How Wit & Wisdom designs for:

Deep knowledge building

Wit & Wisdom devotes six to eight weeks to explore each topic in tightly crafted, multi-faceted lesson sequences. In one grade 4 unit, “A Great Heart,” students explore the heart literally (as an organ) and figuratively (as the seat of courage and love), deepening their knowledge of multiple aspects of “heart.” A unique element of Wit & Wisdom is the close examination of artwork related to the core topics.

Discussions and activities are built into daily practice. Writing is text-based or text-inspired with clear instructional routines to support students. The program pays close attention—devoting 15 minutes daily—to building word knowledge through student-centered vocabulary and morphology routines. Other routines encourage students to engage independently with a range of topic-related texts.

Foundational skills and fluency for beginning and older readers

Wit & Wisdom does not have a foundational skills component for the early grades, but pairs with several highly rated research-based programs. Geodes, its unique decodable readers, go up through third grade and are aligned with ELA topics.

In the upper grades, grade-level fluency is effortlessly baked into lessons with passages that connect to the module topics. In lessons and homework, repeated oral readings of fluency excerpts help students to understand the texts and communicate more effectively about them. There is particular focus on decoding and grasping the elements of multisyllabic words. Language lessons, called “Deep Dives,” often focus on morphology and how words break into their constituent parts, calling students’ attention to the way words are constructed. For example, in Grade 6 Module 4, students learn the morphology of the prefix circum. Then they decode the word circumnavigation, applying their understanding to read a text about Shackleton’s journey to Antarctica. Through applying this strategy, called “Outside-In,” students understand word parts and the context in which the word appears in a text.

Wit and Wisdom’s Prologue provides additional support in grades 6-8. These supplementary lessons front-load essential knowledge, preparing striving readers and multilingual learners for whole-class instruction. Prologue lessons focus on explicit vocabulary and syntax instruction and opportunities for practicing oral language, deepening the understanding of module vocabulary, and making sense of the language used in complex text.

Equitable access to challenging texts

Close reading is supported by the consistent use of five research-grounded stages—Wonder, Organize, Reveal, Distill, and Know—to engage students in productive struggle and guide their multi-layered explorations of complex texts. Students are habitually asked to reflect on what they are learning and their attitudes about acquiring skills and knowledge.

Learning and exhibiting deep knowledge

• Exhibit 1 (PDF)
• Exhibit 2 (PDF)

Foundational skills instruction

• Exhibit 1 (PDF)

Access Wit & Wisdom

Wit & Wisdom was developed and is distributed by Great Minds.