A Rumsfeld-ian Take on the Traditional KWL Chart

In a February 2002 news briefing, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave the following famous/infamous quote. Responding to a reporter’s question about the lack of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups, Rumsfeld stated: “Reports that say there's -- that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things that we know that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.”

The statement is an example of Rumsfeld’s mastery of obfuscation, saying something while saying nothing, but in education we can apply it as a model for student’s understanding, or lack of understanding. The classic KWL chart has students list in three columns the things that they Know, the things that they Want to know, and later the things that they have Learned.

K

W

L

This new chart allows students to list initially Known Knowns and Known Unknowns – things they know they know and things they know they don’t know – and later list things Unknown Unknowns and Unknown Knowns – things they didn’t know and, more importantly, things that they didn’t know that they had known.

Known Knowns	Unknown Knowns
Known Unknowns	Unknown Unknowns

I think there are similar versions of this chart out there, but I was interested in experimenting with it. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts on this, or your experience if you have used something like this and how it's worked, or your experience if you try this and how it worked. And I'll do the same.