KWL Chart
K-W-L Charts are used to activate and build background knowledge for students in any subject area. According to the National Education Association, the purpose of this chart is to activate prior knowledge, set a purpose for reading and help students to monitor their comprehension. This strategy is a way for students to organize information before, during and after reading (K-W-L charts - Assessing What We Know/What We Still Want to Learn).
The parts of a K-W-L Chart are shown in the chart below, what I Know, what I Want to know (Wonder) and what I Learned. In each section of the chart students discuss different aspects of the reading. According to Reading Rockets, students discuss what they already know about the topic they will be reading about and then organize their ideas into broad categories. Next students discuss what they want to learn from the reading and write down specific questions. Then students read the text and finally they will discuss what they learned and look at the questions they created and see if any were answered. This can be done through all grade levels and content areas.
The parts of a K-W-L Chart are shown in the chart below, what I Know, what I Want to know (Wonder) and what I Learned. In each section of the chart students discuss different aspects of the reading. According to Reading Rockets, students discuss what they already know about the topic they will be reading about and then organize their ideas into broad categories. Next students discuss what they want to learn from the reading and write down specific questions. Then students read the text and finally they will discuss what they learned and look at the questions they created and see if any were answered. This can be done through all grade levels and content areas.
This strategy can be adapted into all content areas easily. By using this as a formative assessment before during and after and activity as well as using it to build and understand the student background knowledge of the subject. For example, in a math lesson on triangles, a teacher can use this to see what her students know about triangle and what they would like to know about triangles. This will be a good indicator to inform instruction. Then it could be used as a formative assessment at the end of the lesson to see what the students learned about triangles from the lesson. This again would inform the next lesson plan for the teacher. This strategy can be used in social studies and science in the same format as in the mathematics lesson describe previously.
Type of Learner:
A KWL chart is a great strategy for at-risk, beginner and emergent readers because it is a strategy that helps students to organize their thoughts as well as to access their prior knowledge. This also allows students the freedom to organize their thoughts in a way that best works for their style of learning, whether it be symbols, words or complete sentence.
The image to the left is another variation of the more typical KWL chart.
Concept Sort
A concept sort is a comprehension strategy that helps to activate and build a students background knowledge. A concept sort is similar to List-Group-Label except the way in which it is presented is different. A concept sort provides students with the words that need to be grouped. There are two forms of a concept sort, closed and open. In a closed sort, the categories are told to the students. However, in an open sort, the students can choose their own categories to sort their words into (Jennings, Caldwell, Lerner, 2014).
There are many different ways to group words. For example, they can group them based on what they can tough, see, hear, taste, buy, sell, own, make or by sound, spelling patterns and many others. Other ways to sort concepts is by where they can be found or by what something may do. (Jennings, Caldwell, Lerner, 2014).
Having background knowledge allows students to make connections throughout their reading in order to better comprehend the entirety of what they read. Reading Rockets suggest using this strategy before reading and use words that are within the text as a way to introduce new vocabulary and see what students already know about the concept. By using this strategy before reading, students are given the opportunity to become some what familiar with the vocabulary that will be presented in the text. If students are familiar with this new vocabulary, they will be less likely to stumble over words and gain a deeper understanding of the concept being portrayed in the text.
There are quite a few benefits to this strategy. AdLit says one of the biggest benefits to this strategy is it can introduce a large amount of content specific vocabulary and allows teachers to see what the students already know. By allowing teachers to see what students already know, they can use it to inform their instruction and tailor it accordingly. This strategy can be used across all grade levels and content areas which makes it highly beneficial to all students and teachers (Concept Sort). This is also a great way to help ELL students with their vocabulary and comprehension. Below is a video of an ELL teacher working with students on concept sorts as well as describing how a concept sort is to be conducted. Below is a video that explains what a concept sort is, how it can be used and demonstrates how to teach a concept sort.
There are many different ways to group words. For example, they can group them based on what they can tough, see, hear, taste, buy, sell, own, make or by sound, spelling patterns and many others. Other ways to sort concepts is by where they can be found or by what something may do. (Jennings, Caldwell, Lerner, 2014).
