Writing with Ease: Workbook - Level 1

The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease

by Susan Wise Bauer, Peter Buffington

In Writing with Ease, Susan Wise Bauer lays out an alternative plan for teaching writing, one that combines the best elements of old-fashioned writing instruction with innovative new educational methods. The Complete Writer workbooks (each sold separately) complement this plan with lessons, student worksheets, and teacher instructions for every day of writing instruction. Each covers one year of study.

Used along with Writing with Ease, The Complete Writer, Level One (first in a four-volume set) complete the elementary-grade writing curriculum.

Genres: Writing, School, Education

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2008

About the author

Susan Wise Bauer is an American author, English instructor of writing and American literature at The College of William and Mary, and founder of Well-Trained Mind Press (formerly Peace Hill Press).

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for reading comprehension but the copywork is sort of useless when using a separate penmanship program like we are. I've already purchased level two for next year so we'll continue but I have my eye on some more rigorous things after that.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A workbook I'm using to homeschool my children - ages 7 & 9 currently, they just finished book 1 and we will definitely be using book 2. There are perforated tear-out worksheets where kids can practice writing on topics related to readings, mostly traditional children's literature (I confess, I also used the book as a backdoor "reading list" - we ordered most of the books from which the selections were drawn!). Book 1 practices penmanship and some simple concepts, like rules for capitalization and punctuation and writing a complete sentence.

[North Landesman · Rating 5 out of 5]

We completed this last summer. Excellent way to get students started on the basics of writing.

[Rykki · Rating 2 out of 5]

The system used with Writing with Ease is simple. The child is supposed to copy sentences and learns how to express a thought in a complete sentence. While I like the general idea of copy work leading to the evolution of proper writing skills, I'm finding the format is better to be taken and adapted than to follow by the book exactly. The lines on each page are much too large for my six-year-old. We've just been using one of those story composition books. The excerpts selected are nothing special either. A parent with a little time and a few favorite books could come up with a comparable selection to use with each child. This would be especially useful for a parent that wants to do writing every day, not just four days of the week.

Overall, I like the idea of this book for a parent that doesn't know where to start, but I find the pace too slow. Four lessons a week aren't enough for my son. I ended up doing an entire week of lessons in a day. He enjoys the work and always wants to jump on to the next part. I might give this another go when my next son hits Kindergarten age, or we may just work on our own.

[T.]

So glad Susan wrote this writing curriculum. I tried her methods in my early homeschooling attempts, and then at Archway Veritas we used this new curriculum. The plan is to get my own copy of Writing with Ease, Writing with Skill, etc., and use with my own kids.

[Joann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for us.