One thing I’ve failed to mention in my earlier posts is that each book in the Art of Composition series includes notes to the teacher, letting you know what your students will be covering and indicating which lessons you might want to link to other school reading. The lessons are addressed to the student writers, but parent/teacher interaction is encouraged. You don’t have to be a skilled writer–just talking with your student about the discussion questions will grow their relationship with writing as a craft. Book 4 in the series is very specifically for high school seniors–whether you’ve done Books 1-3, just Books 1 and 2, or no earlier volumes at all!

Book 4 isn’t available as I’m writing this, but it will be out very soon. I said that if your students finish Books 1 and 2, they will be prepared for college writing, and Book 3 includes advanced material about writing and editing that will give a student confidence in his or her own writing process. What’s left for Book 4?

One of the modules in Book 4 is a review module that covers, in a condensed form, all of the basic instruction about composition from the earlier volumes. If your student has completed those books, it’s a simple review (you can even skip that module if your student is writing well and having a busy senior year). If your student hasn’t done the earlier volumes, it’s a crash course on composition that will prepare a high school senior( who is fluent in narration) for college or other future writing.

One of the things that makes Book 4 a book for seniors is the inclusion of a guided long-form writing project. The module is flexible and allows your student to decide on the topic and the form of the project. Your students will be guided through planning and finishing the project themselves. I’m hoping to see some great projects in the future from Charlotte-Mason-narrators.

And there’s one more module that I think is appropriate for high school seniors in particular. Earlier books gave students practice with different styles of writing, but one style–persuasive writing–has been left until Book 4. The art of persuasion is closely associated with the classical art of rhetoric. It includes a discussion of values and morality because being persuasive is not the same thing as being right. The persuasive writing module is a mini-course on rhetoric that will introduce your students to the elements of being persuasive as well as encourage them to give some thought to using the power of words wisely and well.

As always, Book 4 is flexible, and the three modules can be done in whichever order works best for your student.

It will be available soon from Simply Charlotte Mason.

As I said in an earlier post, this isn’t really a writing curriculum–it’s a composition curriculum. Writing is a process, while a composition is a product. In the advanced writing and editing modules of Book 3, your students will experiment with how to produce the best possible product–a composition for someone else to read.

Now that students know how to produce a finished composition, they will be invited to explore the writing process and to personalize it. By the time your students finish the advanced and editing module (level 3–ensuring that all parts of the composition are unified, orderly, and cohesive), they will have created a personalized writing and editing process that suits their own needs and writing preferences. Some writers like to create good outlines before writing, while others like to freewrite and let the thoughts flow. Both processes work, as long as good editing results in a readable composition. Your students will feel more confident with higher level writing assignments because they understand their own writing and editing processes.

Parents will be able to link many of the writing assignments to whatever books students are reading for school, so the writing feels relevant and related to other subjects. As in earlier books, optional suggestions for creative narrations and commonplace-keeping are included.

The final module in Book 3 is an introduction to creative writing. It’s meant to be enjoyable and to give your students a change to explore writing stories and poetry. Because the course is flexible, you might even choose to use some of the creative writing lessons as a break from the heavier work of the advanced writing modules.

As I worked on writing this curriculum, I discovered something that I hadn’t really known before: I have a philosophy of writing! I consider writing to be part of the Great Conversation–the discussion of ideas among people across time, culture, generations, languages, and distance. Conversation requires at least two–a speaker and a listener. When written communication enters the conversation, the speaker is the writer and the listener is the reader. In writing, you cannot ignore the reader. The reader is the whole point of writing–the reason for getting the words down on paper (even virtual “paper”) in the first place. Unless you are writing in a diary, you are writing for someone else.

Thinking about what your reader will experience when he or she reads what you’ve written is an important part of writing well. It’s a matter of courtesy to present your thoughts clearly (and correctly–without distracting errors), to introduce your topic, follow a clear train of ideas, and make sure your reader understands what you have to say. If you can delight your reader, that’s even better!

In Book 2 of the Art of Composition, your student will work on level 2 editing–improving individual sentences. Your student will learn to appreciate the sentence as the fundamental unit of language, in keeping with Charlotte Mason’s observation that a student “has learned nearly all the grammar that is necessary when he knows that when we speak we use sentences and that a sentence makes sense.” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 209)

In other modules, your student will learn the basic structure of a paragraph and will use existing narrations as the basis of writing full essays (building on what was learned about outlines in Book 1). Your student will be introduced to the idea of style in writing, and explore how to write with various styles, always keeping the reader–the other half of the conversation–in mind. This book also introduces writing assignments that are not strictly narrations, as well as offering suggestions for creative narration and commonplace-keeping.

A student who finishes Books 1 and 2 of the Art of Composition could be given a full Composition credit for high school. These books and lessons are flexible. If you are starting later with an older student who has only one or two years of high school left, it would be possible to complete both books in one year by doing two lessons per week instead of one. If you started Book 1 with an 8th grader, you could stretch Books 1 and 2 across three years, repeating some of the exercises with different schoolbooks. A student who finishes these two books will be prepared for college writing.

