KWL with a Twist

Vanessa Ritter shared this great spin on a KWL chart. Research shows that KWL charts are great but they are boring, let's face it. And so many times we don't want to do the formal going back for the L section. Vanessa made a little pocket by folding a piece of paper and stapling the sides. Then you make three strips of paper to put inside: What I know, What I am Wondering, and What I learned. She said she puts her students in groups before a unit and they make their pocket. The pocket should be decorated to look like the topic for example if the unit is on trains they can make the pocket look like a train. Then with their group members they brainstorm what they know and what they are wondering and write them on their strips. She then posts these on the wall or a bulletin board around the room and after teaching the unit, they then get back with their group and do the What I learned strip. I think this is really cute and fun because so many times the whole group KWL has bored me to tears. Above you see the pockets we made in the Training. On the front we had to put a face to show how we were feeling about the new standards. Below I made an example of one I could use in the classrom.