The KWL chart was designed by educator and instructional researcher Donna Ogle in 1986 to help teachers improve reading comprehension by helping students connect their current knowledge to classroom instruction. Today, we continue to understand the importance of students actively engaging with the study of science by making their own personal connections to the topic at hand. The Picture-Thinking Routine (PTR) is a student-centered alternative to the KWL chart that prompts them to practice thinking moves and make their thinking visible.
What is a KWL Chart?
A KWL chart is a graphic organizer that helps students and teachers organize information before, during, and after a unit or lesson. It provides a basic, static inventory of current knowledge, a projection of what knowledge is desired, and a report of what knowledge has been gained.
KWL is an acronym for:
- KNOW - What students already know about a topic
- WANT - What students want to know about a topic
- LEARN - What students learned about a topic
The KWL chart can be hard for some students to engage with because students are not always the best judge of their own knowledge or learning. In contrast, the PTR engages students in real-world 'sensemaking’ as a critical thinking skill, by prompting them to make connections between visual content (pictures in their reader) to what they know.
What is the Picture-Thinking Routine?
The Picture-Thinking Routine is a support that helps students think and reflect on their experience as it relates to things they notice in pictures. Incorporating the PTR in your classroom will help not only those students who think "in pictures," it's a great way for all students to make sense of strong connections between the context and new vocabulary words, concepts, and what they already know. Here's an example of a Picture-Thinking graphic organizer I use in my classroom:
This Picture-Thinking chart is something I use to start every single lesson as a pre-reading strategy. The green line at the top shows you what part of the chart students should complete before the lesson section's reading, with the Clarifying Reflection (blue section) something that you do after the reading is complete.
The PTR prompts students to re-evaluate their thinking based on new evidence, from what they learn in the reader, from hands-on activities, and from other students’ experiences and knowledge. By taking a risk and sharing their own experience, they are helping their class build new knowledge together. In contrast, the KWL Chart leaves sensemaking, reflection, and revision of thinking to chance.
Benefits of KWL Charts and the Picture-Thinking Routine
KWL charts help students to identify what they already know about a topic and better understand the objectives of a lesson before it begins. Filling in the chart can also help students prepare for a classroom discussion and assist teachers in understanding what knowledge students bring to the lesson discussion.
PTR prompts students to think creatively and use their personal experiences and current knowledge to better understand the world around them. These students are learning how to build knowledge that is useful to them. As students share their PTR responses with the group, they are learning from their peers and discovering that it’s okay to change your perspective when you get new information. They are practicing intellectual risk taking in a low-risk environment, with big rewards.
KWL Charts and the Picture-Thinking Routine Leverage Existing Student Knowledge
When teachers use KWL charts to introduce new ideas and topics, they help students identify what they already know about the topic and help them better understand the objectives of the lesson. Prompting students to build personal connections to the topic by considering what they already know encourages active student engagement in class. It also makes participating in class easier to do, because we’re showing students that their experience is valuable to the class.
The PTR engages students in active participation in class by prompting them to make personal connections to the subject matter based on what they’ve experienced before. It turns learning into a game, as we work together like scientists and engineers to ask complex questions, investigate, and come to a consensus as a class. It requires students to make their thinking visible and then engage in self reflection, as they consider why they thought something at the beginning of the reading, and how their thoughts changed throughout the lesson. It promotes changing our world view based on new knowledge and learning from the experiences of others, a key 21st century career skill.
KWL Charts and the PTR Promote Student Participation
KWL charts encourage student engagement by challenging them to summarize what they know, what they want to learn, and what they’ve actually learned. It turns students from passive listeners into active participants. Unfortunately, students are not always the best judge of what they know. In the Picture-Thinking Routine, students can more easily access those complex connections because they have a common concrete reference point and framework to explore. A class discussion as students reevaluate the sense making that initially happened gives students the opportunity to celebrate pivots in thinking and build on one another’s ideas to identify everything they’ve learned and what new thinking they’ve uncovered but need evidence to support.
The PTR prompts students to think creatively and be active participants in class, rather than passive listeners. It’s my job to think critically about the reading before I even begin reading. It’s my job to share my ideas and experiences to help the class build new knowledge together, rather than relying solely on my teacher to tell us.
KWL Charts and the PTR Engage Students in Collaboration
For students who find participating in class challenging, linking what they already know to what they are learning in class helps reduce the barriers to active participation. When students are required to make their thinking visible on a KWL chart, they are more prepared to play an active role in engaging with their fellow students during classroom discussions and activities.
The PTR is a simple way to teach students the skills they need to think critically about new information and make their thinking visible. When this classroom routine becomes routine, students know they have to come to class prepared to think critically and work collaboratively. This is not a place for passive listening. It’s a collaborative space where we learn together from our knowledge and past experiences. It’s also a safe space where we value different ideas and opinions.
Building a learning community like this takes time, and the PTR is a great place to start because it’s low risk and high reward. Students can practice sharing with a partner before they share with the class. They can practice self reflection and learn how diverse experiences make learning more fun. When teachers promote creative thinking and encourage different perspectives and ideas, all students learn that they have an important role to play.
