Writing with Ease: Level 4 Workbook (The Complete Writer)

I love this curriculum. My son has completed Levels 1 through 3 and is now working on Level 4. He is completely writing his own narration summaries. This series starts out with your child narrating his summaries for you to write down (Level 1) and then gradually moves the child to writing on his own. At the beginning of Level 4, your child is expected to write the first one or two sentences of his narration on his own, but it also allows a lot of flexibility depending on your child's skill level. Level 4 stretches the child's ability to remember long dictations, and the dictations are more complicated than in the previous levels. Dictations often include dialogue. The reading passages are interesting and come from wonderful books. My son often looks for the books introduced in the passages to read on his own. The passages come from a mix of fiction and nonfiction works. The lessons are short and focused. This level was more expensive than those I have purchased in the past -- maybe because it was just recently published? At any rate, it is well worth it as it saves me a lot of time.

This book provides the most thoughtful treatment of a true writing curriculum I have encountered. The author uses 1-2 page exerpts of published books; excellent literature, history texts; some familiar, some classics. There are themes that are carried for a couple of weeks; for example, the American civil war is a theme in the excerpt from "Little Women", it is continued in an exerpt from the author's own "History of the World", and the teacher reads aloud Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" for the students and then dictates two sentences from the address for students to write. The lessons are based on a 4-day week and the same passage is used for all 4 days. For example: Day one, the teacher reads the passage to the student and asks them to summarize what they just heard in 3-4 sentences. Students will have practice with dictation - hearing a short passage read aloud 3 times and then repeating the passage aloud and writing it in their notebook. There are reminders of how to teach when to insert commas, how an author can use incomplete sentences correctly, using dashes, etc. This book allows opportunities to teach not only writing with excellence, but literature, history, improving memory, punctuation, editing, logical thinking, and more. My only regret is that I did not encounter this curriculum earlier to use with my boys when they were younger. I highly reccomend this curriculum.

I have used the entire four year curriculum with 3 of my children and will use it with my fourth when she is old enough. Consequently, I thought I should write a review of the program and why I love it. Many famous authors began their writing by first copying down lines from accomplished authors before embarking on their own writing careers. This is the premise of "Writing with Ease" - the first years the student copies lines from great works or dictates their own sentences to the teacher. By the 4th year the teacher dictates sentences and the student has to write them down. There are 4 lessons per week with 2 set aside to copywork or dictation (copywork for the younger grades and dictation for the older). Besides writing there is a reading and comprehension part to the program and 2 days are set aside for the reading assignment. The younger student is asked leading questions to prompt him to the correct summation of the passage. As they get older they are just asked to summarize the passage without prompts from the parent/teacher. Specifically, the Level four book continues with dictation (copywork was done in years one and two). The dictation sentences are quite lengthy: some of them as long as a paragraph. This has caused problems for my children as they have a hard time remembering it all. Therefore, I will either break up the dictation into smaller chunks, or dictate part of it and have them copy the rest down so they are not so overwhelmed. As for the reading and summation part of the book, the parent no longer ask leading questions to help the student sum up the passage. If the student has issues, there are questions provided for the parent to help the student arrange their thoughts into logical sentences. Once the parent writes down what the student says, then the sentences are dictated back to the child for them to write down. The main focus of this book is having the child logically sum up the passage without prompts from the parent/teacher. But like I said there are questions provided if your child is having issues. The workbook is set up with the parent portion at the beginning of the workbook and the student's reading passages and writing pages at the back. One thing I do so I am able to use the books with all of my children is I do not have my children use the worksheets. I prefer to have my kids write on our own paper. This way I can continue to use the same book year after year. You can copy the worksheets, but I personally feel this is a waste of ink. The books are holding up well after being used three separate times with the three girls. I did protect the cover with clear contact paper. I should also add all types of sentences are covered: statement, command, question and exclamation; along with all types of punctuation: period, commas, quotations, exclamation and question marks, contractions, etc. Passages are taken not only from fiction but also from history books, biographies, autobiographies and even poems. It is quite amazing how much is covered within these workbooks. The girls love the reading aspect of the program and the summation (they have even been known to check out the books at the library after reading a passage of the book within the curriculum), but sometimes my children have had issues with the dictation. Some of the sentences have been quite long. When that happens I usually break it up or have them copy part of it instead. But this program has created much better writers. Enjoyment of anything usually comes after hours of work and effort have gone into perfecting the skills, and writing is no exception. This is a program also takes time on the parents part, but no more than 10 minutes per day on average, but there is nothing the parent has to do prior to the lesson as everything is provided. So to sum it up. I wholeheartedly believe in this writing curriculum. The idea that good writing comes from reading and copying the writing of other amazing authors is a proven one. My children have developed and enhanced their writing skills. This may be the last book of the series, but having a good base in writing is just the beginning of excellent writing.

