Practicality of Surveys and Inventories for KWL Process in Your Teaching Situation

EDU 6160 bPortfolio Post 5                            Ian Lewis                                 November 7, 2016

Discuss the practicality of surveys and inventories for the KWL procedure in your teaching situation.

Within my teaching situation in social studies I have not seen a specific survey or inventory, as discussed and illustrated by the Theory to Practice Box 11.3 (Shermis and Di Vesta, 2011, p. 325; adapted from Conner, 2006) used. The KWL process, however, is deeply embedded within the direct instruction and learning activities. In contrast, we have used multiple specific surveys and inventories in English.

As social studies curriculum is a continuation of that which was learned in prior years, 6^th grade (ancient civilizations) curriculum naturally transitions to 7^th grade (middle ages) just as…these time periods naturally follow in chronology…and thus tying in what the students know is often part of everyday lesson. Furthermore, it is necessary to simply understand the natural relationships across time periods in order to understand the cause and effect system that is history. What this looks like in the classroom varies but often includes direct reference and/or discussion of relevant background knowledge, or  “What I Know” part of the process (e.g. Show of hands, who remembers anything about the Roman Empire before we explore the middle ages across the Byzantine and Muslim Empires?). The textbook does well with referencing background information to stimulate application of background knowledge. Across chapters (which are repeated chronologies of the middle ages, but in different geographical regions), themes and relationships, are referenced and drawn upon as well. The “What I want to know” part of the process comes in the form of students filling in notes, and/or graphic organizers/charts (often corresponding or similar to the social studies textbook headings and subheadings) with what we are learning to do as a class, accompanied by textbook reading. Learning targets, referred to as WALTs, for We Are Learning To, are written on the board and referenced daily. The “What I Learned” comes in the form of review activities, application activities (e.g. a project where students create a graphic representation of the three branches of government – need not be a tree as portrayed in the text), and assessment (informal and formal). The KWL process is present, but I have never actually used a graphic organizer or posed the context of learning as specifically “What I KNOW, What I WANT to Know, and What I LEARNED” (Shermis and Di Vesta, 2011, p. 325; adapted from Conner, 2006).

In English, there are two specific examples that come to mind that explicitly reference “Knowing, Wanting, and Learning”. Vocabulary practice may include a pre-assessment inventory of the vocabulary words in a reading selection where students assess the words they know and then find the definition of the words remaining they need (and ideally want) to know (via context clues and/or dictionary). Students display what they have learned by using the word in a context clue rich sentence. A second application of the KWL process to use a specific inventory regards collection of information for literary elements such as settings, foreshadowing, characters, and characterization.

When I was substitute teaching last year, multiple science assignments had me playing a video with an accompanying KWL chart. After filling in the “Know” part of their charts individually, we discussed as a group the cumulative knowledge on the subject. The “Want” was then completed individually during the movie, and the “Know” included individual processing and group discussion. I feel in this situation, it was easy for the teachers to leave a substitute a simple task accompanied with a simple and specific KWL activity and survey/inventory, with no actual direct instruction necessary, however un-engaging. Across subjects, the specificity to actually addressing the parts of the KWL process, let alone completing specific KWL inventories, may be better applicable in some areas than others. The KWL process is present across subjects and contexts, but may not specifically be addressed in each.