Susan Wise Bauer has an opinion about how writing should be taught to children. Not surprising! The Complete Writer is the one who has mastered the three stages of writing -- Writing with Ease (combining the two distinct mental steps of putting ideas into words and putting words onto paper; grades 1-4), Writing with Skill (learning to organize sentences into short compositions; grades 5-8), and Writing with Style (the persuasive expression of ideas; grades 9-12). Judging from the thoroughness of the material being developed for the first stage, I think we will eventually see a K-12 scope and sequence of The Complete Writer material.

In the meantime, Writing With Ease provides easy-to-use materials for introducing this comprehensive approach to writing to young students; an approach that focuses on copywork (putting words on paper) and narration (putting ideas into words) ultimately combining the skills (Years 3 & 4). The Text is a program overview. The first section -- Understanding the Program -- describes the three stages of writing instruction and why most writing programs fail as well as a four year scope and sequence concluding with a segment on where/how to begin. Included here are some short diagnostic exercises that will help to determine if an older reluctant-writing student will profit by some portions of this program. Next comes a short but very practical section outlining preschool and kindergarten language instruction. The bulk of the text provides the weekly lessons for each level (year). Each year is divided into segments with a varying number of weeks. Each of these segments starts with a detailed lesson plan for the first week; then “tweaked” plans for the rest of the segment’s weeks (i.e. use slightly longer sentences for copywork; look for sentences that contain the proper names of days of the week and months of the year). Each year concludes with a mastery evaluation. Copywork sentences and narration excerpts are provided for each of these “first weeks” but not for the remaining weeks. There are several valuable appendices at the back of the Text -- what to do after program completion, troubleshooting (wise advice on student’s writing problems), frequently asked questions, and resource lists.

The Workbooks provide all the needed teacher preparation for each level making the program very user-friendly. The first half of each book (153 pgs in Level 1; 185 pgs in Level 2) is the teacher’s portion. This comes close to being scripted with all lessons carefully detailed. Copywork and narration excerpts for each lesson are included with background information provided and comprehension questions (with possible answers) that lead the child comfortably into narration. The last half of the books (144 pgs in Level 1; 177 pgs in Level 2) are student pages. It’s suggested that these be removed and given to the student but they are reproducible for family use (schools and co-ops need to make other arrangements with Peace Hill Press). Grade-appropriate writing space is provided along with copywork models. Occasionally, pen-and-ink illustrations brighten the pages.

There is a relationship between Writing With Ease and First Language Lessons (from the same author). Both share the same philosophy and while these writing skills are presented in FLL they are extensively developed and practiced in WWE. The WWE Text could be used independently of the WWE Workbooks with the parent/teacher selecting all their own copywork excerpts from other school material. Criteria for selection are provided with each lesson segment. Likewise, it might be possible although perhaps not desirable to use the Workbooks independently of the Text. They are designed to be used together and there is material in the Text that is not repeated in the Workbooks (at the beginning and end of the Text). However, all lesson material is carefully repeated in the Workbooks and often expanded in terms of teacher instruction. The Workbooks also provide the needed copywork models and narration excerpts for all lessons making them very comprehensive. ~ Janice