After Successful Pilot, Massachusetts District Overhauls Literacy Instruction.

While visiting two underperforming schools as part of a series of regular walk-throughs, Haverhill Public Schools Chief of Teaching, Learning, and Leading, Bonnie Antkowiak, and ELA Curriculum Supervisor for K–12, Jennifer Peterson, had a realization: Major changes needed to happen to literacy instruction in the classrooms—and fast.  

At the time, the elementary schools in Haverhill Public Schools were using Fountas & Pinnell reading mini lessons. But during their walkthrough, the two seasoned literacy experts quickly realized that this approach was not meeting the needs of all Haverhill students. Rigorous, grade-level texts were not at the center of teaching. Furthermore, the learning experiences were not equitable for all students.  

Rallying Around a New Curriculum  

Antkowiak and Peterson began talking to teachers at Haverhill Public Schools, especially kindergarten through third-grade teachers, about the Science of Reading and how important that was as students build foundational reading skills. They met with community and school board members and explained that improving students’ reading skills in the district was an all-hands-on-deck moment. 

After researching multiple curricula, a team of Haverhill leaders, coaches, and teachers visited a neighboring district that uses Wit & Wisdom® and liked what they saw.  

Antkowiak told committee members how “Wit & Wisdom prioritized high-quality texts and ordered topics to build upon one another. The curriculum also required more student engagement in the class and much more writing than students had been doing previously.” 

Despite facing budget shortfalls similar to those seen in districts around the country, Haverhill leaders’ initial groundwork—meeting with community members and teachers— helped them convince the school committee and others of the critical importance of bringing in a new curriculum to ensure students were prepared for future success.  

Piloting Wit & Wisdom 

Two schools piloted Wit & Wisdom during the 2023–24 school year in third and fourth grades (Tilton Elementary and Golden Hill Elementary), and two additional schools piloted it for fifth grade (Nettle Middle School and Consentino Middle School).

Shifting from the balanced literacy program to Wit & Wisdom was a significant change for teachers participating in the pilot. Support was crucial. Teachers received ongoing professional learning and participated in monthly curriculum meetings that specifically addressed Wit & Wisdom topics.  

The schools also value community and family engagement, so Wit & Wisdom became a central part of schools’ family information nights.  

One key feature Antkowiak and Peterson applaud about Wit & Wisdom, in addition to the emphasis on writing in class, is the background knowledge it builds in social studies and science. This helps close knowledge gaps in writing and reading comprehension between students who walk into school with a lot of background information about topics that come up in books or on tests and those who don’t. Antkowiak gives the example of an old state assessment question that asked students to write about their favorite snowy day. “There were children newly arrived from Puerto Rico who were like ‘what are you talking about?’” 

With Wit & Wisdom, Peterson says, “We're leveling the playing field for our students. We're exposing them all to this knowledge so that they all have something to write about. You can't write about what you don't know. And so when they're learning about it and writing about it, it's all tied together. It just makes it so much easier.” 

Wit & Wisdom in Action : As part of the Wit and Wisdom ELA curriculum, students have been studying sea life. In the fall, students from Golden Hill elementary school took a field trip to Haverhill High to visit the science labs for a Squid Exploration class. Golden Hill students had been learning about squid and were excited for the opportunity to watch the high school students dissect one. An exciting opportunity to bring their ELA learning with a hands-on science activity

Peterson said classrooms look and sound different since they adopted Wit & Wisdom. “We saw a Socratic seminar [during a first-grade observation]. You know I have high school teachers telling me that they can't get their kids engaged in these Socratic seminars, and I saw it happening in first grade last week.” 

Positive Outcomes

Despite the learning curve for teachers tackling new material at a new cadence, the classes that piloted the curriculum had positive results the first year.   

“At the end of the year, our teachers who piloted were excited about it. They put in the work, and they saw the results,” says Peterson proudly.  

Other findings include: at the Tilton School, Grade 4 students scored 2 percentage points higher than the district in the “meeting and exceeding” category on MCAS. And at Golden Hill School, Grade 3 students scored 8 percentage points higher than the district in meeting and exceeding category. 

What’s Next 

This year (2024–2025) Wit & Wisdom is being fully implemented in K–5 across Haverhill Public Schools. Teachers and principals who participated in the pilot, and have a year of Wit & Wisdom under their belts, have been able to provide guidance to educators and school leaders starting Wit & Wisdom for the first time. 

“We have a Google chat space for just our principals who have already done Wit & Wisdom, and it's kind of nice because the [principals] who implemented it last year are able to talk to the ones [who are new to it] this year, so a question is answered right away, or if they see something cool in the classroom, they can share pictures back and forth,” shares Antkowiak. 

“Overall, the consensus is that teachers are excited about [the new curriculum]. It’s hard work. But it’s a learning year,” Bonnie says. “We share with them that we’re learning too.”  

One of their goals for this year is “to really include our families more” around the curriculum. “The modules (and particularly the family tip sheets) are super helpful to send home and have parents be able to ask questions to their students,” shares Peterson.  

Peterson says that at one school’s Back to School night she was excited to see “teachers had tables set out around the playground, and they all had tablecloths on the tables that related to the theme of the Wit & Wisdom module that they were [currently] in. So, one was space, and one was the sea, and one was all about having a great heart—both literally and figuratively—and they had all the texts for the grade level out on display, and the teachers were there to answer questions that parents had.” 

Antkowiak said she also loves the student confidence she’s seeing as she visits classrooms. 

“I was in a multilingual classroom in kindergarten, and the teacher was just doing this great job. You know, doing echo reading and talking to the kids. And the kid goes, ‘Am I killing it, or what? I'm killing it with this,’” she recalls. “He felt such pride in himself, like he knew what was coming next. He knew the routine. He understood what was going on for the themes, and we all just kind of looked at him. We started laughing.”