Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

E X A M P L E  1.1.

Recommendation 1 

(continued)

How using the K-W-L strategy during the writing process supports strategic thinking

18, 19 

The cognitive writing strategy K-W-L helps students identify the gaps in their prior knowledge 

and guides them through what they are reading and writing. When using a K-W-L strategy to 

plan a research paper, students can complete the first two columns while doing their research 

and the last column after completing their research.

K

W

L

What I Already 

K

now About 

This Topic

What I 

W

ant to Know  

About This Topic

What I 

L

earned  

About This Topic

Using a strategy such as K-W-L fosters students’ strategic thinking by enabling them to approach 

a research paper in a purposeful way. They can summarize their prior knowledge (K column), 

develop research questions (W column), and track new information they gather (L column).