Running Head: INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM

Incorporating K-W-L in the Classroom to Increase Content Comprehension Jordan Wood EDU 324 Wilmington College

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 2 Introduction I chose the K-W-L method to study for my research project because it is a method that is supposed to increase a students comprehension which is every teachers goal. There are many different methods out there that claim to do this but I chose this method because it can be adapted to use in any different content area with just about any topic. It is very versatile which can make it a very valuable method if it is proven to actually work. Literature Review One of the main goals of educators is to have their students extensively comprehend the material being presented to them. There are many different methods and approaches that teachers can take to help them accomplish this goal. One method that has been around for quite a while, and is still being proven effective in classrooms today, is the K-W-L method. The K-W-L method was created by Ogle in 1986 and the acronym stands for: what I know, what I want to know, and what I have learned. This 3 step strategy was first designed to help improve reading comprehension by setting a purpose for reading, and building on a students prior knowledge about a subject (Ogle, 1986). Since then other researchers have expanded on Ogles findings and have found that it can be adapted to be used at any grade level and in any content area (Draper, 2002). The first step is the What I want to know step (Ogle, 1986, p.566). Here students brainstorm about all the things they may know about a given topic that they will later be reading about. This is designed to help pull out all the students prior knowledge of the subject, so they can later build upon on that prior knowledge. The students may work individually, in groups, or as a class to do this. This will also help the teacher assess just how much the students know about

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 3 the given topic before they read about it. In this step it is also often good to ask the students where they learned that specific piece of knowledge. The stimulation of questions, of uncertainties, is a key part of brainstorming that goes on prior to reading. All of us carry around some vague and ill defined schemata; opportunities to talk about what we think we know, to put our bits of memory into order, can really help us discover what we dont know (Ogle, 1986, p.566). The second step: What I want to know is where students list out all the things they do not know about the topic but would like to learn (Ogle, 1986). Once they are listing out everything they already know in step 1 they should naturally start to come up with things they dont know or are not sure about. This step is very important because it sets a purpose for reading the material assigned. If the students know what they are trying to learn they are more likely to comprehend the reading. This allows each student to come up with their own reasons for reading the material which can then motivate them to read. It can be helpful to scan the passage of the main topics to make sure that the types of things that they want to learn will be present in the passage (Draper, 2202). In theory they will want to read to answer questions about the topic in order to expand their knowledge. This step will also allow the students to develop personal commitment that will guide the reading (Ogle, 1986, p.567). After the students right down what they want to learn, or are expecting to learn, then the actual reading of the passage can take place. Students should keep the questions they had in mind as they read. (Ogle, 1986). The last step of the K-W-L method is the What I learned step (Ogle, 1986). In this step after the students have done the assigned reading they write down what they have learned from the reading. The students should also look at the questions they had written down in step 2 to see if the reading answered any or all of them. If the students still have unanswered questions after

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 4 doing the assigned reading the teacher should suggest that the students do some optional additional reading to answer their questions. This allows the students to really reflect on what they have learned (Ogle, 1986). Since the original K-W-L method was developed many teachers have found ways to adapt it to any subject area and not just reading (Draper, 2002; Ogle, 1986; Patte, 2008). Draper (2002) looked at implementing the K-W-L method in a middle school math classroom. He gave the example of solving systems of equations by addition. It may be hard for students in Math classes to say what they already know about a problem before they have been taught it, but they should be able to pull out some type of prior knowledge. Flipping through the new textbook information can help the students pick out pieces of prior knowledge. In this case students should remember from previous lessons that the solution to a system of linear equations is located at the point of intersection of the lines (Draper, 2002, p. 527). Once they have done this the students need to generate a list of things they want to know or need to know to solve the equation. Once they have this list they can begin to read the text. Because they have already made a list of the things they need to know it should help them learn from the text. Once they are finished reading they should then create a new list telling everything they learned from the reading. In this list they should be able to tell how to solve the system of linear equations. This method in mathematics provides the opportunity for students to activate their prior knowledge, give them a reason to read the math text, and to build upon their prior knowledge. This helps students make better meaning out of their math texts, and the math problem. Too often Math teachers just get up in front of the Math classroom and just show how to solve the problem with out activating any student engagement. The K-W-L method can help students get engaged with

