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, which do all the work for you.

Each workbooks will cover one grade. The first two workbooks will be published this summer and Workbook 3 will be published in mid-2009. The fourth workbook will probably be published shortly after that.

The second installment in the series, Writing with Skill, (publication date undetermined) will cover writing for grades 5–8 with workbooks for each grade. Eventually, all 12 grades (levels) will be covered.

(Check out some questions and answers about Writing with Ease on The Well-Trained Mind Forums.)

For recommended writing programs appropriate for middle and high school age students, click here.

Sample pages available now!

Chapter 3 — Why Writing Fails

Chapter 4 — The Three Stages

Chapter 8 — Year 1, Weeks 1–3

Chapter 11 — Year 4, Week 20