KWL ... FQR ....

Do you know what all those letters mean? In my mind they are great ways to support and encourage critical thinking.

A KWL chart is a three column chart that can be used to encourage interaction with a text before, during, and after reading. In a KWL chart, you lists things you Know, things you Want to know, and things you Learned.

A slight variation on the KWL chart is the FQR chart (facts, questions, response). My 4th grade students enjoyed working with this kind of chart. While you can have a printed chart (like the ones listed below), in class we often just folded a piece of notebook paper to make three columns. (We turned the notebook paper sideways and then folded the paper so the outside holes lined up with the middle hole.)

I will give you a quick description but the link to the explanation/description not only explains but also shows how the FQR Chart can be used. In the first column of the FQR Chart, children put facts they encounter as they read the text (this works especially in Social Studies and Science). In the second column, children put questions they have about what they are reading and questions they think of as they are reading. In the last column, children respond to the text they have read. This can be done by telling what they found interesting, telling what they did not understand, possibly answering some of the questions in the Q column, or even the things they thought of as they read the text.

Here are some various FQR Charts and information:

• FQR Chart
• FQR Chart Description/Explanation focusing on critical thinking
• FQR Chart with a Focus Question
• Ideas for using FQR with Nonfiction
• Lesson Plan using FQR for Determining Importance of Facts
• Three Charts and the Power of 3s
• Space Template Example
  
• OWL Chart (what you Observe, Wonder, Link to your life) is similar