KLEW(S)+Chart

= **KLEW(S) Chart** = Mapping an explanation over time as claims are constructed from evidence can be a powerful instructional tool for both students and teachers. For students, documenting claims and their direct connection to evidence and reasoning across a unit can help them make connections among science ideas. For the teacher, creating an explanation map for a unit can begin during instructional planning and serve as a way to negotiate the content terrain while teaching the unit, keeping the coherent content storyline at the forefront (Zembal-Saul, 2009). In our work, we have modified a well-known reading comprehension strategy called the KWL (Ogle, 1986) for the purpose of teaching science. In the original version, students document what they know (K), want (W) to know, and have learned (L) from a text.

In the science version of the KLEW chart, emphasis is placed on connecting claims and evidence. The K column is used to document assessment of prior knowledge and is framed as WHAT WE //THINK// WE **KNOW**. This allows for initial thinking, whether or not it is scientifically accurate, to be recorded prior to investigation and explanation building. We have found it useful to use this aspect of the chart as a vehicle for reflecting on learning over time as students develop deeper understanding of the science. In the second column of the KLEW chart, we describe as WHAT ARE WE **LEARNING**. This is where claims are recorded throughout a unit as they are generated, usually following each series of investigations. Even though this is the second column of the chart, it is not necessarily the second step in the instructional sequence. Students first collect, record, and discuss data from their investigations, which is documented in the next column, WHAT’S YOUR **EVIDENCE?** In practice, we have found it helpful to directly connect claims in the //L// column to particular supporting evidence in the //E// column using arrows. The final column is for **WONDERINGS** and can be used throughout the instructional sequence to record students’ questions that arise during investigation and other aspects of science instruction, especially those that are testable questions and can be revisited and pursued as part of another lesson. In addition, many of the teachers that we work with rephrase misconceptions as wonderings so as not to place students on the spot.

Since we initially published our article on using KLEW charts in science instruction (Hershberger, Zembal-Saul, & Starr, 2006), we added another column for ** scientific ** principles, making it a KLEW(S) chart. The new column addresses the importance of reasoning and the need to draw on science concepts when developing the relationship among claims and evidence. We often have students refer to resources, such as reference books or science sites on the Internet, to generate a list of scientific principles that they can use for reasoning when constructing explanations.

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