The KWHL Chart

Question

Think about the topic of study you chose in unit 1. If you chose pets, for instance, relate the answers for this assignment to the study of pets.
In the past traditional K-W-L charts addressed what the student knew, what he/she wanted to know and what was learned. Today teachers and students have more ways and access to locating information than ever before. It is vital that we employ new strategies that are available to us in education and in life. Children must know how to find current and available information when researching to gain new knowledge helping them navigate through life’s many experiences. Learning which venues not to rely on for accurate information such as Wikipedia and some news outlets that do not fact check is critical to being informed. Venues such as using guest speakers, virtual field trips (VFT), textbooks, interviews, google searching and picture books with today’s learners in class can be very beneficial.

The KWHL chart is a very useful teaching tool. There are several reasons why you would use this chart with your students. It can help you find out what the children already know about the topic you will be studying, it can get the children's minds excited about the topic matter through this discussion and you will be able to find out if there are some misconceptions that the children are holding.
Usually, this chart is in columns but it can take any form you would like. When we started our spider unit, the teacher made the KWHL chart into a spider web and dandled spiders off the chart with some of the documentation in the form of QR codes. We will discuss the QR code later in this course
The first column is documenting what the children already know about the subject matter.
The next column is what the students want to learn about the topic. The chart should be left out in the open so it can be added to and referenced during the duration of the study.
The next column specifies how you and the students will learn what they wanted to know. It could be watching a video, read a non-fiction book, perform an experiment, learn through a game or bring in a guest speaker. Can you think of any other ways that the children could learn about what they want to know? Talk to the children and brainstorm together how we get new information. This is a good problem-solving activity.
The last column is the culmination of what they have learned.
An example of a partial KWHL chart. Notice that you can have complete or partial panel.
Snow KWL.JPG



There are two resources listed in this unit and a youtube selection, including an "H" for "How" is a 21st-century addition.
1. How could the teacher implement the “H” with the students to fully utilize the robustness of this tool? When we contemplate information being robust, we think of strength, stability and adding more power to something. Looking at robustness in the sense of this tool, how does this visual tool create more strength in getting deeper information for your selected topic?
2. If Vygotsky and Piaget were to react to this chart, how would they connect their philosophies to the effectiveness of this tool? In order to answer this question, you must remember what each thought about how children learn. Use the points in their theories to argue this question.
Please answer these questions fully in a one-page paper using the distinct paragraphs outlined in the assignment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFdiLWfbVSA
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/structured-learning-teaching-tip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNG6dTW9X70

Students: Be sure to read the criteria by which your paper/project will be evaluated, before you write, and again after you write.