WriteShop: An Incremental Writing Program, 5th edition

Provides comprehensive teacher support with detailed guidance for instruction and evaluation.

Teacher's manual includes detailed lesson plans, instructions for editing and commenting, student writing samples, typical error descriptions, and classroom handbook available for group settings

The program emphasizes direct, explicit instruction with teacher modeling and guided practice.

Teacher manual provides detailed daily lesson plans, teacher-student brainstorming sessions, collaborative paragraph writing, and structured feedback processes

The curriculum includes explicit vocabulary instruction through thesaurus work and exposure to literary passages.

Skill Builder exercises teach students to use a thesaurus to replace overused words, and copying/dictation exercises expose students to new vocabulary

The curriculum provides highly structured, systematic writing instruction with clear progression and scaffolding.

Features detailed lesson plans, step-by-step instruction, modeling through teacher-student collaboration, multiple drafts, and structured feedback through three different checklists

The curriculum is not primarily knowledge-rich, focusing instead on writing skills and techniques.

Lessons cover writing structure and style rather than building systematic domain knowledge across subjects, though it suggests connecting writing to other subject areas

Limited evidence of retrieval practice or spaced review of previously learned skills.

While WriteShop II includes a brief review, there's no clear system for ongoing retrieval practice of writing skills from previous lessons

Uses excerpts from well-known literary works but text complexity is not a primary focus.

Copying and dictation exercises use literary excerpts, but the program focuses on writing output rather than reading challenging texts

This writing-focused curriculum does not include phonics instruction.

Designed for grades 6-11, well beyond the phonics instruction years, and focuses exclusively on writing skills

The curriculum includes copywork and dictation exercises from literary works but does not center on reading whole books.

Uses excerpts from well-known literary works for copying and dictation exercises, but the focus is on writing instruction rather than sustained reading