The Art of Composition can be purchased (or you can view a free sample) at Simply Charlotte Mason.

Since this series is still very new, Book 1 is the only book I’ve gotten feedback about. I’m happy to report that so far, it’s all been very good! I’ve been told that students started writing more, and better, and impressed outside teachers who were reading their work. Of course, the real hero is narration and the moms who were consistent with it. The Art of Composition assumes your student is a fluent narrator, and so it begins from there.

Each book has three modules, along with (optional) suggestions for creative narrations and commonplace entries. One important thing that will help your students move from narration to composition is the realization that writing is a craft. It’s something that can be practiced and improved. Most importantly, a student’s written narration is just a first draft and it can be improved. Corrections can be made. Word choices can be altered. Things can be rearranged, removed, or added to the original draft. Bit by bit, your students will learn to treat their writing as a craft by working with the narrations they are already doing.

In Book 1, your students will work on level 1 editing–making corrections. They will work on the habit of looking and listening for different types of errors, going over a piece of writing several times and creating a clean, error free final draft. Some students might be ready to do this before 9th grade, so if your 7th or 8th grader is ready to edit narrations, you could begin this book and go a little more slowly through the series (some lessons can be used multiple times, so you can personalize assignments for your own student).

In addition to editing, your students will work on seeing the order in a piece of writing. They will learn how outlines show the skeletal structure of a paper, and discern how an author organizes his thoughts. Your students will be introduced to both formal and informal outlining and given the chance to experiment with both kinds.

In the final module, your student will learn how introductions, transitions, and conclusions help a reader understand what a writer wants to say. Your students will begin the habit of including these elements in their written narrations as a foundation for writing longer compositions later.

You can purchase this volume or download a free sample at Simply Charlotte Mason.

It’s not a writing curriculum.

Your students are going to be writing, of course, but this is what I mean:

You use reading curriculum to teach your children how to read.

You use math curriculum to teach them math.

You use grammar curriculum to teach grammar.

A writing curriculum proposes to teach your children how to write, and there are plenty of those out there.

But this is The Art of Composition, not The Art of Writing. See the difference?

The reason this isn’t a writing curriculum is that I don’t propose to teach your students how to write. If they been doing written narrations for years now, they know how to write. Therefore, I’m hoping to teach your student writers how to present the writing that they already know how to do in good form.

If you’ve been following Charlotte Mason’s practice of written narration for several years, your student is probably quite competent at getting thoughts into writing. He or she can compose meaningful sentences and get an idea on paper.

But maybe the writing is just one big block of text, not broken up into paragraphs. Maybe your student isn’t sure how a paragraph is structured. Perhaps your student, writing for mom (who knows exactly what every narration is about) can’t be bothered to write a proper introduction. You may hear your teen’s personality and attitude coming through their writing, and wonder if that’s okay. Maybe you’re so worried about your student’s spelling and punctuation errors that you can’t really tell how well they are writing at all.

The Art of Composition addresses all of that, and more. Your fluent narrators will learn to edit their writing both to correct errors and improve their sentences. They’ll learn the niceties of introductions and conclusions, and how to organize the content of a paper. They’ll learn about writing styles and get to experiment with them. They’ll learn how to draft a composition and present their content in good form while retaining their own writer’s voice. They’ll write essays, refine their sentences, and develop respect for their readers, but never be forced to write according to a prescribed formula.

As your students work through the lessons in The Art of Composition, you’ll be able to link some of the writing assignments to whatever books they are reading for school. The lessons include suggestions for creative narrations and commonplace-keeping. Your students will be reminded and encouraged to continue with written narrations alongside the assignments given, because those written narrations are where real writing skills are developed. Composition skills are just the final polish.

In Know and Tell, I explained the process of developing written narration into compositions. I even included a few sections labelled “to the student.” In the Art of Composition, I’ve expanded the idea of writing to the student to a compete and flexible program that can be used with student writers. The Art of Composition, because it isn’t a writing curriculum, isn’t for everyone. It can only be used effectively with students who are well-versed in written narration.

Speaking of older students, Charlotte Mason wrote, “some definite teaching in the art of composition is advisable, but not too much, lest the young scholars be saddled with a stilted style.” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 193)

That’s the line I’ve tried to walk in this composition curriculum. You don’t have to use it to teach your narrator composition—using the plan described in Know and Tell will work, and there are other ways that can also be effective. Your Charlotte-Mason-educated student can write and also knows how to learn, so the art of composition is well within their grasp.

I had a discussion about this process with Amy Sloan of Humility and Doxology, and you can listen to that conversation here.

As I wrote the lessons in this curriculum, I imagined myself mentoring young writers, which is a tremendous privilege. I’d be honored if you and your student writer would give The Art of Composition (published by Simply Charlotte Mason and available here) a try.

Books 1-3 are already available and Book 4 (appropriate for all high school seniors, even those who haven’t worked through the first three books) will be available in 2026.

Over the next several days, I’ll share a bit about each level. The whole program is very flexible and you can adjust your choice of books to the needs of your student and the amount of time you have left to work on composition.