(Task definition strategies, page 3.)
KWL table

This table helps you straighten out in your mind what you KNOW about a topic, what you WANT TO KNOW about it, and after you're done, what you LEARNED about it.  

On a sheet of paper, draw a table that looks like this:

What I KNOW	What I WANT to know	What I LEARNED
Bears have cubs.	How old is a cub before it is grown up?
Polar bears live where it's cold.

Now you can fill in the first two columns.   Start with What I KNOW. Put one thing you know about your subject in the first cell.   For example: I know that bears have cubs.   So I put that in the first cell. I also know that Polar Bears live where it's cold.   I would put that in the second cell.

What I WANT to know is, how old does a cub have to be to turn into a grown bear?   I would put that in the second column.

Finally, when I'm all done, I can fill out the third column and see how much I have learned.

Print out a clean KWL chart here.

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