K-W-L (Know, Want to Know, Learned) Charts activate students’ prior knowledge by:
- Asking them what they already Know;
- Then students (collaborating as a classroom unit or within small groups) set goals specifying what they Want to learn; and,
- After reading students discuss what they have Learned.
Possible additions to chart and/or topics for discussion:
- What we think we know, but aren’t sure about
- What’s our evidence for what we know
- How we might find out what we want to know (what would be evidence?)
- What could we find out by interacting with or observing the materials/phenomena, rather than by reading or asking experts?
- What questions do we still have?
