The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease: Instructor Text (The Complete Writer) |  | Author: Susan Wise Bauer
Publisher: Peace Hill Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Seller: zp_books
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 5,036
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 193333925X
Dewey Decimal Number: 372.623
EAN: 9781933339252
ASIN: 193333925X
Publication Date: August 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In Writing with Ease, Susan Wise Bauer (author of The Well-Trained Mind) lays out an alternative plan for teaching writing, one that combines the best elements of old-fashioned writing instruction with innovative new educational methods. Young students who learn to write well need one-on-one instruction—something which your child's classroom may not offer. In The Complete Writer series, Susan Wise Bauer turns every parent into a writing teacher. No experience is needed. Drawing on her fifteen years of experience in teaching writing, Susan lays out a carefully-designed sequence of steps that will teach every student to put words on paper with ease and grace. This alternative plan for teaching writing combines the best elements of old-fashioned writing instruction with innovative new educational methods—and explains why so many writing programs fail.
Designed for elementary-aged writers and for older students who still struggle, Writing With Ease builds a sturdy foundation of basic skills for grades 1–4 (or levels 1–4 for the older student who needs more work) all in the same book. Diagnostic tests within the book will help the parent to determine where the child needs to start and which workbook the child will need. You can use the text by itself as a guide, then choose your own copywork and dictation; or you can buy the workbooks (available separately), which do all the work for you. Each workbooks will cover one grade. This Instructor Text covers grades 1-4 in 144 lessons, 4 explanatory chapters, and 4 appendices.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
 line upon line August 17, 2008
J. Syphert (San Antonio, TX)
56 out of 56 found this review helpful
my daughter HATES to write. we've been using this program for a week, and already the sentences chosen to copy are so intriguing for her she actually requested we check out the book it's taken from. this is the child that doesn't have patience for chapter books. she's already read through 24 pages of it within the first two days of starting it. but i digress...
this copy work and narrative work is exactly what my daughter needs. mrs. bauer is precisely right when she teaches the parent that writing from thoughts is a two step process and the children need to be taught how to do those steps separately (copy work & narration - parent writes the narration). my child continuously gave me zippy little narratives because she didn't want to copy down big long sentences after she was done thinking it through. with the time to grow her writing ability even five words at a time while simultaneously strengthening her summary and narration skills, she is now on the path for inevitable success.
the best part is these writing exercises take no more than 5-10 minutes per day, four days per week. ahhh, gone are the cries in protest when i announce it's time to do writing! thank you susan bauer yet again!
Best writing program i have seen. August 8, 2008
calamitijane
49 out of 51 found this review helpful
This book is what i had hoped to find. My son has a vivid imagination and talks incessantly. But, when it came time for him to write he would write the simplist of sentances, ie. "I like blue." I was unsure of where to start. With this book I have four years of direction and an understanding of what he should be accomplishing. I have been using this book for 2 weeks now. I can already see a difference. I would never have thought it would help so quickly. I am glad that this book was released just in time for me. I look forward to years of using this book.
Best writing program for teaching thinking and organizing February 13, 2009
P. S. Mercer (Western states)
28 out of 28 found this review helpful
Susan Wise Bauer is dead-on correct with her approach to teaching writing. I've taught persuasive writing to freshmen in universities for 12 years in Utah, Virginia, and South Carolina. What's so disheartening is that these students believe that an essay with very few punctuation errors and some big vocabulary words thrown in for good measure (usually used incorrectly) should deserve an A grade. Completely lacking from their writing is evidence of their ability to THINK and to ORGANIZE. These students (I'd roughly guess about 85% of all I've taught) feel that since they've been cranking out shallow book reports and plagiarized research papers since 1st grade, they know how to write.
I'm also a homeschooling mom of eight children, and have been troubled by every writing curriculum I've encountered--until now. Most skip from one skill to another with little connection, focus on the self, or provide little instruction relevant to the crucial persuasive writing skills children need to develop to succeed in college and the real world.
But Writing with Ease lays the foundation for teaching children to THINK about the words, the sentences, the paragraphs, the ideas. Then it teaches them to ORGANIZE those ideas. My two oldest are natural writers, and now as teenagers are succeeding well. But this book has come at the right to help me guide my two boys who struggled with even learning to read by their eighth birthdays. We've always done copy work and written notes with their science and history lessons. Now with Writing with Ease I have the instruction and lessons to move my sons to the next level of competent writing.
No skill is more critical for the success of adults in any job or career than the skill of persuasive, organized writing. Try this book. The lessons take about 10 minutes' of preparation per day (I'm not using the workbooks). Hardly a big investment for such an important skill.
The Final Word on Teaching Writing October 13, 2008
Sally Linford
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
Susan Bauer's opening essay on the writing process and how to teach it is the most cogent, informed explanation I've ever read:
"Writing is a process that involves two distinct mental steps. First, the writer puts an idea into words; then, she puts the words down on paper.
INARTICULATE IDEA ---> IDEA IN WORDS
IDEA IN WORDS ---> WORDS ON PAPER
. . . The pianist practices first the right hand, and then the left hand, before putting the two together; the young writer practices putting ideas into words, and then putting words down on paper, before trying to do both simultaneously. . . What follows will equip you to train the young student in the language of writing."
And Bauer delivers on this promise perfectly; she shows even the most unprepared parent or teacher how to teach good writing in just a few minutes a day. Her program will be a great relief to students who feel overwhelmed by writing assignments. It's all so manageable: she even tells you exactly what to do if you're starting with a "reluctant older student(grade 6-12)."
To make her case, her own writing is so easy and delightful that it's relaxing to read. I'm ordering the workbooks.
Thank you, Ms Bauer.
Writing With... August 15, 2009
N. Uzoff (Austin, TX)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
This book was published at just the correct time for us. We've just completed 3rd Language Lessons by the same author and I felt that my 3rd/4th grade daughter was not where I expected her to be in her actual writing skills. So nice to read this book and have my concerns eliminated - composing a thought in one's head is NOT automatically related to getting that thought down on paper correctly. It takes copywork and dictation and guidance to get it right.
This book helps with all the steps in helping your child get it right; going week by week for 4 years covering what your child should be working on. This is the actual book NOT the student workbook; if you just use this book you will need to find your own sources for the copywork and the dictation work. If you don't want to do that yourself, the workbooks have all of it already done for you; there's a workbook for each of the 4 levels. If your child is at 2nd grade or higher, please read the book first before buying any of the workbooks so that you don't buy one for a level too low.
I'm very pleased with the results already and we've only been using it for a week. I plan to use it from the start next year with my youngest when he begins First Language Lessons. There will be 2 follow-up books in The Complete Writer series. This one, Writing with Ease, is for years 1 to 4, Writing with Skill is for years 5 to 8, and Writing with Style is for years 9 to 12.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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