Time-tested classical techniques—the imitation and analysis of great writers—combined with original composition exercises in history, science, biography, and literatureThe Student Workbook encourages independent composition, while the Instructor Text contains easy-to-use supporting information for the teacher, rubrics for grading, sample compositions, and dialogue to use while teaching. Together, the Student Workbook and Instructor Text provide a full year of middle-grade writing instruction, preparing students to enter high-level rhetoric.
Skills Taught:
- One- and two-level outlining
- Writing chronological narratives, biographical sketches, descriptions, and sequences across the curriculum
- Constructing basic literary essays on fiction and poetry
- Researching and documenting source material
- First volume of four that will prepare students for high-level rhetoric and composition
Features of the program:
- Writing assignments are modeled on examples from great literature and classic nonfiction
- All source material for assignments is provided—no other books are needed
- This Student Workbook encourages independence by directing all assignments to the student
- Instructor Text (sold separately) provides scripted dialogue to use when the student has difficulty, plus detailed guidance on how to evaluate the student’s work
- Second volume of four that will prepare students for high-level rhetoric and composition
Susan Wise Bauer is a writer, educator, and historian. Her previous books include the Writing With Ease, Writing With Skill, and Story of the World series from Well-Trained Mind Press, as well as The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had, Rethinking School, The Story of Western Science: From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory, and the History of the World series, all from W. W. W. Norton. She has a Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William & Mary in Virginia, as well as an M.A. in seventeenth-century literature and a Master of Divinity in Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literature. For fifteen years, she taught literature and composition at the College of William and Mary.