KWL for the New Literacies Era

One of the basics in the teacher toolbox is the old KWL chart - you know the one, where you introduce a new topic by having kids brainstorm what they Know and what they Want to know, and then revisit the chart at the end to document what they have Learned.  That's all well and good, but - by hopping from the intro to the conclusion, it misses the whole process.

Thanks to Langwitches, and the Curriculum Mapping Institute, we have a couple new takes on this old tool.
Here's the first:

One little letter can change anything:  the H is for "How will we find out" - looking ahead to the process of discovery - and can also be post-reflection: "How did we learn it?"  This is critical for the critical skills we're teaching our kids - they are immersed in sources of information and knowledge, and tracking this process - making them active participants in the discovery of information - livens the old KWL and focuses their efforts on the research itself.  

How to implement this?  One problem I've had with traditional KWL charts is the chart paper part - I'd fill one out, and forget about it... or lose it in some stack on top of a cabinet, where all old posters go to die... (yes, I know, I should leave it on the easel of chartpaper, and flip back to it, but I never keep that big easel kicking around, either...)  Why not create a digital, web-based chart that students can update throughout a unit, perhaps requiring posts at key points throughout?  This can be done on a blog, or on a Web 2.0 app like Wallwisher:

Here, I created four columns - one for each stage - and the nice thing with Wallwisher is students can embed links to whatever resources they discover during the process.  Anyone can add to the poster, and it is viewable at any time.

For those who really enjoy acronyms, the chart has also been expanded to this:

This format takes the KWL to another level, and is particularly good for action projects - where students are expected to take what they've learned and apply it to real-life problems and situations, to make change.  Within this, we add on two new phases to the process:

A is for "What ACTIONS will we take?"

Q is for "What QUESTIONS do we now have?"

The Q really anchors the entire thing into a constant process - a growth model that emphasizes learning as continuous, as new knowledge and action leads to further questions worth exploring.