Choreographing Instructional Routines with Multilingual Learners in Mind

When I walk into a Wit & Wisdom® classroom, I enter an exciting place where I see Word Walls and anchor charts. I see module questions and artifacts, such as core text cover images, displayed on creative and colorful bulletin boards. I see students eagerly lean over interesting books and urgently capture their ideas in their journals. Sometimes, I close my eyes and listen. Then I hear teachers ask rigorous and engaging questions. I hear the buzz as students discuss these questions with their classmates. Often, I hear the squeak of chairs being pushed away from desks as students move to interact with each other and the lesson content.

These dynamic classroom sights and sounds remind me of choreography. Part of this artful choreography involves careful planning of instructional routines. Wit & Wisdom’s instructional routines drive student engagement by activating different ways to process a text. When students participate in instructional routines, they build content knowledge, deepen their understanding, and develop literacy skills. Including multilingual learners (MLLs) in the lively choreography of Wit & Wisdom instruction is crucial to their success. MLLs need access to language development, concepts, and skills provided by grade-level content and literacy instruction (National Academy of Sciences 310). To help MLLs succeed, teachers must plan how to include MLLs in instructional routines.  

Effective Scaffolds for Five Common Instructional Routines

The Wit & Wisdom Implementation Guide (located in the Teacher Resource Pack) outlines the purpose, grouping, and instructions for the frequently used routines in Wit & Wisdom. Below are a few instructional routines and some ways teachers might scaffold them to support MLLs.

1. Think–Pair–Share

Students think about a question, then share a response with a partner, and finally share ideas with the whole group. 

2. Word Wall

A Word Wall supports students in tracking, using, and deepening understanding of vocabulary. In Kindergarten and Grade 1, students use Word Walls instead of vocabulary journals, but teachers can effectively support vocabulary development through Grade 8 by using the Word Wall strategy. 

3. Anchor Chart

An anchor chart captures information, strategies, or procedures foundational to students’ learning. It is often created collaboratively, and it is frequently developed and used across lessons. 

4. Jigsaw

In a Jigsaw, students study one section of a text (or task) and share with students who studied other sections. Students can then access the ideas from the full text without closely reading the full text. 

5. Stop and Jot

Stop and Jot allows individual written responses to texts and learning. This routine provides teachers ongoing assessment data and helps students track their thinking. 

Instructional Routines in Wit & Wisdom Prologue™

Prologue lessons prepare students in Grades 6–8 to engage in Wit & Wisdom lessons. Prologue lessons use many Wit & Wisdom instructional routines to foster purposeful discussion and support oral language development. The Prologue Implementation Guide includes an overview of all instructional routines used in Prologue lessons and recommended scaffolds.

Summary

Wit & Wisdom’s instructional routines offer opportunities for active learning in which students take center stage to grapple with rich content and make their thinking visible. During these instructional routines, students move and speak with purpose, as though they are performing a dance. MLLs deserve the spotlight, too. When teachers include MLLs in instructional routines with appropriate support, MLLs also get to participate in the vibrant choreography of a Wit & Wisdom classroom.

Works Cited

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures. The National Academies Press, 2017, p. 310.