I really like the idea of creating a "10 Things to Know about a Nation." I use KWL every now and then, but I tweak this idea a bit for my SPED kids. Sadly, I find that if I start a unit with asking students what they know about a topic or nation, I get blank stares or really off the wall comments... For example, when asking kids about China, they may say they eat Chinese food. So to avoid this, I actually teach just little bit first on the unit. Then, the kids can have some intelligent ideas of what might better relate to the standard I'm focused on. Then, I do the K and W portion.
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