- Curriculum & Instruction
- The Writers' Express
- What You Get
WEX® - What You Get
The tools, training, and support you need to be a powerful writing teacher
Complete Curriculum Grades 3-12
The Writers' Express® (WEX®) curriculum helps students excel at the fundamental challenge of the Common Core Standards - the ability to comprehend and respond to complex text. WEX teachers help students write with precision and power by breaking the skill of writing into clearly defined skills that are:
- Selected to include only those proven to make the greatest impact on writing proficiency
- Sequenced to drive student development most rapidly
- Unified into a seamless curriculum that steadily builds skills from grades 3–12
The WEX curriculum is a full year's worth of daily, sequenced lessons that help create classroom routines and instill learning habits that lead to more powerful writing. The lessons gives teachers—new and veteran—the structure and guidance they need to differentiate instruction by skill, both individually and in small groups, without the need for lots of additional planning.
For a look at the Scope and Sequence of Skills for the entire WEX curriculum, please click here.
Grades 3–4
Developing Ideas
Third and fourth grade students learn to focus on a single topic to fully develop their ideas and to gain exposure to paragraphing and essay structure. Using strong verbs, sensory detail, and dialogue to show (rather than tell), they provide evidence to support those ideas. Students pay careful attention to the impact of their choice of words in their own writing and when they read and respond to texts.
As they improve their expressive abilities, they practice the technical skills necessary to communicate their ideas clearly and correctly. These include writing complete sentences, using correct punctuation, and learning the first steps in formatting dialogue.
Genres Covered:
Writing a Personal Narrative, Writing in Response to Fiction, Informational and Expository Writing, Persuasive Writing, Writing Short Stories
Skills Covered:
Focus (topic development), Showing (using evidence), Sentence Mechanics: The Complete Sentence, Dialogue and Evidence, Using Paragraphs, Logical Structure, Setting & Context, Strong Verbs, Sensory Detail, Character Development, Subject Verb Agreement, Punctuating and Formatting Quotations, Revision
For a look at the Scope and Sequence of Skills for the entire WEX curriculum, please click here.
Grades 5–6
Making Connections
Fifth and sixth grade students begin to experiment with their writing in order to make an impact on their audience. As they gain confidence in their ability to express themselves, they feel more comfortable taking risks. Students practice manipulating subjects and predicates to vary their sentence style. They integrate dialogue in order to flesh out a character, or add quotations to drive home a point. They play with the sequence of paragraphs to see what order works best.
This experimentation helps students to make connections between ideas and use what they have learned about writing. Skills that fifth and sixth grade students practice include the development of a theme/argument and the proper formatting and structure of paragraphs.
Genres Covered:
Writing a Personal Narrative, Writing in Response to Fiction, Informational and Expository Writing, Persuasive Writing, Writing Short Stories
Skills Covered:
Focus (topic development), Showing, Sentence Mechanics & Usage, Dialogue & Evidence, Setting & Context, Logical Structure, Strong Verbs, Sensory Detail, Character Development, Verb Tense, Subject Verb Agreement, Punctuating & Formatting Quotations, Revision
For a look at the Scope and Sequence of Skills for the entire WEX curriculum, please click here.
Grades 7–8
Staking a Claim
In their transition to high school, seventh and eighth graders develop their ability to express themselves logically, clearly, and with effective use of detail. Practicing expressive skills such as connecting observation to emotion, avoiding clichés, and using strong verbs strengthens students’ ability to convey their unique perspective and “hook” the reader.
Focusing on a single topic or theme, students are able to establish an argument and use evidence to back up what they claim. They also learn to identify and eliminate common technical errors such as inconsistent verb tense, sentence fragments, and run-on sentences. The WEX Method helps students discover the power of their own voices and trains them to assess their writing carefully and critically so that errors are minimized.
Genres Covered:
Writing a Personal Narrative, Writing in Response to Fiction, Informational and Expository Writing, Persuasive Writing, Writing Short Stories
Skills Covered:
Focus (topic development), Showing (using evidence), Strong Verbs, Sensory Detail, Dialogue & Evidence, Character Development, Setting & Context, Logical Structure, Punctuating & Formatting Quotations, Varying Sentence Style, Minimizing Cliché, Playing with Voice, Sentence Mechanics & Usage, Verb Tense, Subject Verb Agreement, Revision
For a look at the Scope and Sequence of Skills for the entire WEX curriculum, please click here.
