Since I was in first grade, my family has used Well-Trained Mind’s writing curriculum: Writing with Ease. In this post, I want to share about the curriculum and why we have chosen to use it.
Our Experience
I used WWE levels 1 and 2 in first and second grade, respectively. My younger sister and brother used the same curriculum as second and third-graders. Level 1 is designed for first or second grade, and level 2 is designed for second or third grade. The workload is very manageable for these grade levels, and it teaches reading comprehension and writing skills that set up the student for success in later English courses.
How it works
The week is broken into four days. For level 1, Day 1 is Copywork, Day 2 is Narration, Day 3 is Copywork, and Day 4 is Narration (or, later in the year, Narration and Copywork). For level 2, Day 1 is Narration, Day 2 is Copywork, Day 3 is Dictation, and Day 4 is Narration and Dictation. The narration exercise comes from a piece of children’s literature (which changes every week), and the selections are very high quality. My brother is in level 2 this year and is currently in the sixth week. So far, he’s listened to excerpts from Aesop’s Fables, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Doctor Dolittle, Misty of Chincoteague, and My Shadow. After each narration passage, there are reading comprehension questions that the student is expected to answer in full sentences.
The copywork is one of the sentences from the passage, which the student will copy onto a sheet of lined paper. The dictation is the same sentence or two from the copywork exercise. This time the teacher reads the sentences twice aloud and then the student repeats the sentences before writing them on his paper.
Finally, day 4 connects the previous days. For level 1, it is both narration and copywork. For level 2, the student listens to another narration passage and answers reading comprehension questions. Then, he summarizes the passage in 2-3 sentences, which the teacher will write on a sheet of lined paper. Finally, the teacher will dictate one of those sentences to the student who will write it on his own sheet of paper.
Writing with Ease is a great curriculum that my family has used for years. It is designed to use high-quality reading passages to teach the student reading comprehension and how to write good sentences. Between copywork, narration, and dictation the student learns skills that will be very important for courses later in life.
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