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Memoria Press Composition vs. Writing With Ease/Skill


gwen0106
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My child is in fourth grade this year. Up to this point we have used Writing With Ease, after first grade it was a struggle and lessons usually ended in extreme frustration-there was a struggle with remembering dictation. We switched to Memoria Press' Intro to Composition this year and he's already doing better. My question is should I use it for a year then try Writing With Skill for fifth grade? Or stick to Memoria Press and try to accelerate to have him in the correct level by fifth grade? (Intro is technically third grade level). Anyone else have experience with this?

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My understanding is WWS is a big jump up from WWE. If WWE was a struggle and MP is working then I wouldn't change. I have heard that MP classical comp works well for students and that many enjoy it. It is thorough and cycles back on itself to reinforce past learning. That seems lovely to me.

 

ETA: 4th isn't late to start Fable. I think 4th is the perfect time to start the classical writing sequence actually. :)

Edited by nixpix5
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  • 2 weeks later...

I used Memoria with my oldest girl. Memoria teaches lots of style that will come in useful when your student gets to writing essays in the high school years. While I really loved Memoria, I did switch to Analytical Grammar's Beyond the Book Report, Teaching the Essay, Teaching the Research Paper -- both of which are now included in levels 2 and 3 or BBR. Now we are using Sharon Watson's The Power In Your Hands.

 

Memoria was good for the girl who had a terrible time putting her own thoughts on paper. Not because she couldn't -- but because she was more introverted. It was too personal. So, the writing by imitation and paraphrasing was good for her. But eventually, I had to get her to use the "writing process" in working on essays. Not just impersonal research papers, but learning to logically write content. The background years of memoria have helped her tremendously. I remember that she had a dramatic difference in her writing across the content areas after just a semester of Memoria. We did Memoria back in her 5th or 6th grade years. Now she is in High school.

 

The Writing with Ease and Writing with Skill books teach the writing process in a very clear way. If you student is able to work with it.  Sharon Watson also has her Jump In, which is an elementary writing program that teaches various types of writing. What I like is that it is written "to the student" so I can read it out loud to my children or teach it as a one on one discussion.  The concepts are clear and really easy to use.

 

If you are concerned about teaching the writing process, I would recommend look at Sharon Watson's website and compare her Jump In to the Writing with Ease and Writing with Skill. I have all three of these books and have used different books with my children at different grade levels, as well as not at all with one of them.

https://writingwithsharonwatson.com/jump-in/

 Best wishes as you check out your options.

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