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The Complete Writer: Writing With Ease, Four-Year Guide
$13.18 – $28.01
Increase teacher confidence with four years of expertly designed elementary writing instruction! The Four-Year Guide provides detailed teacher guidance, plus examples and criteria for adding your own reading, narration, and copywork passages. For a no-prep solution, see the Workbooks – or combine them for the ultimate in teacher support.
Product Overview
The Four-Year Guide will take you through a carefully-designed sequence of steps that will teach every student to put words on paper with ease and grace, over the course of four carefully graded levels of assignments. You add your choice of reading material for narrations and copywork from your student’s other subjects or from your favorite literature!
The Writing With Ease, Four-Year Guide is not a required resource if you choose to use the Workbooks. However, this guide gives an overview of what the four years of writing instruction will look like, as well as a deeper understanding of the philosophy behind them. It also provides helpful guidance in trouble-shooting for those who encounter difficulties. Combine the 4-Year Guide with the Workbooks for the ultimate in teacher support and the time savings of no-preparation workbooks!
Katie Seevers –
I’ve been homeschooling for 11 years and have 6 kids. We’re on our 3rd round of Writing With Ease with our 3 youngest. It is so helpful in prepping kids for writing, taking notes, comprehension, finding the main idea in a story etc. Great job!
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Tanya Michaud –
We started homeschooling and my kids are grade 5 and 6. Do we start with WWE? Would WWE be instead of a writing program like IEW?
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Kimberly –
Writing with Ease has been a fantastic curriculum. Susan does a great job getting to the basics of where writing begins and builds upon these fundamentals. Simple, simple, simple is our homeschool motto, and that is exactly what WWE does for our family while still retaining quality. Assignments are four days a week and extremely easy to make-up or double-up if a day is skipped. Check out my video review for more details.
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Constance Sundrla –
Is it essential for an eighth grader who enjoys writing to begin using Writing with Skill at Level 1, or can an eighth grader start at level III if she plans to attend high school next year?
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Feiyan Huang –
good
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Ashley Byrom –
Could I use the 4 year Guide and purchase the separate printable student pages? I like the idea of having one guides for all my kids…but each having their own set of student pages.
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Marzanne –
My almost 10 year old daughter just started Writing with ease book 2. We are Afrikaans home language but studying in English so only start formal writing later. We do SOW as well.
She finds the copy and dictation very easy in book 2. We didn’t do book 1 but have been doing narrations and copy work through other schooling. Can I skip some of the lessons? Are there crucial parts she will miss?
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Nick –
Is the literature used in the books the entire story? I am wondering if I would need to by a separate literature/enrichment curricula or if this will be enough in the classroom. Thanks!
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rtyson2 –
I have the WWE 4 year guide. I started it last year with my 9 year old but stopped due to it being too much, as she was doing dictations and summaries with SOTW, literature and science. I have a 3rd grader now and my now 10 year old, 5/6th grade. I’d like for us to take a crack at it again this year, but wondering if I should start both of them off with level 1 or bump my 10 yo up to level 2. Or honestly, is doing dictations and summaries with other subjects enough? Is it necessary to put this in our schedule, in addition. I don’t want them to fall behind but also don’t want them to be overworked. What would you suggest?
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Karen –
My 10 year old daughter is in fourth grade and will finish up the Writing With Ease Level 4 this spring. The Writing with Skill books appear to be too advanced for her to continue with them at this point. What do you recommend for her 5th and 6th grade years?
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Jenny –
I’ve worked through most phonics and my kindergartener is reading the emergent reader series. How does this book fit in? Does this take the place of literature and some reading or the place of penmanship?
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Question
Michele –
Do you need to start at level 1 or can you start with the level that corresponds with their grade?
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Answer Desk (verified owner) –
The levels are not grade equivalents, but we do have an assessment to help guide you: Click here for WWE Evaluations.
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Question
Vanessa O’Shaughnessy –
How many pages are included with the PDF version?
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Answer Desk (verified owner) –
It is 265 pages.
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Question
Hannah Ardis –
My son will be 3rd grade next year and we haven’t done much for writing, other than dictation but what level do you think I should start at with your curriculum? I assume level 3 but will there be a learning curve to jump in right now?
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Answer Desk (verified owner) –
Click here for our WWE placement evaluations.
They are not grade levels, so it’s absolutely find to start him where he needs to be. Even if he starts with Level 1, he will be ready for Writing with Skill or a similar program in sixth grade, and will complete the three-level series before high school. When a student completes Writing with Ease Level 3, they can move on to Writing with Skill.
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Question
shan –
Can use the student pages with this? Does it have the reading sections?
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Answer Desk (verified owner) –
No, the Four-Year Guide is not compatible with the workbooks, and is not required to use the workbooks. It is for people who want an overview of the skills for all four years and/or to select their own passages.
Each workbook has all of the teacher instruction needed, all required passages, and one set of consumable Student Pages. If you have more than one child in the same level, or simply don’t want to pull pages from your book, you can purchase an extra set of the consumable Student Pages only.
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Question
Neelie –
What’s the difference between the 2008 and the 2015 edition of the 4 Year Guide? Thanks.
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Answer Desk (verified owner) –
There is little difference between the two editions of “Writing With Ease Four-year Guide.”
1. Writing With Skill (the middle-grades curriculum) hadn’t been published yet when the original edition of WWE 4-year guide came out. So in the revised edition, we added some brief explanations of how WWS continues the process after the WWE books are completed.
2. For the revised edition, we added a chart explaining possible schedules/paths from elementary through high school.
3. We fixed a few typos and made a few directions slightly more clear
4. We changed the cover to make it clearer that this was a guide to designing an elementary writing curriculum.
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Question
Sharon –
I have a starting 7th grader who has had minimal writing instruction, adhd. What is a good starting point for her. Would we begin in Writing With Ease or Writing With Skill
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Answer Desk (verified owner) –
If your son can either write a decent paragraph or do the narrations in WWE Year 3, he can start with Writing with Skill Level 1. Click here to see the WWE Year 3 Sample, it includes Week 32 at the end, which would be a pretty good representation. If you’d like the entire WWE evaluation, please email [email protected] and request it.
With the ADHD, you may need to move through WWS at a slower pace, and that’s fine. When she finishes the three-level series, she will be prepared for rhetoric-level writing.
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Question
Cheryl L –
I’ve just seen this for the first time. I have a grandson who “hates to write”. He will be starting 4th grade in the fall of 2025. He has ADHD and Diplegia Cerebral Palsy. He has been in P.T. since he was 17 months old. But his therapist says he. mostly has “Dysgraphia”. We have tried several writhing programs with him with limited success. We have been told he is “very smart” as he does extremely well with reading and math but he truly can’t write. Would this program be helpful for him?
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Answer Desk (verified owner) –
Click here to read our article on dyslexia and dysgraphia and our writing programs.
WWE will not help with struggles related to the physical act of writing. It teaches thethree foundational skills that are a prerequisite to original writing:
Narration (taking something you’ve read or heard and putting it into your own words)
Copywork (reproducing properly written words and sentences)
Dictation (visualizing words and sentences and putting them down on paper)
We have some families that teach typing to their kids with these types of learning differences. The student is still learning how to put something in their own words, how to reproduce properly written words and sentences, and how to visualize words and sentences and put them down on paper. If the student has physical struggles that preclude typing, dictation software is an option to explore.
Note: The Four-Year Guide
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