I began the Egypt Unit with a pre-assessment KWL activity to gauge what students already knew about the civilization. This activity was a good measurement because it was not a very obvious test in the eyes of the students. The students also felt comfortable with the KWL because they were familiar with the method from their science and English classes. As a result, I knew that a paucity of responses from particular students were indeed due to limited prior knowledge and not confusion about the assessment method.
To help students with limited prior knowledge to particpate, I brought in a selection of faux artifacts (a Bastet cat statue, pieces of papyrus, scarab beetle charms, etc.) for the class to examine. Most students added their observations about one or more of these objects in their chart.
The KWL activity also served to activate students prior knowledge and show them how to make connections between what they knew previously and what they were going to learn during the Unit. Each student filled out an individual copy of the KWL chart and each class section had a class chart that was kept in the classroom. We updated these charts periodically as a way of summarizing and synthesizing new understandings throughout the Unit.