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 5 the math assignments and prepare them for a higher level of thinking. This greatly improves Math Comprehension (Draper, 2002). The K-W-L is so versatile that it can even be implemented in the library when students are doing research. Patte (2008) explored that idea. If a child needs to do a research paper and needs the help of the librarian to get started the librarian can activate prior knowledge (What I know step of K-W-L) by asking the student what they already know about the topic. The librarian can use the knowledge the student already has about the topic to figure out what kind of information the child needs to research on the topic. The example Patte used was what if a child comes to the librarian needing to do research on a Brachiosaurus? The librarian might ask what they know about Brachiosaurus. The student may say nothing but with a little poking and prodding the student should be able to come up with something. Once the librarian knows some of the prior knowledge that the student has they can then better understand what type of information the student is looking for. Once the students establish what they already know about the topic they need to make a list about what they want to know. Once that is established the librarian can guide the student in finding whatever it is they need to find. Once the research is complete the student can then reflect back on all they have learned. This helps students take charge of their own knowledge and it helps them organize their thinking. It also allows for the students to get more out of their research time. (Patte, 2008). The K-W-L can be used in many different ways (Draper, 2002; Ogle, 1986; Patte, 2008). It can be used as a lesson opener, to bring up prior knowledge about a topic, or to start a research paper, or project. It can even be used to assess students informally by looking at the What I have learned section and seeing if the students successfully learned what the teacher set out to teach them (Draper, 2002). It doesnt matter what the school subject is all students can benefit

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 6 from the K-W-L method in some way. Bringing up prior knowledge before a lesson, having the students list what they want or need to know, and then reflecting upon what they have learned makes students exert to a higher level of thinking. This helps students retain information and increase comprehension (Draper, 2002). Research questions The main goal of my study is to see if K-W-L does what it claims to do. Here are the questions I am hoping to answer: 1. Does using the K-W-L method increase a students comprehension? 2. Is it worth the time it takes to do in class? Description of Environment and Population I conducted my research in Mrs. Sextons 1st period, 8th grade English classroom. She has been teaching for 12 years. She taught 4th grade for 6 years in which the class was self contained and she was responsible for teaching all subjects. She then moved to the middle school and taught 7th grade and 8th grade. She has been teaching 8th grade Language Arts for the last 4 consecutive years. She runs a very student centered type classroom. She talks to them as they are her equals and she encourages discussion and participation. The whole class has a community type feel. The class I did my teaching and observing in was an inclusion classroom with a wide range of abilities. The 13-14 year old students in the class consisted of 10 males and 12 females. The ethnic breakdown of the class was as follows: 1 Hispanic, 20 white, and1 African American. Of those students 6 were learning disabled, 5 were gifted, 3 were ADHD, and 1 was Autistic.

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 7 The class receives assistance from an interventionlist twice a week. The desks in the classroom are arranged in groups of 4 or 5. This allows them to work in groups on a lot of things so some students can compensate for other students weaknesses. They are very good at working as a team. Data Collection For my research I taught two lessons in which I incorporated K-W-L. The first lesson that I taught was about the history of St. Patricks and why we celebrate it. Before we got started I had the students do a Type 1 writing where they each took out a sheet of paper and marked of every other line with an X. They had 10 minutes to write down everything they knew about St. Patricks Day. If they ran out of things to list for St. Patricks Day they were to write down questions or things they wanted to know more. Once the 10 minutes were up they were to draw a line across their paper and then in small groups they were to make up a list of things they already knew about St. Patricks Day and another list of questions they wanted answered (This full filled the K-W part of the method) . Once the groups were done they each read out loud their two lists. Once that activity was over I read the poem St. Patrick by Brenda Covert. Then I passed out an article about the history of St. Patricks that was found on the history channel website. They read the article in groups and annotated it while they read. Once they were finished with the article I had them watch a couple clips about St. Patrick on the History Channel and then had them each write a small paragraph listing all the new things they had learned about St. Patricks Day (this fulfilled the L part of the method). I kept the Type 1 writings, the group lists, and the paragraphs they wrote at the end for my research.

