Assessments and Student Voice

Ongoing

You don’t need extra assessments to know what your students are learning. Wit & Wisdom includes both informal and formal, formative and summative assessments right where you need them:

• Checks for Understanding (CFUs): Quick, embedded moments that track student thinking without interrupting instruction
• Focusing Question Task Assessments: Meaningful questions responded to by using evidence from the texts at the end of each arc
• New-Read Assessments: A measure of how well students apply learning to an unfamiliar passage
• Socratic Seminar Assessments: Collaborative discussions that deepen understanding and build academic discourse
• End-of-Module Task: A culminating response to the Essential Question, drawing on skills and knowledge built across the module
• Socratic Seminars: One of the most powerful routines in Wit & Wisdom—and your planning makes them work
• Set the stage: Arrange seats in a circle, review expectations, and share questions in advance with students who need support.
• Support the discussion: Observe and guide only when necessary; use follow-up questions to deepen ideas.
• Wrap it up: Invite students to reflect on what they learned and how they communicated.

A few tips: post key vocabulary and sentence frames, use wait time, and offer structured participation tools (like a sentence starter) for reluctant speakers.

On the digital platform, assessments include a mix of automatically and manually scored items, with built-in reporting tools to support data-driven decisions.