Write By Number

The curriculum includes comprehensive teacher support with practical guidance and alignment information.

The teacher's book includes goals, objectives, differentiation strategies, Common Core alignment, practical teaching tips, and can be used by inexperienced parents or teachers

The curriculum provides explicit, structured instruction with clear examples and step-by-step progression.

Each stage has specific objectives, the author provides examples for each lesson along with student samples, and the structure is described as 'open-and-go' for teachers

This is the curriculum's primary strength, offering highly systematic and structured writing instruction through 12 mastery-based stages.

The program teaches paragraph and essay writing through clear progressions, starting with complete sentences and building to complex essay structures with 38 different sentence patterns

The curriculum does not systematically build domain knowledge and focuses narrowly on writing mechanics and structure.

The program teaches writing techniques and sentence patterns but lacks content that builds background knowledge across subjects, though it suggests students write about topics from other subjects

Vocabulary development is not a focus, though grammar terms are introduced as needed.

The curriculum introduces grammatical terminology when teaching sentence patterns but does not systematically build vocabulary beyond writing-specific terms

The mastery-based approach requires students to demonstrate competence before advancing, but specific retrieval practice techniques are not detailed.

Students must master each stage before proceeding, and there are Assignment Completion Charts, but the review doesn't mention specific spaced review or retrieval exercises

Not applicable as this is primarily a writing curriculum rather than a reading program.

The curriculum focuses on composition instruction and does not emphasize reading complex texts

Phonics instruction is not included as this is a composition-focused curriculum.

The curriculum begins with complete sentence writing in Stage 1 and does not address foundational reading skills like phonics

This criterion is not applicable as Write By Number is a writing curriculum, not a reading program.

The curriculum focuses exclusively on composition instruction and does not involve reading whole books or excerpts