K-W-L+
What is K-W-L+?
K-W-L+
is an excellent reading strategy for all college reading and writing
assignments!
K-W-L+ are initials for a
four-step procedure intended to help you
think about a topic while reading expository text.
Why
should you use K-W-L+?
K-W-L+ helps to ensure that you become engaged in the reading task, or,
in other words, that you have a meaningful, productive conversation
with text. The strategy involves the steps for brainstorming,
developing categories, specifying questions, checking what you are
learning and doing further reading.
Description:
K-W-L+ involves four basic steps:
1) Assessing what you already know
about the topic
2) Determining what you want to learn
about the topic
3) Determining what you did learn as
a result of the reading
4) Determining what questions you
still have about the topic
How do you use
KWL+?
Step 1: (K) What I
KNOW
Brainstorm and generate ideas about
what you already know about a given topic.
Step 2:
(W) What do I WANT to learn?
Consider possible relevant questions
for yourself and for the class (taking into consideration the exam
and/or essay). In order to generate well-focused questions, you
may want to read the first couple paragraphs of the reading before you
complete this step.
Step 3: (L)
What I LEARNED
After you complete the reading, write
down what you learned.
In this step you probably will want to answer your questions from
Step 2. But do not limit yourself to answering those questions.
Step 4: (+) What do you still
have questions about?
After completing the KWL+on the assigned topic, brainstorm a list of
question that you still have about the topic.