FLL and Writing with Ease

[Guest jill1034]

My second grader is finishing up with FLL Level 2. Do I now move to FLL Level 3 and use Writing with Ease Level 3? I am going to use the diagnostic evals for the Writing with Ease but are these programs used together or are the redundant?

[Jay3fer]

The programs are meant to be used together and complement each other very nicely. Right now, we are using FLL2 and WWE2 and they sort of cover the same parts of speech, punctuation, etc, but not in a way that's too redundant or heavy. They are easily the most happy part of our schoolweek - each is practically guaranteed to be quick and easy and fun. :-)

[UrbanSue]

It is very easy to jump into FLL3 as a third grader regardless of what you've done before because it reviews everything. But, depending on what you've done for writing so far, WWE3 might be more than you want to jump in head first with. Definitely do those diagnostic tests and don't feel bad about doing whatever level you need. The two programs work together but not to such an extent that you'd be confused if you weren't using them both on "grade level". Many, many families here use WWE a year, or even two, behind. The fourth year is optional and if you are looking to move into WWS next, the statistical average around here to start that is sixth grade.

[echoterry]

Maybe I am overlooking it, but where do you find the diagnostics tests? Do you have to buy the book to get them?

[UrbanSue]

They are week 36 in all books. They are also included as one of the sample weeks in the hardbound Writing With Ease: Strong Fundamentals.

 

Basically, at the end of Year One your child should be able to copy a full sentence without error, answer questions from a passage 4-5 paragraphs long, and answer "What is one thing you remember about this passage?" in a complete sentence.

 

At the end of Year Two your child should be able to take one long or two short sentences from dictation after two repetitions, be able to answer questions about a passage 5 or 6 paragraphs long and summarize a passage in two or three sentences.

[Mom2TheTeam]

They are online somewhere....someone linked them once. I'll see if I can find them. Be back...

[Mom2TheTeam]

Okay, I found them on the samples page on PHP's website. Here is a direct link to the PDF: http://wtm-pdfs.s3.a...evaluations.pdf

 

All 4 years are there and they are titled "Year One Mastery Evaluation Week 36" and so on.

 

I agree with the above that you can jump into FLL on grade level, but if you child has not done a lot of copywork or narrations, you will need to start in level 1 or 2 for WWE. I've noticed a lot of people don't even start till 2nd grade. So, many kids are a year or more behind "grade" level with WWE. While FLL is meant to be on grade level, WWE seems to be used more as skill level v. actual grade level. Whenever you start, most start with level 1 and then just go on from there and don't worry about grade level. But, of course, if you've done the things included in the program, your child may be able to skip level 1. Mine could have, especially with the copywork, but since he was only in 1st grade still, we started there and are just moving quickly.

 

Good luck!

[jwoodbri]

We ended up skipping around a bit with WWE. Probably not the best plan, but that's what happened. When we did the WWE2 eval the other day, it took him way more tries than normal for the dictation. I swear I had to repeat it ten times. Ugh. It's not normally so difficult for him and the dictation wasn't even that long! So now what? He's fine on the summaries as we do SOTW activity guide which does narratives as well. Should I just have him doing dictation from what we are reading before moving on to WWE3 (if we end up moving on to it. It hasn't been my favorite: which is why we have skipped around a bit.)

[Professormom]

Another chime in to say that you don't need to keep the levels together... Although they do go together nicely:-)

 

WWE is much more of a progression set-up. I would throw in, though, that if you have a third-grader that hasn't done WWE, I don't think you would have to start at Level 1. Level 2 doesn't start out quickly and is definitely doable as a starting point for a third-grader. However, if you have never done much dictation, WWE3 would probably be quite a stretch.