K-W-L READING STRATEGY

The purpose of the K-W-L procedures is to help students become good readers by learning to
do the things that good readers do. Specifically, it helps students learn to activate their
background knowledge and to set purposes for reading.

What I Know About What I Want To Learn What I Learned

As they confirm the information in the Know column of the chart, students relate new
information gained from their reading to knowledge they already have. As they generate
questions for the Want column, they learn to set their own purposes for reading. Further,
because they are reading to answer their own questions, students are more likely actively to
monitor their comprehension. By putting information in their own words for the Learned
column, students better understand what they know and what they do not know. Proceeding
through these steps reinforces students' learning from text, involves them in doing what good
readers do, and teaches them about their own reading processes.

Task 1
Fill in the following table according to the strategy.

What I Know About What I Want To Learn What I Learned

Education in Colombia.

Task 2

Read the following article about education in Colombia.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN COLOMBIA

As a result of increased school enrollment, nearly 92 percent of the adults in Colombia over
age 15 had at least the basic ability to read and to write in the year 2000. The increases in
education were significant. In 1935, enrollment at the elementary school level reached about
550,000, while in 1980, that number had risen to nearly 4,200,000. A dramatic increase took
place at the secondary level as well, although it was not as far reaching as the elementary
increase. In 1935, enrollment in high schools totaled 45,670 students; by 1980, the number
had grown to 1,824,000 (Hanson).
In 1999, the preschool enrollment for private and public schools in urban and rural areas
totaled 1,034,182 students. This included 522,209 boys and 511,973 girls. In elementary
schools, total enrollment reached 5,162, 260 students, including 2,632,187 boys and
2,530,073 girls. The total high school enrollment reached 3,594,083 students, including
1,734,012 boys and 1,860,071 girls. These figures imply that females were somewhat more
likely to attend high school than boys.

Academic Year: In general, the academic structure of the educational system in Colombia
remains relatively constant. Preschool or kindergarten is usually in private hands. A child may
enter at age four and continue through age six. Primary schooling in Columbia begins with five
years of elementary education followed by four years of secondary education. After this basic
cycle, students proceed to a second level of secondary education, lasting two years. Generally,
these six years of secondary education appear together. Upon finishing that level, the students
may pass on to some kind of technical training or commercial studies, or they can attend
university and eventually pursue graduate studies (Low-Maus; Wellington).

The National Ministry of Education offers two options for the school calendar. One option
begins in February, offers a four-week vacation in June and July, and finishes in November.
The second option begins in September, offers a four-week vacation in December, and finishes
in June. Both systems offer 198 days of school attendance (Wellington).

Language of Instruction: Some schools offer bilingual opportunities and employ languages
like French, German, or English for instruction. However, these are expensive, private
academies serving the students of prosperous families. In general, Spanish is used in most
schools, especially those in those rural areas where Spanish is the dominant language. In
areas of the country where an indigenous language dominates, the law requires that schools
offer bilingual programs using the native languages (Parra).

Grading System: In most high schools, grades are awarded on a scale extending from 1 to
10. This system was adopted in 1973, replacing a system that used a scale of one to five.
However, universities retained the shorter system. In university courses, students take final
exams that count for twenty percent of the grade. These tests are two hours long and the
students take one per day for five days (Wellington).

Religious Schools: The distribution of enrollment between public schools and private schools,
most of which are Catholic, illustrates that, while private elementary schools have become
more popular, public high schools have also increased in popularity. In 1935, about 93 percent
of the elementary age students attended public schools. However, at the high school level,
about 46 percent attended public schools. In 1980, the proportion of students attending public
elementary schools dropped to 85 percent, while the proportion of high school students
attending public schools increased to about 56 percent (Hanson).

In general, schools do not buy textbooks. Instead, the parents must purchase school supplies
after schoolteachers or administrators indicate which books they should buy from local
sources. These books may come from publishers in Colombia or from foreign firms. Usually,
when a school adopts a textbook, it uses the book for three years. For many years, the
Instituto Colombiano de Pedagogía (ICOLPE) of the Ministry of Education developed primers,
called cartillas, and used five of the primers per subject to enhance elementary school
teachers' pedagogical skills and to provide materials and suggestions to facilitate their daily
work. Distributed without charge, the cartillas were well received. A less successful effort was
the Ministry's attempt to develop and publish textbooks that followed appropriate educational
objectives for each subject (Londoño).

Curriculum—Development: Colombia has long sought to turn the secondary curriculum

toward practical or vocational education. After the civil war of 1839, President Pedro Alcántara
Herrán, and his secretary of the interior, Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, introduced new methods
of instruction and pedagogical principles into the secondary schools. For example, they
removed the controversial authors from the secondary curriculum that Santander had
introduced in the 1830s, reduced the extent of theoretical studies, and increased studies that
had more practical applications, such as natural science (Bushnell; Low-Maus).