SWB posted a scope and sequence for WWS 1 to 3 in post #131 of this thread: Answering questions about Writing With Skill This was the document she linked: Topoi-expanded I cannot find the document at that link now. If anyone has the original scope & sequence, can you please send it to me? I can PM you my email address.

SWB had posted a PDF of the WWS Scope & Sequence when WWS1 came out. I can't find it any longer. Does anyone have it?

Hi all, While supplies last, we're offering VERY LIGHTLY scratched/scuffed books from Well-Trained Mind Press for 60% off the cover price! We have The Story of the World (activity books, textbooks, and tests), First Language Lessons, Writing With Ease, Writing With Skill, The Creative Writer, Telling God's Story, and many more. These books (which, honestly, aren't very scratched, and just look like they'll look once your children have them for a few weeks anyway) are only available through our office, not our website, so call 1.877.322.3445 to find out what's available and to make your purchase. Justin from Well-Trained Mind Press

I've started WWS 1 with my 7th grader this year. We've used IEW for the past two years, and he did fine with it (however the checklists about drove us crazy. :laugh:) Before that we did Classical Writing Aesop A and B. He is a good writer, and can easily do written narrations. He also has experience with outlining (complete outlines, not just the one level that WWS 1 has them do.) I really like the look of this program, but I'm not sure if I should place him in a different level or if we should just push through this one more quickly since I already own it and can't return it (bought it a couple years ago.) Since we are only in week 4, it might end up not being an issue in a few weeks. Any thoughts? Thanks!

I know there are many questions that I won't answer here...but post them and I'll do my best to address them. So, we'll start here.... 1) AVAILABILITY OF LEVEL 1. Currently we are on schedule to have the entire, proofread, typeset, finished PDF ready for sale in October 2011; and the print book for sale December 2011. (If copies are ready sooner, we'll let you know.) In the meantime, the first seven weeks and the full table of contents are available as free PDF downloads from the Well-Trained Mind blog: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/resource-roundup/writing-with-skill-the-full-table-of-contents-and-first-seven-weeks/"]http://www.welltrainedmind.com/resource-roundup/writing-with-skill-the-full-table-of-contents-and-first-seven-weeks/ Further weeks, for those of you who intend to hold out for the print book, can be requested by emailing my assistant, Pattie Worth: executiveassistant@welltrainedmind.com. It has been incredibly helpful to me to get feedback early in the process from many of you. If you feel that you can't continue without the print book, I do understand, but I hope you'll consider sticking with it and sending comments/problems/suggestions/questions to me (via Pattie). The books will be available from Amazon about eight weeks after it is available directly from Peace Hill Press. 2) AVAILABILITY OF FUTURE LEVELS. I'm on schedule to finish one level per year. What this means is that future levels will be available in September of each succeeding year...as long as you're willing to work from manuscript/PDF copies that we send you by email until the printed books are finished. Again, this is an invaluable part of the process for me--getting feedback from parents before the final books are printed. I had originally intended to make WWS available starting in the fall of 2012, and the Feb. 2012 pub date was so that we'd have copies for the spring curriculum fairs. However, the beta testers were SO helpful that I'd like to continue to put the program out a year earlier for feedback. The more parents and kids who use this, the more effectively I can fine-tune it. Drawbacks: You get manuscript/PDF copies and they're not as pretty. And you have to print them yourself. Advantages: It's free. 3) INTENDED AGE/GRADE: Writing With Skill can be begun by any student who is writing at a fifth grade level or above. If you're coming out of Writing With Ease: Children who have finished Writing With Ease 3 and are working at about a fifth-grade level can usually skip Writing With Ease 4 and go straight into Writing With Skill. Writing With Ease 4 continues to develop skills in narration and composition and also exposes children to a wider range of prose styles--all of this helps younger students mature to the point where they're ready to begin Writing With Skill. WWS asks students to write about a wide range of topics and also demands a fair amount of self-direction and determination...which is often a matter of maturity, not skill. If you're not sure, simply ask the student to complete Week 1 of the free PDF download (Week One: Narrative Summaries). If the student can do this without too much struggle, you can move on ahead in WWS. Deer-in-the-headlights reaction = go back and work on WWE 4 for six months and then try again. Although this is labelled "Level 1," it is valuable as pre-rhetoric for any student who is not prepared to go directly into the rhetoric studies outlined in TWTM. Finishing the four levels of WWS will actually prepare most students to go into basic-level college composition. 3) SCOPE AND SEQUENCE. WWS is a spelled-out, detailed, week-by-week development of the writing skills that are expected of pre-rhetoric students in TWTM. a) Writing With Skill teaches explicit skills in outlining, narrative composition, and sentence style. b) It also teaches directly how to construct and write chronological narratives, descriptions, biographical sketches, and sequences, across the curriculum (assignments are in both humanities and sciences). c) WWS teaches explicitly how to write brief literary reactions to both short stories and prose. d) WWS teaches basic research skills, documentation, and definition/avoidance of plagiarism. e) WWS teaches students to combine the four elements of (b) into longer compositions. WWS does NOT teach grammar explicitly; our assumption is that you will use it with a separate grammar program. 4) HOW TO USE IT. WWS consists of two books, the Student Workbook and the Instructor Guide. You need both of them. (For some reason, Amazon has the Student Workbook listed as an alternate "format" for the Instructor Guide. We're trying to get this fixed, but they're not WAY responsive, in case you hadn't noticed.) The program is directed AT the student; by this point, students should be taking on more of the responsibility for their own writing (since, after all, writing is a self-directed activity). The Instructor Guide provides you with suggested answers and rubrics for each step, plus detailed guidance in how to teach the student skills that he or she may struggle with. Incidentally, if you want the print book before February you can call PHP and pre-order it now by calling the PHP office. Order before Dec. 1 and we'll give you a 10% discount plus free shipping on those two books. OK...questions? Another post about Advanced Language Lessons coming shortly. SWB

