KWL: Horvath Style

Brian Horvath recently used a KWL reading strategy in Applied Christianity. 

"I made two blank columns on the white board. One column was named, ‘don’t know,’ and the other, ‘I know.’  Students were processing information from chapter 1 in The Case for Christ. The students were asked to, at any time during the class period write down a word they did not know on the board. The rest of the class, while noticing one of their classmates wrote down a word, if they  knew the word, would walk up to the front and write a quick definition of that word.

Students were to do this without talking and distracting the class. They had 100% freedom as to go up to the front or not."

 On a scale of 1-10 Brian rated this experience an 8, explaining, "It has potential." 

What would he change or tweak if he repeated this strategy?   I’m not opposed to using it again. I think it’s valuable because students find the courage to come up and write down a word they don’t know. The other students who know the word are able to assist another student based on their prior knowledge. And the student who didn’t know the word, now has a better idea.

Brian found a unique way to blend this reading strategy with technology:

 I would tweak it this way (and did in one class): Students were hesitant to go in front initially and I knew they knew what a word meant. In one class, I used Polleverywhere and the question was, ‘what does exemplary mean?’  I went from having no definition to have 10 definitions. Apparently, there is more stress related to going in front than I thought.