  Write all those responses down in the second column.
7.  At the end of the unit, ask students what they have learned, writing all responses down on the chart in the 3rd column.
8.  Compare the want to know and learned to see if they met their goals.
 

Strengths:
    1.  Students can express their own ideas and knowledge.
    2.  Early assessment tool for the teacher.
    3.  Find out what students know so you don't repeat the lesson!

Weaknesses:
    1.  Takes a lot of space to hang up chart.
    2.  Possible to misinterpret the early assessment.
 
 

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