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 8 The 2nd lesson I taught was on Paul Revere. I gave them all a K-W-L chart and they filled out the what I know section and the what I want to know section individually. I had also made a giant K-W-L chart and taped it on the front board. They were then to use colorful markers to come up and but their ideas on the board. Once we were done with that they read the text I had selected them to read about Paul Revere in small groups. As they were reading they highlighted anything they thought was interesting or new facts they had learned about Paul Revere. They then used the things they highlighted to fill out the L column on their chart. After that I had volunteers come up again to fill out the class L column. Once the lesson was completely over I had them flip their paper over and answer these 2 questions: 1. Did you like doing the K-W-L charts? Why or why not? 2. Do you think doing the K-W-L chart helped you understand the reading better? Why or why not? I kept the students individual K-W-L chart, the class K-W-L chart and the 2 questions they answered for my research. I also asked the teacher a couple questions for my research: What are your thoughts on the K-W-L method? Do you think that it had any effect on the student's comprehension? Data Analysis What I found when doing the lesson on the history of St. Patricks Day was that the kids in general had no clue why we celebrated St. Patricks Day. Here are some of the main examples of the students prior knowledge on the topic:
You are supposed to wear green There are leprechauns Everyone Celebrates on this A holiday for people that are Green beer

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 9

day. You get pinched if you dont wear green Four-leaf clovers Pots of gold Irish Its about an Irish dude named Patrick that helped people in Ireland Its so we can celebrate the Irish

It was ok that the students had very little knowledge of the Holiday. I found that most students realized they had no clue why we celebrated it once I asked them to do the type 1 writing. I think that it helped to motivate them to pay attention and learn. Once they realized they really didnt have any idea why we celebrated the holiday they were able to generate some really good questions: When did the holiday start? Why didnt it originate in Ireland? Why do we celebrate St. Patricks Day? Why is it celebrated on the day it is? Why do we wear green Who was the founder of this day? How do they celebrate it in Ireland?

Looking at the questions they were coming up with I could tell that I had sparked their interest. I really dont think they would have been as interested in the topic if I hadnt started the lesson out with doing this. Mrs. Sexton agreed with me. I also think that coming up with questions that they wanted to answer really set a purpose for their learning just like Ogle had said it would. At the end of the lesson once they had read the poem and the article, and watched the history channel clips they wrote about what they learned. They did an amazing job summarizing what they had learned about St. Patricks Day. They understood who St. Patrick was and why we celebrate the Holiday when we do. The paragraphs that they wrote made it very clear that they had learned a

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 10 lot from the lesson. Based on their paragraphs I also can see that K-W-L did indeed help the students comprehend the information. While teaching the lesson on Paul Revere the students had a little bit more prior knowledge of the topic than they had when I had taught the St. Patricks Day lesson. Mrs. Sexton had already analyzed the poem Paul Reveres ride By William Longfellow which did lead into a brief discussion on Paul Revere. Here are some of the things that they had put in the K column of their chart: He rode to tell and warn that the British were coming. He wrote poems Hes now dead Born in January Born in Boston Massachusetts He left a signal light in the church tower First shots were heard at Lexington and Concord

Made silver

Rode through a village on a horse

Known as a hero

Although I knew they had already touched bases with Paul Revere I was a little disappointed with the things they came up with in their K column. I dont know if this is all they had actually known or if they were being lazy with filling in their chart. They did a little better on coming up with questions they had about Paul Revere: How old is Paul Revere? Did he save anyone? Where did he come from? What did he do for a living? Was he married or did he have children? What kinds of poems did he write? When and where was he born? Why was the British coming? When did he die? How did he know the British were coming

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 11 By writing out the questions they had it really made them think about Paul Revere and all the things they didnt know about him. I think that it was very important to do this step to help them get ready to take in the new information. Once again after reading the article I was very pleased with how much they comprehended. Almost every single persons what I learned column was much longer than the first 2 columns. I also found that they remembered things better when they were able to write things down the way they did in the columns. Almost all the students got all the main points from the article which was really good. Some of the students didnt take filling the chart out seriously so it was hard to see what they had learned but the majority of the students showed me that they had learned a lot. I think the most valuable piece of my data came when I asked the students the 2 questions at the end. 1. Did you like doing the K-W-L chart and why or why not? Yes I think the K-W-L was cool. Its an easy way to learn Yes I enjoyed doing it because it helps me understand. The K-W-L was pretty cool. It was ok.
Yes I enjoyed the K-W-L because it helped me interact with the story and helped me remember things.

