KWL Chart/KWHL Chart**


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40 Best-practices
Instructional Strategies
Background: A KWL chart is a three-column graphic organizer. Students generate ideas for each column: What I Know, What I Want to Know, and What I Learned.

Procedures: Create a chart that separates a page into three-columns. Write the KWL headings for each section. Introduce the topic for study. Ask students to share their prior knowledge of the topic. Have students generate relevant questions to research. After collecting information, use the third column for summarizing facts learned.

Example: Manatees: What do you know about manatees? What would you like to learn about this marine mammal? What did we learn from our manatee studies?

Variations: *KWHL: Use a four-column organizer: What I Know, What I Want to Know, How I Will Find Information (list resources that can be utilized to collect information about the topic), and What I Learned.

Reading Strategies: Make Predictions, Ask Questions, Set Purposes for Reading, Activate Prior Knowledge, Build Vocabulary, Make Connections, Classify Information, Summarize Main Ideas and Support Details, Draw Conclusions, Synthesize Information

** For advice on using this inquiry-based learning strategy as a pre-assessment tool, visit: KWL Charts in our Assessment Strategies and Tools section.