I read somewhere that CAP's W&R book 3 flows nicely into WWS. I anticipate finishing up CAP W&R book 3 before my daughter is ready for WWS and was thinking of going through W&R book 4 before moving on to WWS. Would there be too much overlap between book 4 and WWS? It looks like W&R books 4-6 do cover roughly the same material as WWS. Any opinions on whether one does a better job of it than the other?

I am needing advice on how to proceed with writing for my daughter who will be in 8th grade this fall. She did 1/2 of Cover Story and then Time Capsule through Attune Up in 6th grade. This year for 7th grade we did CC, so she will have completed Lost Tools of Writing 1 as well as misc. science reports. I really don't know where to go from here. I ordered WWS for my 6th grader to start after doing IEW SWI B this year. It looks very good, but I am wondering if it is too incremental or slow for my 8th grader. She wouldn't complete the course until 10th grade at one level per year. I like that it is taught to the student though. Has anyone used WWS at a faster pace? Is there another curriculum I should look at? Writing is not my forte so I need something clear and easy to follow like WWS looks to be. Budget is a factor, so I am not looking at online classes this year. Thanks in advance for any advice. Angela

What writing style is used in WWS? My dd wants to use some periodicals instead of books for one of the writing assignments instead of books and we aren't sure the proper way to reference them. Thanks!

So my 4th grade daughter is not in love with writing. We started in 2nd grade with WWE and went through WWE3 with lots of tears and fighting before we gave that up. This year we've tried a multitude of things: 6-Traits from Evan-Moore, online class through charter school, and finally hit on a gem, IEW Student Writing Intensive (SID-A). This has been working better than anything else we've used so far, but we're not very far into it yet to make a long term decision. However, I'm having to buy my curriculum for next year within the next month or two before I have much of IEW under my belt. As much as I like IEW, the DVDs are a little annoying to both my daughter and me. We don't like being told something we can read much faster. BUT, it's working and I don't want to mess up a good thing. On the other hand, I like that WWS is written to the student and seems to follow similar methods to IEW, and it leaves behind the narration/dictation that caused such tears in the past. BUT I've also heard it's quite difficult. So what I'm wondering is if should we continue on with with IEW and get the SICC-A and continue to put up with the DVDs? Or should we move over to WWS1? I don't want to leave gaps in her learning, so I'm honestly willing to do both, SICC-A followed by WWS1, if that is a better sequence. Does anyone have any wonderful pearls of wisdom for me on this one? Anyone used both and can give me some perspective? Thanks for any help you can give!! Amanda

Any experience with WWS I Course? I wonder if D12 can do this independently. I wonder how much parent involvement is required with the course?

I have used WWS1 and 1/2 of WWS2 with my older, and we are about to beta test WWS3 (while concurrently finishing WWS2!) and begin WWS1 with my younger. The biggest thing I have found so far is that as much as I wish I could just hand a writing program over to my children and then just help when needed, that this approach will not work for us. I must be fully engaged in their learning. I think that for many kids the art of writing needs a coach in addition to good materials. So I want to talk about how we will actually teach this curriculum and make it work for our kids. So here are some of the things that I will be doing this year: 1. Review. There is a lot of very specific instruction in WWS, and in the past, we have just copied down the topos in a notebook and not really used it again. This year, I will instead do 3 things: (1) have them write it down in their own words and not copy, (2) put it on "writing walls" -- large sheets of cardboard that can be set around them during writing time so everything is visible at once (this is instead of a notebook), (3) verbally review and have them put the details and big picture to memory. 2. Find examples in the material they are reading for other subjects. I think that WWS needs to be integrated into all of our subjects, so I am going to ask them to find examples of different topos and show me. 3. Plan ahead. Sometimes the topics that SWB has chosen are not known to my kids (oops), and I would like for them to read up on these topics over the week prior to the assignment. So I will be reading ahead and having them go to the library the week prior. 4. Constantly remind them about how the topos fit into the big picture. This is where National Geographic will also come in handy. Description, narration, persuasion, expository paragraphs all mixed together to make a cohesive whole. We will be looking closely at these articles to keep the big picture clearly in mind as we work through the details. 5. With my younger, we will do WWS1 at half speed. I think that this program is a huge jump from elementary writing, and I want him to have a full week to do each week's writing assignment (not just 1 day). We will expand 'day 4' over five days (so 2 four-day weeks for each WWS 'week'). I would like to see how others are making WWS work for their children. Ruth in NZ