Yes I liked it because it gives you a chance to find out how much you learn at the beginning and end.

No I did not like the K-W-L

Yes because it helped me organize everything.

Yes it helped organize my thoughts

K-W-L was fun because it keeps me working.

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 12 2. Do you think doing the K-W-L chart helped you understand the reading? Why or why not? Yes because I listed all the important information down. I learned from the K-W-L chart because when I write things down I learn the content better.
The K-W-L helped
me with the reading because it seemed that it had me pay more attention to details and learn more. Coming up with questions also helped me because I looked for the answers harder/more.

Yes I think the KW-L helped me learn because it helped me pay attention and look for new facts in the article.

Yes, it helped me because I know new things and it helped me answer some of the questions I had.

Yes the K-W-L helped me comprehend the text better because it made me constantly think about it.

It reminded me I should be looking for new things and it kept my brain working.

Yes. I can see what I know and what I learned.

It did help me understand the reading because I got all the facts I didnt already know.

Yeah, because it made me focus and kind of want to know what happened.

I found that almost every single student said they enjoyed doing the K-W-L chart and that it did indeed help them understand the text. Their responses were amazing and strongly supported the theory behind using K-W-L. Some responses were irrelevant to the questions I had but the majority of the class did a great job answering. There were only a couple students who said they did not like the K-W-L because it was boring. Here is what Mrs. Sexton had to say about K-W-L: I love KWL and feel it is very valuable in helping students make connection to what they are doing whether its Language Arts or any other subject. Its like setting the stage. There are so many ways to activate prior knowledge but a KWL allows for the what you learned aspect. Overall I got nothing but positive feedback about the method.

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 13 Results I didnt have a whole lot of time to conduct my research and if I would have had more time I would have taken my research even further. It would have been very insightful if I could have done the same lesson with 2 different classes of equal ability and incorporate K-W-L in one of the classes and not in the other. Then I could have compared the comprehension of the two different classes and I would have been able to clearly see if doing the K-W-L actually made a difference. Although I did not have time to do an extensive thorough study the results I did get did agree with previous research done on the topic. The K part of the method did indeed prime the students minds for learning. It also allowed the students to realize what they didnt know about the chosen topic. This made it very easy for them to come up with questions they had and wanted answered. It also motivated the students to want to read and learn. It allowed them to come up with their own personal purpose for reading. Then in the L portion of the method they were able to list out all the new things that they had learned. What I had found was that writing the things out in the form of a list really helped the students remember the information. As they reflected on what they had learned they could see all the new things that they had learned which gave them a great sense of accomplishment as well. My results show that doing the K-W-L method does help students increase comprehension. Doing the K-W-L method does take time but I think it is well worth every minute. It was clear that doing the K-W-L chart helped them understand the article. Especially since I was working in an inclusion classroom I could see that the chart really helped the students that normally struggle with reading comprehension.

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 14 Conclusion While doing this study I learned that it can be very beneficial for kids to not only do the K-W-L charts but to also work in groups. It was great to see how they bounced ideas and questions off of each other and had these great mini discussions. I also found that it can be very beneficial for reading comprehension if you give the students a brief description on what they are going to be reading about beforehand. I think K-W-L is a great method to incorporate into the classroom. Because I was working in an inclusion classroom a lot of group work and discussion goes on. In the future I would like to see how K-W-L affects comprehension for students working completely alone.

INCORPORATING K-W-L IN THE CLASSROOM 15 References Draper, R. (2002). School mathematics reform, constructivism, and literacy: A case for literacy instruction in the reform-oriented math classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, (6), 520. Ogle, D. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. The Reading Teacher, 39, 564-570. Pattee, A. S. (2008). What do You Know?. Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, 6(1), 30-39.