Hello~
I know writing is important for ALL levels, however, what would you say would be the absolute essential writing levels? I am not going to be able to swing having 5-7 kids in different genres weekly, even with combining some levels. Would you say Level 9 & up would prepare them well for the SAT essay and college writing if this is all we can do? Or would a little lower level be necessary; Level 7 or 8?
Thanks!
~deb

Deb,

Writing is BEST learned in a "drop by drop the bucket is full" approach. I'd hate to encourage you to leave writing instruction for only the later years.

How about this idea: I think that if you cut our writing assignments in HALF (all told, for the year) and made it your goal for students to accomplish those, you'd be pleased with the results. If you study our Scope & Sequence, you'll see that we adopt a spiral approach, and that larger projects that are repeated level to level are done in the same weeks. Perhaps choose one or two of these writing projects (like playwriting, or newspaper writing) that take a full semester, then seek a focus for each of your students for the rest of the year. For instance, younger students can work on assignments that help them develop strong paragraphs, while older students could focus on reports or essay writing. In this scenario, you'd skip other types of assignments per level: things like short stories or display boards that round out our assignments and add variety but may not be on the "essentials" list for your crew.

HTH!