KWL Charts and the PTR Help Teachers and Students Track Performance
When students fill out a KWL chart, they identify what they already know, set goals for what they would like to learn, and track their own progress towards achieving those learning goals. For some students, it can be difficult to identify what knowledge they have and what they have learned, making the KWL tool less effective at tracking performance.
These are complex critical thinking skills that take time to build. Using the KWL chart as a tool to prepare for classroom discussions is one way to engage students in critical thinking as they work together to build knowledge and a deeper understanding. Together, we can gauge whether as a class we have met our learning objectives.
The PTR is another tool that can help teachers track performance. As the school year continues, we should see students thinking deeper and making stronger connections to what they know, building on their new knowledge, and taking risks to make big connections in the future. Because it requires students to make their thinking visible, the PTR is a good way to see if our students are actively engaging in thinking moves and strengthening their critical thinking skills throughout the year. Rather than requiring them to memorize a fact or definition, the PTR promotes extended reasoning and deeper learning that students can depend on in the future.
How to Implement the PTR in your Classroom
To incorporate the Picture-Thinking routine into your classroom, start with asking students to observe the photo that's on the cover of the KnowAtom student reader (or any other text) and record the following:
- What do you notice?
- What do you think the image tells us about what we'll learn on this page?
A fairly typical student response is "I notice a tightrope." They've identified the OBJECT in the picture. The next column asks students to record the ACTION. "It looks like it's moving back and forth." The last part to discover is a PROPERTY (a characteristic or trait about the object that can be observed, measured, or combined). A student might say, "I can tell that it's strong because it's holding the girl up."
You can see from this example how it prods students to think outside the box and to consider more than what's on the surface. For instance, if the student only responds with, "I can tell it's strong," it's important to follow up and ask them, "Why? What makes you think it's strong?"
In the last step, students reflect on what they think the picture tells them about what they might be learning about in the lesson (or on the page where they observed the picture). A student might say, "I think maybe we'll learn about gravity because the swing comes back down after it goes up."
This is a great preliminary connection to a concept the student has already learned. The PTR helps generate excitement and interest in what's to come and reduces anxiety about learning something new because we've connected it with current knowledge.
Activating Higher Level Thinking with the PTR
The goal of Picture-Thinking is getting students to notice the pictures in their readers and think about what they mean and why they're included on that page. One of the things that I've always really enjoyed about the KnowAtom curriculum is its images. They're very compelling, and they appeal to the students.
They also help engage students in ideas they might not be familiar with, for example – snow. Even if they've never experienced snow, the picture can help them think about what it would feel like and how it would impact their environment. They start thinking about the picture, which generates excitement in, "I can't wait to read about this."
Giving students time to make close observation of the images in their reader and describe them activates a much higher level of thinking than a quick "that looks cool" and moving on. Instead, students notice different dimensions within an image and take a risk to infer its meaning in relation to the text. That's something that can be a struggle for students. While they may be curious, they're often nervous to say it because they're worried about whether they should already know the concept.
The PTR is a great way to unlock that curiosity and promote risk-taking. It also promotes updating your beliefs as you gather more information. The students modify their understanding of the photo as they move along in the reader and collect their answers in the KWL chart.
Classroom Discussions and the PTR
The next step in using the PTR in the classroom is to invite students to briefly share their thinking with the class or in small groups. If the students are a little bit nervous about speaking to the whole class, they can also turn to a partner and share. The teacher can say something like:
- On page 4 of the reader, what did you notice in the image?
- What do you think the image tells us about what we will learn on this page?
With the students' ideas top of mind, you can then read page 4 together, with students annotating the text or using sticky notes (more about that process is down below). As the students read together, you can reflect on what you're learning together.
It's a great feeling to watch them get there together – when they get further into the reading and reflect, "Oh, now I see what it has to do with snow." The PTR KWL chart is a great way to encourage students to connect with the reading by identifying their own questions and waiting for the answers to come.
Clarifying Reflection in the PTR
After students finish reading and annotating the text, it's time to move on to the final section – Clarifying Reflection. After you've completed the page of reading, you're going to pause as a group and allow students a minute to consider:
- How has our thinking changed?
- Can anyone identify something that's confusing?
- Can anyone help us clarify what this means?
Students can share with the whole class or, to make sure you're capturing students who might not speak up, you can ask, "Turn to the person next to you," or "Discuss this in your group." Students share and record how their thinking has changed after completing the reading and group discussion, using their responses to help. You can then repeat this step for each new page in the student reader.
How quickly students take charge of this process and begin to do it independently really depends on the group. Students will slowly start owning the process. When this happens, it gives teachers more time to observe and guide those who need it most. As we release responsibility to students who feel comfortable taking charge, we see engagement levels rise too. Teachers should not be doing all the work in the classroom – students should be taking the lead when they can, and experiencing discourse, risk-taking, wondering, and discovering together with their peers.
