HOLES K-W-H-L STRATEGY

PURPOSE OF THE STRATEGY

This strategy helps build on what students already know. Students will explore prior knowledge to develop areas that need to be studied in more depth. For this particular strategy with Holes students will study the Wild West in order to better understand the novel and its characters. The teacher-student interaction part will take approximately twenty to thirty minutes. The independent study by the students will take an entire period. The follow-up "What I learned" part will take another five to ten minutes. In theory you could do this entire strategy in a block double period.

DIRECTIONS:

STEP 1

INTRODUCE THE STRATEGY– the teacher introduces the K-W-H-L strategy with a new topic. The teacher places a K-W-H-L chart on the board or an overhead where all the class can see. Explain that before we study a topic or read a book, it is important to find out what we know about a topic. For this strategy the focus will be the Wild West. After we organize what we know about the Wild West, we can generate questions that will help us to focus our reading on what we want to find out. If new questions occur as we read, these can be written down on this chart as well.

STEP 2 LIST WHAT IS KNOWN – question and probe to create a list on the chart about the Wild West. Brainstorm with the class to see what is known about the Wild West. Record all responses, even incorrect assumptions or misconceptions to encourage risk-taking behavior and encourage a broad variety of statements. If there are challenges to information, tell students that they will come back to this chart after reading to confirm facts. Questions you could ask are: Where did most people live? What drew them to these small towns? Were all people good and honest? What jobs did the people have? What helped boom the Wild West? How long did it take to establish these communities? Did the U.S. government like having people spread out everywhere? Etc...

STEP 3 LIST WHAT THEY WANT TO LEARN – generate a list of student questions. Begin by asking "What do you want to know more about..." or "What questions do you have about...?" List all the responses that are given on your chart. Model questioning techniques and probe until a list seems complete. Remember that many students will not volunteer information at this point. Again encourage risk-taking behavior. There is no incorrect answer. Possible feeder questions could be: What made the West wild? How was justice carried out? Who made lots of money? How? What did people do for recreation? Were there sports or games played? Etc...

STEP 4 STUDENTS GENERATE THEIR OWN QUESTIONS – allow time for students to work in small groups of their immediate neighbors. No more than four people to a group. Students choose groups. You choose a group leader. The leader is responsible for the group staying on task and getting the research done. Pass out individual charts to students. Leave the chart visible that was created by the class. Have each student decide which questions they want to research personally. Give students a few minutes to generate additional questions that they want to research. These groups will be doing research on what they want to know. Record the members of each group in your records.

STEP 5 DISCUSS HOW TO FIND ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS As a class, list possible sources where answers to the questions that were generated could be found. Guide students to sources other than just the primary text or the encyclopedia. If possible schedule the computer lab so you can send teams down together to collectively, yet independently search the Internet or on-line encyclopedias.

STEP 6 READ TO FIND OUT This group research time should be no more than half an hour. They should be able to answer the questions through their research. Tell students that some of their questions may not have easy answers. Encourage them to note on their charts any new things they want to learn or questions that come up during their reading.

STEP 7 SHARE ANSWERS Invite students to share what they have found and record these on the chart. A separate chart needs to be submitted by each student. The names of the entire group should be in the title block with their name on top. Share the fact that real-life learning is ongoing and invite students to submit additional statements about things that they want to learn as well as questions that they now have about the topic. Record and discuss the additional responses.

STEP 8 FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES Make a K-W-H-L chart, poster sized, for each group and post it on the walls of the classroom. Encourage the students to continue independent research as the unit continues. As learning is ongoing, students need to see that as we find out more or come up with additional questions, we can add this to our chart. You can also use your K-W-H-L results to create further learning activities including graphic organizers, maps, outlines, learning logs, reports, and written summaries as you see fit.

ASSESSMENT The K-W-H-L strategy allows the teacher to pre-assess what students already know about a given topic. This pre-assessment directs subsequent instruction during a unit. At the conclusion of the K-W-H-L activity, a teacher can assess what was learned and what may still need to be taught. While the "Wild West" is the topic of this K-W-H-L activity, you could do other things such as folklore, or the criminal justice system.