Last school year, while working on our Unit of Inquiry about animals and plants my Grades 1 and 2 students knowledge and understanding about it might be pre-assessed. For that purpose we used our KWL chart. That is a table composed by three columns in which students express by writing or other ways to representing on the first column what do they already Know about a topic. Next, they ask What do they want to know about the topic on the second column. The third one must be completed at the end of the UOI by writing a reflection of what have they Learnt in that Unit. 

  Once we started the unit, our plants and earthworms were placed on a table in the class after being planted and watered so I needed them to do another KWL chart but… Why to repeat the same kind of assessment? I gave them a marker and they were asked to write on the table (of course it was covered with paper) their inferences about what would happen to their plants at the end of the UOI and yeah! They loved it because they were…WRITING ON A TABLE! That’s completely going against the class rules! They really enjoyed it.

   In our OUI about explorers corresponding to the Transdisciplinary Theme Where We are in Place and Time I have asked them to do the same on our explorer’s tools table, so they have made their reflections about: What will we use those tools for? Let’s see what happens…

Mr. Maldonado, grade 1 and 2 Homeroom Teacher (Spain).