KWL5WH: Cracking the Code to Reading Comprehension

NWACC Reading Strategies Workshops

Definition of KWL Model

Created to enhance reading comprehension in content areas.

All three parts of the model focus on a different aspect of your individual learning style.

The KWL model is also used as an organizational tool because it allows you to identify known information about a given subject.

Purpose of the KWL

Start by brainstorming any prior knowledge you may have on the topic. This develops a curiosity on the subject and gets you interested in learning more about it.

Decide what you would like to learn about the subject. This givesself motivation to read and make up your own questions.

Identify what you understood. This helps with self-monitoring of comprehension.

This chart also gives an opportunity for students to expand on their ideas and formulate new ones.

Text

Brainstorm what you

know

(curiosity)Decide what

you want to know

(motivation)

The KWL chart is a “before-and-after” strategy to help with reading comprehension strategies.

Identify what you learned

(self-monitoring)

Breaking the Model Down…First Column of KWL Model= K

●What do you already know about the topic?

Topic: School Shootings

Example K Column: Newtown, CT/many children killedColumbine/one of the earlier school shootings Seem to be more frequentLockdown drills and procedures

Topic: School Shootings

K: What do you already know? W: What do you want to know? L: What did you learn?

• Newtown, CT, many elementary children killed

• Columbine/one of the earlier school shootings

• Seem to be more frequent

• Lockdown drills and procedures

Breaking the Model Down…

Second Column of KWL Model= W

●What do you want to know?

W Column:

How many school shootings have there been?

Are they increasing?

What solutions are being proposed?

What causes the school shootings?

Topic: School Shootings

K: What do you already know? W: What do you want to know? L: What did you learn?

• Newtown, CT, many elementary children killed

• Columbine/one of the earlier school shootings

• Seem to be more frequent

• Lockdown drills and procedures

• How many school shootings have there been?

• Are they increasing?• What solutions are

being proposed?• What causes the

school shootings?• What are the most

serious school shootings?

January 2014 is threatening to become the month when gun violence became a matter of routine in America's schools. Since the start of the month, there have been at least 11 active shooting incidents on a high school or college campus, one for every two weekdays of the month (including New Year's Day.) Those shootings — all on or near school grounds while students were present, and most perpetrated by students themselves — have claimed at least two lives and injured at least 11 students. For comparison, there were as many as 28 school shootings during the entire year of 2013, the 12 months after Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first-graders and 6 teachers in Newtown, Connecticut. In other words, the year our nation had supposedly had enough and was finally going to do something about gun violence. ThinkProgress also noted the frequency of school shootings this month, concluding that there's been a shooting pretty much every other day so far. When you factor in lockdowns and scares, and note that most schools were on holiday break until at least the 6th (and that January 20th, Martin Luther King Day, was also a national holiday) gun incidents have become an almost daily occurrence at American schools this year.

Jan 28, 2014 / National / Abby Ohlheiser

January's Epidemic: 11 School Shootings in 19 Days

Breaking the Model Down…Third Column of KWL Model= L

●What have you learned?

●Read about your topic to answer the questions you had and other relevant information.

Examples: Record-breaking 28 school shootings in 2012

11 School Shootings in January 2014

Gun-control laws and anti-bullying initiatives are being proposed to remedy

Topic: School Shootings

K: What do you already know? W: What do you want to know? L: What did you learn?

• Newtown, CT, many elementary children killed

• Columbine/one of the earlier school shootings

• Seem to be more frequent

• Lockdown drills and procedures

• How many school shootings have there been?

• Are they increasing?• What solutions are

being proposed?• What causes the

school shootings?• Where do most of the

school shootings occur?

• Record-breaking 28 school shootings in 2012

• 11 School Shootings in January 2014

• Gun-control laws and anti-bullying initiatives are being proposed to remedy

5WH 5WH is another

reading comprehension strategy using questions.

The 5 W’s are Who? What? When? Where? and Why?

The H is How?Topic

Who? What?When?

Where?

Why?

How?

Topic: School Shootings

Who?

Who are the shooters?Who are the victims?Who is involved with publicizing and fighting against school shootings?

What?

What is changing in regard to school shootings?What are the effects of school shootings?

When?

When are school shootings occurring?When did school shootings start happening?

Where?

Where are school shootings occurring?

Why?

Why are school shootings occurring?Why has little legislation been passed regarding school shootings?Why are school shootings increasing?

How?

How many school shootings are occurring?How can we stop or decrease school shootings?