Grades 9–12
Writing Strategically
High school students are expected to strengthen their expressive and technical abilities in order to develop their unique perspectives and write with power and purpose. The WEX Method of teaching writing includes teaching students to read literature and other required texts with a heightened awareness of how an author conveys meaning. The result is a deeper engagement with the text that leads to insightful analysis and better essays.
High school students not only learn to recognize the strategies authors use to make an impact on readers, they have daily practice in using those strategies themselves. Ultimately, students learn to write strategically and with full command of the technical and expressive skills necessary to communicate their ideas clearly, correctly, and with power.
Genres Covered:
Writing a Personal Narrative, Writing in Response to Fiction, Informational and Expository Writing, Persuasive Writing, Writing Short Stories
Skills Covered:
Focus (topic development), Showing (using evidence), Strong Verbs, Sensory Detail, Dialogue & Evidence, Character Development, Setting & Context, Logical Structure, Punctuating & Formatting Dialogue, Varying Sentence Style, Minimizing Cliché, Playing with Voice, Sentence Mechanics & Usage, Verb Tense, Subject Agreement, Sustaining Mood & Tone, Revision
For a look at the Scope and Sequence of Skills for the entire WEX curriculum, please click here.
Professional Development
For Teachers
WEX Teacher’s Guides
Simple, practical instructions in the Teacher’s Toolkit section show how to establish the mindset, habits, and classroom routines that drive writing instruction. Daily lesson plans for the entire school year allow teachers to concentrate on instruction, feedback, and progress. Grading and assessment sections are also included in each guide.
Each 4-book set of WEX Teacher's Guides contains approximately 120 daily lessons. We recommend that you contact us before purchasing WEX curriculum, so that we can help you make sure you choose the curriculum that's right for your students.
Teacher's Guides (for each level):
- Book 1: Writing a Personal Narrative
- Book 2: Writing in Response to Fiction
- Book 3: Informational and Expository Writing
- Book 4: Writing Short Stories
Electronic Classroom Displays
The less a teacher has to do to prepare a lesson, the more he or she can focus on instruction. WEX Electronic Classroom Displays provide almost every item that teachers need to post on the classroom wall, in order of lesson presentation, including:
- Definitions
- What to Dos
- Sample texts
- Writing prompts
- Revision assignments
- And more
Displays are provided in a PDF format so that everyone who has the needed hardware (SmartBoard, LCD projector, etc.) can use them easily and eliminate need and time required to post these items or write them on the board.
State Writing Test Lessons
WEX can also write lessons that are specifically aligned with your state’s writing test. Rather than having to put WEX on hold come test prep time, teachers can use the momentum that they’ve gained with WEX and, using these carefully aligned lessons, teach their students how to use their WEX skills to succeed on the high stakes test.
For more information on test prep lessons, please contact us.
For Students
Student Journals
Light, portable notebooks are formatted to make WEX daily practice and revision easy. Special spaces are provided for the student to label each piece of writing and for the teacher to comment on it. The Student Journal allows for thorough and efficient documentation of progress.
WEX Student Resources: Zoom in on Writing
- Contains every worksheet and handout that a teacher would normally have to photocopy and pass out to students, in addition to many of the items that teachers are asked to post or write on the board, therefore eliminating the time and money spent on photocopying.
- Contains approximately 15-25 excerpts from the student texts used in WEX lessons
- Functions as a note-taking tool, allowing students to learn how to mark up text, gather evidence from a text, and use research in their writing
- Includes note-taking scaffolding: organizational tools to help students keep track of their work and develop independence
For Administrators and Coaches
Implementation Support Kit
Provides principals and literacy coaches with tools to be true literacy leaders by collaborating with teachers and providing them with a system for receiving supervisor feedback that sharpens their professional skills. The Implementation Support Kit:
- Focuses supervision on those elements that make the greatest impact on student performance
- Give principals and literacy coaches a clear observation protocol with which to track instructional progress.
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Aligns perfectly with WEX classroom instruction
Summer Ink
Summer Ink is a non-profit, formerly operated by The Writer’s Express, which offers three distinct adventure-based Summer Writing Camps for middle school students in the Boston area. Learn more about Summer Ink.