Having background knowledge allows students to make connections throughout their reading in order to better comprehend the entirety of what they read. Reading Rockets suggest using this strategy before reading and use words that are within the text as a way to introduce new vocabulary and see what students already know about the concept. By using this strategy before reading, students are given the opportunity to become some what familiar with the vocabulary that will be presented in the text. If students are familiar with this new vocabulary, they will be less likely to stumble over words and gain a deeper understanding of the concept being portrayed in the text.
There are quite a few benefits to this strategy. AdLit says one of the biggest benefits to this strategy is it can introduce a large amount of content specific vocabulary and allows teachers to see what the students already know. By allowing teachers to see what students already know, they can use it to inform their instruction and tailor it accordingly. This strategy can be used across all grade levels and content areas which makes it highly beneficial to all students and teachers (Concept Sort). This is also a great way to help ELL students with their vocabulary and comprehension. Below is a video of an ELL teacher working with students on concept sorts as well as describing how a concept sort is to be conducted. Below is a video that explains what a concept sort is, how it can be used and demonstrates how to teach a concept sort.
Above is a video explaining step by step how to do a concept sort while watching a class of second graders work on a concept sort about a book called Seed.
Content Area Examples:
Concept sorts can be used across all content areas. Through the use of an open sort, the teacher would give the students words for them to sort into whatever categories they wanted. This would allow students to make a decision in how they individually made understanding of the concepts. In social studies, the teacher could present a closed sort by asking the students to sort topics into categories about the Civil War, such as, which words provided were beneficial for the North or the South. A closed sort in math could be set up to have students group words according to their polygon prefix. Polygon prefixes could include quad-, penta-, hexa, hepta-, or deca- (etc.). Students could categorize animals in an open sort for a science lesson by deciding how they personally think the animals should be grouped together. For example, animals with wings, animals with fur, animals with backbones (etc.).
Type of Learners:
Concept sorts, depending on what is being sorted and the form that is being sorted, can be used for all readers. By using images, at-risk students can sort concepts into appropriate categories. Beginner readers can use images with words to support their reading level as they sort the words and pictures into their categories. For both at-risk and beginner readers, the sort could be closed so as to give the students the categories to which they are to sort their images and words. For emergent readers however, the sort could be open and use more words rather than pictures to sort.
References for KWL:
30 Second Teaching Tips - KWL Chart - Compass Publishing. (2014, January 27). Retrieved June 10, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olJ0cFcSprk
KWL Chart. (2012, June 18). Retrieved June 9, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK6hi79OJns
K-W-L Charts - Assessing What We Know/What We Still Want to Learn. (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2015, from https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/k-w-l-charts-assessing-what-w
K-W-L (Know, Want to Know, Learned). (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2015, from http://www.nea.org/tools/k-w-l-know-want-to-know-learned.html
References for Concept Sort:
Jennings, J. H., Caldwell, J. S., Lerner, J.W. (2014). Reading Problems: Assessment and Teaching Strategies. Boston: Pearson.
All About Adolescent Literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2015, from http://www.adlit.org/strategies/21829/
Concept Sort. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/concept_sort
30 Second Teaching Tips - KWL Chart - Compass Publishing. (2014, January 27). Retrieved June 10, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olJ0cFcSprk
KWL Chart. (2012, June 18). Retrieved June 9, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK6hi79OJns
K-W-L Charts - Assessing What We Know/What We Still Want to Learn. (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2015, from https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/k-w-l-charts-assessing-what-w
K-W-L (Know, Want to Know, Learned). (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2015, from http://www.nea.org/tools/k-w-l-know-want-to-know-learned.html
References for Concept Sort:
Jennings, J. H., Caldwell, J. S., Lerner, J.W. (2014). Reading Problems: Assessment and Teaching Strategies. Boston: Pearson.
All About Adolescent Literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2015, from http://www.adlit.org/strategies/21829/
Concept Sort. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/concept_sort