KWL chart
A KWL chart is a three-column table for learning: what you Know, what you Want to know and what you Learned. You fill in the first two columns before you read a chapter or start a unit, and the last one afterwards. The teacher Donna Ogle introduced it in 1986 as a reading strategy, and it works just as well for studying on your own.
In more detail
The chart does one job first: it makes you activate what you already know before you read. That prior knowledge is what new facts attach to. Writing it down also shows gaps and wrong ideas early, when they are cheap to fix.
The W column is the engine. Questions you wrote yourself turn reading from passive into a search for answers, so you read with a purpose. The L column closes the loop: you answer your own questions in your own words and see what is still open.
Classroom versions add columns. KWLS adds a column for what you Still want to learn, and KWHL adds how you will find out. For studying, the plain three columns are enough, with one extra rule: do not copy sentences into L. Write them in your own words.
Example: photosynthesis before and after one chapter
| Know | Want to know | Learned |
|---|---|---|
| Plants use sunlight to make food | What exactly is made, and where in the plant? | Glucose and oxygen are made from carbon dioxide and water, in the chloroplasts |
| It needs light and probably water | Why are leaves green? | Chlorophyll absorbs red and blue light and reflects green |
| Oxygen is released | How do the light reactions differ from the Calvin cycle? | The light reactions make ATP and NADPH, and the Calvin cycle uses them to build sugar |
Example
Before reading chapter 6, Jonas writes in K that plants make food from light. His W questions: why are leaves green, and what are the light reactions? After the chapter he answers both in L and notes one open question: where does the Calvin cycle get its energy? That question becomes the first thing he checks in tomorrow's session.
How to use it
- 1
Draw three columns headed K, W and L, and write the topic above them.
- 2
Skim the headings and figures of the chapter, then spend five minutes on K: everything you think you know, with a question mark on the doubtful items.
- 3
Turn each heading into a question for W. Aim for four to six.
- 4
Read, and answer the W questions as you meet them. Add new questions when they come up.
- 5
After reading, fill in L in your own words. Check K for wrong ideas and cross them out.
- 6
Carry any unanswered W question into your next session as its first question.
How StudyPDF does this
Ask Bo your W questions. He answers from your own material with a citation to the page, so the L column is filled from your lecture and not from the open internet. Then test it: a quiz or a deck on the chapter shows a per-concept breakdown, weakest first, which tells you what your chart missed.
See also
Put it to work on your own course
Upload your lectures and ask Bo. Cited answers, plus flashcards, exams, and more built from your material.
Common questions
What does KWL stand for?
Know, Want to know, Learned. Some versions use Wonder instead of Want. You fill in the K and W columns before reading and the L column after.
Is a KWL chart useful for college students?
Yes, in a lighter form. Write K and W before a chapter or a block of lectures and L afterwards. The value is in the questions you write and in correcting what you thought you knew. For dense reading, SQ3R covers similar ground with more structure.