As students build literacy skills through Wit & Wisdom, they are tasked with developing their CONTENT knowledge and their CRAFT (speaking & writing), by CREATING a knowledge-based product. This includes tasks related to the Module Essential Question, the Lesson Focusing Question and the End-of-Module (EOM) Task. Keep reading to review a brief rundown of the CONTENT-CRAFT-CREATE learning design of Wit & Wisdom!
CONTENT: Lessons are structured with with the goal of providing opportunities for students to study authentic texts (narrative, informational & visual) while we present five Content Stages: Wonder, Organize, Reveal, Distill, and Know (WORD + Know). Each stage is supported by a Content Framing Question to engage students. Take a moment to review the chart below, which includes each content stage, the Content Framing Questions & what to expect from students.
CRAFT: Language is the sea upon which all else floats…and that’s where Wit & Wisdom starts our students in developing the craft of presenting their knowledge. As with the content stage, students are exposed to high-quality, authentic exemplars. Opportunities for direct instruction/modeling include a Socratic Seminar period (to develop speaking/listening skills) and structured reading response prompts (including sentence stems, to develop writing skills). Writing conventions also come into play during a daily, 20-minute mini-lesson. Just like the Content Stages, Wit & Wisdom delineates each Craft Stage (The 4 E’s) with a Craft Question. Take a moment to review the chart below, that includes the 4 E’s of the craft stage, along with the Craft Questions & what to expect from students.
CREATE: Over the course of each Module, our students will dive deeply into CONTENT-based learning & be provided with skill-based instruction to refine the CRAFT of communicating understanding. Of course, formative assessment takes place throughout the first two stages of Wit & Wisdom’s learning design; however, the CREATE stage is where everything comes together with summative assessments. This includes completion of Focusing Question & End-of-Module (EOM) tasks.
The Focusing Question and EOM Tasks can take the shape of written or oral (or both!) activities with the goal of inspiring students to create and share great work (get those bulletin boards ready!). These tasks are specific to each module’s texts, standards, and topic; therefore, each module is backward-designed from these questions, which drive student inquiry and focus assessment.
Take a moment to review the Gr3 lesson below to see how it all comes together. Start with the “end in mind” by reading the CREATE portion first. Then go back to the top and see how everything fits!
Thank you for a VIRTUALLY perfect week! Have have a great weekend…and don’t forget to share your thoughts on the CONTENT-CRAFT-CREATE learning framework of Wit & Wisdom via email, social media or during a Chat & Chew session!!
The Principal's Point of View 