Super disappointed. For 4 years, we have used all of Susan Wise Bauer's materials so far and loved them. This book is different. The book that arrives at your home says "Optional & Remedial For Older Students" at the top...yet as of today 9/22/15, it does NOT show that in the image or description used on Amazon. I am 33 days from purchase and cannot return it, as the policy is 30 days only. This book is NOT the next step after Level 3. Do not buy it. It is 36 weeks of repetitive original sentence & dictation exercises. The only value in this book is that it introduces the child to passages of great literature. The rest is not helpful.

I really like Susan Wise Bauer's approach to teaching comprehension and reading skills....however these lessons are a bit repetitive and boring. I condensed the 4 lessons to 2 lessons and skipped a lot that were repeats. Example...Lesson for Day 1, they read a few paragraphs from "Pinocchio" and then I ask them to summarize the story. I write down the first sentence they said, without them seeing it...then I ask them if they can remember it. Then that is it?? For one day?? Really?? Then the next day you repeat a sentence 3 times to them and see if they can write it from memory...(that sentence is from the reading on Day 1)...Then they repeat it back to you without looking.(that is all for one lesson) The next lesson they may write from dictation a sentence from the same paper....or a different story altogether....Depends. Either way it seems like they are using the same sentence for 4 days and each lesson only takes 5 -10 minutes....So instead of dragging it out for 4 days, I condense it for 2 lessons and skip the ones that seem to be repeats. Overall, it is a good outline and a great tool for teaching comprehension skills...I give it 4 stars and I like it, but not LOVE it.

I originally ordered the teacher manual because the ideas for the lessons were all included. I soon found out that I didn't care to be looking for all the right passages for my children to use. This workbook has made it so much simpler. Now we are able to concentrate on learning the skills of narration and dictation which my older two had very little experience with in traditional school. After completing just a few weeks of the lessons in this workbook (they actually write in a separate notebook) I feel they have transitioned well from the "read a passage-take a test " style of learning they practiced for their first five & six years of schooling. I am confident they will learn well next year as we switch to "living books" for many of our subjects. I will save this for my younger two who began with level 1 this year.

This writing curriculum is wonderful. It is very complete, and my daughter enjoys it. Each week you read a section from a story, and your child writes, in their own words, what the story was about. There are also dictation exercises to be done during the week. I love the stories they give you to read in this book. It has sparked my daughter's interest in the books they read from. Our lessons usually only take about 15 minutes per day, so it's very doable. I also highly recommend using this with their grammar curriculum, "First Language Lessons." These two books compliment each other very well.

Level 4 is intended to be a sort of remedial level, if a child isn't ready to move on to Writing with Skill. My son isn't ready and we will continue to reinforce with WWE level 4. I can see how this method is really building strong language skills and it works best for my son, who really struggles with writing (though he excels in reading). Minus two stars for the excessively long and difficult dictation exercises. I have difficulty remembering word for word the three or four complex sentences that are to be read aloud three times and remembered. We easily make adjustments to fit our situation, as we are very familiar with this program. I don't know that I would start using this book with a 9-10 year old, unaccustomed to this method of learning language arts.

As with the other levels, this has great reading selections and excerpts for dictation. I wasn't sure about using a fourth volume with my child, but I'm glad we continued - my 12 year old child's reading comprehension and writing is continuing to develop solidly.

Best for kids with difficulties

excellent + thank you