Open Discussion Forum

  • 1.  K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-18-2021 12:54 PM
    Hello all! 

    Looking for advise and tips on using K-W-L charts with young preschoolers. I teach late 2 year olds to late 3 year olds and would love to incorporate K-W-L charts to facilitate our project-based curriculum.

    Thanks in advance! 


  • 2.  RE: K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-24-2021 12:10 PM
    Hi Hillary,
    I was curious about the K-W-L charts with young preschoolers; I had never completed one before, or so I thought. Looking through some of our resources I was able to find a couple of articles that explained the approach and process.  This was helpful to me in trying to understand how to help and presented some new information for me at least, thank you for posing this question! I have linked the articles below, hopefully they are of help to you:

    https://www.naeyc.org/resources/blog/whats-shadow 
    https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/apr2018/project-based-learning-microgreens
    It reminded me of an approach I'm more familiar with, that I thought I might share in case you were searching for more ideas on documenting children's learning. In our Summer issue we have an article that gives an example of Visible Thinking. The article can be found here: What Are You Thinking? Scaffolding Thinking to Promote Learning

    I would love to hear more about your first inquiry or project! 


    ------------------------------
    Mary Samour
    Online Community Manager
    National Association for the Education of Young Children
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-25-2021 02:05 PM
    Hi Mary!
    Thanks for sharing those links! These a terrific investigations, and provide wonderful examples to help teachers implement inquiry in the classroom.  

    A few other things to consider. Remember that preschooler and toddlers are not yet readers, so displaying this type of chart is not very useful for them.  Print should be combined with pictures if it is used as display in the classroom. From my perspective, the K-W-L chart is really useful as a tool to identify children's knowledge and experience, and then to document the construction of new knowledge as the children investigate. 

    I worry that using K-W-L charts could lead to more "push down" academics in the early childhood classroom. I would love to hear more contributions to how this looks using the lens of DAP.

    ------------------------------
    Sally Root
    QRIS Coach
    The Children's Cabinet
    Carson City NV
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-26-2021 08:37 AM
    Good morning, Sally! I have pondered this same issue as well. I landed on the thought that I believe there are still benefits to the children seeing the teacher write down their spoken words on the chart. This would help them to make connections between thoughts and writing. Also, maybe the teacher could add a few pictures afterward? It could be difficult to predict what pictures one would need available. I see much more value in using the KWL chart in PreK classrooms versus toddler rooms.

    ------------------------------
    Lisa Hudgins
    Early Childhood Education Instructor/Director
    Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
    Gautier MS
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-26-2021 08:49 AM
    To integrate media literacy into existing practice, my colleague Cyndy Scheibe and I developed an easy media literacy tweak to K-W-L:
    Once kids are generally familiar with the method, we suggest pausing after exploring "What do you know?" to ask "And how do you know that?" (can be phrased as: Where did you learn that? Where did you get that idea? What was your source? etc.). It's amazing how often the answer is some form of media (e.g., believing that there are no cities in Africa because their only visual reference is Lion King). Then we can explore with them which types of media are valuable sources for different topics.

    After "What did you learn?" we add, "And what was the strongest source or evidence?" Then we can help kids begin to develop a sense of what sorts of characteristics are common to credible information sources and how a source that is good for one topic isn't necessarily the best source for all topics. 

    And after "What do you want to learn?" We add a version of "And where do you think we could find answers (or credible information that would help you learn what you want to know?"). Then we can help them explore different types of sources and perhaps expand their thinking but offering one or two that occurred to them.



    ------------------------------
    Dr. Faith Rogow
    InsightersEducation
    Ithaca NY
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-27-2021 08:36 AM
    Oops. That last sentence of my comment should have read: Then we can help them explore different types of sources and perhaps expand their thinking by offering one or two that had not occurred to them.

    ------------------------------
    Dr. Faith Rogow
    InsightersEducation
    Ithaca NY
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-27-2021 09:13 AM
    Yes, part of Tony Stead KWL is to ask the children how they learned the new ideas. This comes after the L - what did you learn. Part the initial K from Tony Stead is perfect for young children - all children - because they often have misinformation, which changes when they have provocations or experiences that provide a new look at concepts.

    ------------------------------
    Nora Krieger, PhD
    Associate Professor Emerita/Past Chair NJEEPRE
    Bloomfield College/NJ Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
    Highland Park, NJ
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-24-2021 05:19 PM
    Hello Hillary, 
    I used to do the K-W-L-Chart with my preschool and Older toddler students. For me, an easy way to start it was by creating a webbing.  In this way, I was able to identify what my students knew about a particular topic. Once I obtained this information, I proceed to fill the first column (K). Then, I asked my students what is something they wanted to know (See pictures). I hope this information helps you. 



    ------------------------------
    Denise Calderon
    Plaza Community Services
    Los Angeles CA
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: K-W-L charts with young preschoolers

    Posted 08-25-2021 03:37 PM
    I used to use a video from a literacy coach, Tony Stead, who has produced some excellent videos (for Stenhouse) on reading non-fiction where he uses a version of the KWL. When we ask children what they know about a topic, they may give us misinformation that they believe. As a result, Tony Stead had changed the first K to What do you think you know rather than What do you know. 

    Nora

    Nora Krieger PhD
    Associate Professor Emerita
    Early Childhood Education
    Bloomfield College
    467 Franklin Street
    Bloomfield, NJ 07003
    nora_krieger@bloomfield.edu
    norakrieger@gmail.com
    Past Chair, NJEEPRE (New Jersey Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia)