Josie Wozniak is a middle school ELA teacher at Hillside Middle School in Simi Valley, California. In this impact story, she explains how WeWillWrite supported measurable growth, near-universal participation, and a stronger culture of feedback in her classroom.

The Problem: Writing as an Isolated, High-Pressure Task

“All of my research showed me that writing needed to be a more collaborative task. Students had to see good models of writing from authors, but also from each other.”

In traditional classrooms, writing is often a solitary activity - sometimes even isolating. Students often stare at a blank document or graphic organizer, and despite having good ideas, do not know how to transition their thoughts to sentences on the page, feeling pressure to be perfect. 

The desire to be an effective writing teacher for these students drove me to spend hours and money on professional development books, curriculum units, and webinars, researching the best way to teach students how to write. All of my research showed me that writing needed to be a more collaborative task. Students had to see good models of writing from authors, but also from each other. It was important for students to receive immediate feedback, but with so many students that often felt impossible. Then, one day, while scrolling social media, I discovered WeWillWrite, and it was a game changer. When I logged in for the first time, I knew I had to try it with my students.

The Shift: From Blank Pages to Eager Writers

“I watched once reluctant writers (…) eager to jump into the challenges and write in focused bursts.”

When I integrated WeWillWrite into our routine, I witnessed an immediate shift in the classroom energy. Writing was no longer a solitary chore. It turned it into a collaborative team sport, and fear was replaced by the joy of play.

By turning writing into a game, the platform effectively lowered the affective filter for my students. The anonymous nature of the challenges gave them the freedom to take creative risks and write without the fear of judgment.

I watched once reluctant writers who typically stared at a blank document or graphic organizer, eager to jump into the challenges and write in focused bursts which I think is key to it’s success. Students have to dive in immediately.

Beyond Engagement: A Tool That Strengthens Curriculum and Assessment

“I now have formative assessment data that is invaluable for parent conferences and IEP meetings.”

At first WeWillWrite was a “fun game,” but soon I saw how it could be more than that. It could be an instructional tool to use alongside my curriculum to practice writing skills I was teaching: strong hooks, figurative language, sentence variety, and vivid imagery (to name several) all through a series of quick-writes meant to build fluency and stamina.

I even expanded its use into my history classes to review content and infuse literacy skills in the subject area. With the new teacher insights dashboard, I now have formative assessment data that is invaluable for parent conferences and IEP meetings.

Measurable Results: Participation, Stamina, and a Culture of Writing

“I see nearly 100% participation in challenges, increased word count and stamina, and a level of eagerness to write I haven’t experienced with any other platform.”

The impact WeWillWrite has had over the last year has been measurable. I see nearly 100% participation in challenges, increased word count and stamina, and a level of eagerness to write I haven’t experienced with any other platform.

There has also been a cultural shift. One student, seeing the platform on the board at the start of the year, exclaimed, “It’s a good day to be alive!” as he had used it in his elementary school classroom the year prior. My students will opt to stay inside during breaks just to finish a challenge or read their peers’ work. I haven’t experienced this type of engagement with any other platform.

Unlike with paper and pencil writing where feedback may be given a week later, the tool allows for instant feedback which students can then immediately apply to the next round. Concrete examples of figurative language or imagery are highlighted in real time helping to see what good writing looks like. I also see that they are getting better over time at writing to a prompt, something students often struggle with.

Preparing Students for Modern Literacy: Writing as a Collaborative Skill

“They are developing the soft skills and digital citizenship needed for the professional world.”

Collaborative digital tools like WeWillWrite are necessary for modern literacy skills, and using the platform in my classroom has done more than just get my students to enjoy writing. 

They are developing the soft skills and digital citizenship needed for the professional world where writing is rarely a solo act and more of a collaborative activity. They are learning to evaluate peers’ writing constructively and how to behave in a shared digital space.

WeWillWrite has been the perfect addition to my teacher toolkit. When used with purpose it can be a strong instructional tool. If used just for fun - on a minimum day, or when I have an unexpected ten minutes left at the end of class, students are doing something meaningful and practicing skills.

Teacher Buy-In Beyond My Classroom

I have always valued collaborating with other teachers, and WeWillWrite is something I share often - especially on social media where educators connect to learn from one another.

Some of the most impactful teaching exists beyond the four walls of our school buildings, and creating a professional network of teachers has been meaningful to me over the last several years.

Through these connections, I have encouraged many teachers to try WeWillWrite in their classrooms. Their reflections below highlight the impact the platform has had in their classrooms.

“Beyond engagement, I’ve seen real growth in their writing skills. Students have become stronger writers and more confident thinkers. They’ve also learned how to give constructive, corrective feedback to their peers in respectful and meaningful ways—both positive and critical—something that can be challenging to teach. WeWillWrite has truly transformed the way my students approach writing, collaboration, and feedback, and it has had a lasting impact on my classroom. I really think it helped improve our state test scores! We love it!”
— DaVida Pegues-Winfrey, 9th grade, Forrest City High School, Arkansas

“I found that using WeWillWrite was instrumental in changing my students’ attitudes about writing from “one and done” to writing is rewriting because they could learn from seeing other’s attempts, and then discuss what works better, and immediately then apply it to their own writing.”
— Karen Gordon, Frank Augustus Miller Middle School, Riverside, California

“The student buy-in is incredible. I’ve also never had students beg to write before. As a teacher, I love the email reports I get after to see the percentage of students who like their own writing, how many different students were written, and the total word count. Over 6k words in 10 minutes? Amazing.”
— Nicole Zollman, 6th grade teacher, Southern Indiana

"We Will Write has been a game-changer in my classroom! Students are more engaged in the writing process, and as each step develops, I consistently see increased growth in both the strength of their writing and their overall output. They actually ask to do WeWillWrite in class which is an accomplishment in and of itself with 4th grade!”
— Maria DiAgostino Gallagher, 4th Grade, Franklin Elementary School, Roxbury, New Jersey

Bonnie Watson is a 4th-grade ELA teacher at St. Francis School in Austin, Texas. Here, she shares what happens when writing becomes a consistent, student-led practice: stronger growth, stronger classroom culture, and more access for learners with different needs.

When Writing Growth Becomes Universal

Teaching and inspiring children to write has been my favorite part of being an educator for the last 20 years. When I think back to the young writers that I have impacted most, there is a small handful that truly stand out. 

Or at least that was the case before WeWillWrite became the most valuable tool in my teaching toolkit. 

I would not be able to narrow it down to one or two students if I wanted to say who has shown the most growth in both their writing abilities and love of writing over the last year and a half that I have been using WeWillWrite with fidelity in my classroom. Instead, I can confidently say that every single one of my students who has played WeWillWrite has become an enthusiastic, confident, successful, and proud writer.

Students Who Ask to Write More

“The kids not only love it because it is so much fun, but also because they are constantly blown away by their own growth.”

When I greet my 4th-grade students at the door to my English classroom each day, the first words I hear are usually, “Do we get to play WeWillWrite today?”. If my response is yes, they practically knock me over, rushing into the room to grab their computers. 

My students from last year pop their heads in the room almost daily to see if this year’s students are as lucky as they were last year. The kids not only love it because it is so much fun, but also because they are constantly blown away by their own growth.

Before and After Writing Samples

One of the most powerful ways I’ve seen this growth come to life is by using the exact same WeWillWrite prompt at the very beginning and at the very end of the school year.

When students place their two writing pieces side by side, the difference is undeniable. Because a fundamental part of using WeWillWrite to teach writing skills involves rich class discussions all year, the students are able to read both pieces of writing and explain what they did to strengthen their final version.

Below are three examples of my students’ before-and-after texts, answering the same prompt both times and with the same amount of time to do so.

When Families See the Impact Firsthand

If it sounds too good to be true, then I implore you to experience it yourself. I have tried to get my students’ parents excited about the changes they will see in their child’s writing skills, but it wasn’t until I had the opportunity to invite parents and grandparents to participate in a game with their children recently that they truly understood what I was raving about. 

The families were actually crying and hugging me and promising to call their universities to tell them they needed to start teaching future teachers to use WeWillWrite because that is how powerful and engaging this writing tool is.

Building a Community of Writers Through Feedback

“It is a foundation for building a community of writers who support, inspire, and learn from one another.”

WeWillWrite is so much more than a game, more than a mode of instruction, more than a lesson plan; it is a foundation for building a community of writers who support, inspire, and learn from one another.

When a class has played several games, you really start to see the discourse about the substance of their writing blossom. They are seeing many different examples of strong writing and learning how to analyze what makes their writing stand out. The AI tools that identify literary devices in each piece of writing give teachers a starting point for introducing all sorts of skills, such as figurative language, foreshadowing, cliffhangers, word choice, and so much more. When the first round is over, if something stands out like weak topic sentences or not enough variety in sentence structure, all I have to do is mention it, and on the next round, the entire class will have improved on that point. 

I can not stress enough that growth like this did not happen when we simply shared our writing and moved on to listen to the next student read theirs. It did not happen when I filled out a rubric telling them what to improve in future assignments, and it did not happen when I met with students one-on-one to analyze their writing. WeWillWrite makes the growth happen instantly, constantly, and profoundly.

Engagement, Accessibility, and Real Growth for Every Learner

“There are so many new tech platforms on the market today (…). None of them can compare to WeWillWrite when it comes to student engagement, buy-in, feedback, and growth.”

There are so many new tech platforms on the market today, and they all have unique values that they add to the classroom. However, none of them can compare to WeWillWrite when it comes to student engagement, buy-in, feedback, and growth. 

Voice-to-text capabilities have made my students with dyslexia emerge as some of my strongest writers for the first time in their lives. Students who thought they didn’t like to write or couldn’t write now feel it is their favorite subject. Teaching writing can be an abstract and challenging concept, but WeWillWrite has made it accessible and meaningful for all students and for teachers.

I’m not the only one who has seen this shift. Many other teachers at my school are choosing to use WeWillWrite to support student thinking and writing, even in subjects like history and science. The impact has become visible at a broader level with both our Head of School and learning center teachers, who work with the students who require additional academic support, noticing and praising the growth they have witnessed from my writing students.

“The biggest change I’ve noticed since using WeWillWrite is buy-in. Students are showing up eager to write, and they’re frustrated when they have to miss class. When kids are choosing writing because they enjoy it, you know something is working.”
— Emily Vitris, Head of School

“WeWillWrite has been a game-changer for our 4th-grade ELA classes. Students are genuinely excited about writing and actually look forward to it. That's rare! Our school serves a number of neurodiverse learners, and writing instruction has historically been challenging with our population. It has strengthened our overall support system by allowing reluctant writers to remain in class with their peers, instead of being pulled for intervention. Students leave Bonnie’s class as more confident and capable writers, and they have a ton of fun in the process. You can't ask for more than that!”
— Jenny Jones, Learning Center Coordinator.

A Breakthrough Moment for a Reluctant Writer

“He spent all summer writing book 2 and couldn’t wait to come back to show me.”

Last year, I had a student on an IEP who had it written in his accommodations that he should not be asked to read his writing out loud, should have someone scribe for him, and should be allowed to turn in shortened writing assignments. He was very vocal about telling us when he was bored with a topic, how much he hated writing, and how ELA was the subject he disliked the most. 

When we started playing WeWillWrite, he discovered that the class thought he was the most creative writer in the group, and began winning challenges nearly every time we played. He ended up loving a story he started through a WeWillWrite prompt so much that he spent all summer writing book 2 and couldn’t wait to come back to show me. 

He wrote me a note at the end of the year telling me that he used to hate writing but that he loves it now because of me and WeWillWrite. I think I can safely say, it really was mostly WeWillWrite that worked the magic on him.

Why Going Back Is No Longer an Option

“You can’t witness your students finding this level of passion for writing and then go back .”

Someone recently asked me what it would be like if I suddenly didn’t have WeWillWrite in my class anymore.  That is just not a break-up I could ever recover from. 

You can’t witness your students finding this level of passion for writing and then go back to writing standard journals and essays. WeWillWrite is a game-changer for writing instruction, and any classroom not playing it is missing the chance to cultivate a classroom of successful and inspired writers.

“Who would like to share what they’ve written?” is asked, to deafening silence.

This scene is more than just a daily challenge teachers face; it’s a symptom of a deeper issue. For too many students, writing isn’t a joyful act of creation but a high-stakes performance fraught with anxiety. And for too many teachers, the effort to overcome this resistance leads to exhaustion.

Things can be different. What if instead of groans and glazed-over expressions at every assignment, students actually begged to write?

This is the new reality in classrooms using WeWillWrite, a social writing platform proven to boost student engagement, writing skills, and classroom culture by making the act of writing what it was always meant to be: social, safe, and playful.

How it works

The platform is built around a simple yet powerful core loop designed for maximum engagement and learning in minimal time:

1. Challenge: A teacher launches a writing challenge from our library or one they’ve created, accompanied by a carefully constructed image to spark ideas and a clear criterion for success.

2. Write: Students are placed into anonymous teams and write in short, timed bursts, typically lasting between two and five minutes.

3. Vote: Students anonymously read the submissions from their teammates and vote for the one they believe best meets the challenge’s criteria.

4. Analyze and celebrate: The winning texts from each team are displayed to the class (still anonymously). The teacher reads them aloud and facilitates a lively discussion on their strengths. The platform automatically highlights literary devices as a co-pilot for feedback before the class votes for an overall winner.

How we engage students

WeWillWrite provides a comprehensive solution to the challenges students face with writing.

Challenge: Student disengagement, writing anxiety, and the fear of failure.

• Our solution: Anonymous, team-based competition creates a "safe, fear-free" space for participation, reducing anxiety and encouraging creative risks.

Challenge: Addressing academic gaps and motivating reluctant learners.   

• Our solution: Frequent, low-stakes practice builds skills and confidence. The platform is proven to engage even the hardest-to-motivate students, who "wrote more than they have almost all year".

Challenge: Supporting the "whole learner".

• Our solution: Peer review and collaborative feedback promote social learning, build community, and foster mutual respect.

Dismantling fear and building confidence

For many students, the primary barrier to writing is fear: fear of being wrong, fear of being judged, fear of the teacher's red pen.

The single most critical feature for overcoming this barrier is anonymity. By removing the author's name from everyone except the teacher, the social risk is neutralized. The focus shifts from the writer to the writing. 

This creates a psychologically safe environment where students feel free to take creative risks, experiment with new vocabulary, and make mistakes without fear of personal ridicule. This strengths-based approach is proven to boost confidence, especially for students with a history of reluctance in the classroom. 

“Students in our school district are hesitant to write for any reason, leading them to second-guess their responses to a prompt.  WeWillWrite has turned them around, limited their fears, and has pushed them to just get started and their ideas will flow.”

— Linda Schumacher, 8th-grade teacher

“I have observed a noticeable increase in all students' confidence, regardless of their individual writing abilities. They become excited to see their work displayed on the front board. When a student who considers themselves a weak writer experiences their writing contributing to a win for their team, the joy they feel lasts for days! This boost in confidence can significantly impact their performance in the ELA classroom.”

— Jess Kuftiak, 6th-grade teacher

Harnessing motivation through play

WeWillWrite transforms writing from a solitary chore into an exciting social event. By structuring practice as a gamified, team-based competition, the platform harnesses students' natural desire for play and social connection for a constructive academic purpose. 

The short, timed writing bursts (2-5 minutes) make the task feel manageable, combating the procrastination and writer's block that often accompany longer assignments. The result is a level of engagement that consistently astonishes educators.

"Students are hooked and ask to play it every day… I have never seen kids this excited to write!"

— MarrLee Hammond, 4th-grade teacher

This enthusiasm extends even to the most disengaged learners.

"I couldn't believe how some of the students who have been the hardest to motivate were completely engaged and wrote more than they have almost all year.”

— Jennifer Raschella, 6th-grade teacher

How we empower educators

WeWillWrite is a pro-teacher tool, designed to alleviate the primary drivers of burnout (workload, classroom management, and low morale) while elevating the most rewarding aspects of the profession.

Challenge: Overwhelming workload and lack of time for robust writing instruction.

• Our solution: Quick, 2-5 minute writing challenges provide formative assessment at a glance, leaving more time for creativity and collaboration.

Challenge: Low morale and the stress of managing student behavior and motivation.  

• Our solution: A playful, gamified structure that keeps students "focused and on-task with very little redirection". Teachers report their students are "begging to do writing," which restores enthusiasm to the classroom.

Radical efficiency and formative assessment

The quick, 2-5 minute writing challenges function as powerful formative assessments, giving teachers a quick understanding of class-wide skills. Instead of spending hours on feedback and grading, a teacher can diagnose the entire class's ability to use descriptive language or formulate a claim in a single period.

This model drastically reduces grading time, freeing educators to focus on high-impact instructional planning. The platform is also exceptionally low-prep, with a library of over 400 ready-made challenges that can be launched in minutes.

“This program has been instrumental in breaking down barriers for struggling writers by providing a self-modifying, low-pressure environment where they can succeed at their own pace. Those who typically struggle with writing find the challenges approachable, and they stay motivated because the platform adapts to their needs.

Without it, I would need to spend much more time differentiating instruction manually, creating individualized scaffolding, and constantly adjusting tasks to ensure all students could participate meaningfully. The automatic differentiation that the program provides allows me to focus more on coaching and feedback rather than constantly modifying materials.”

— JL Evans, 8th-grade teacher

Simplified classroom management

A direct benefit of heightened student engagement is a more focused classroom. Teachers consistently report that during WeWillWrite activities, students are "focused and on-task with very little redirection."

“WeWillWrite is highly engaging and, therefore, makes classroom management a dream. Students are focused on accomplishing the challenge while simultaneously building their skills as writers.”

— Nicole Brown, 8th-grade teacher

“It helps with classroom management, as my students are completely silent because they want to showcase the best writing possible.”

— Jessica Hingtgen, 6th-grade teacher

Restoring joy and agency

Perhaps the most profound impact is the platform's ability to restore joy to teaching writing. When students are genuinely excited and "begging to do writing," their enthusiasm is contagious.

“At first I was nervous to try your website with my 7th graders. They can be reluctant writers at times; how were they going to feel about competing against their peers? They immediately liked the prompts and desired to do it again. I was overjoyed to see my EL students enjoying it too! When the screen scrolled through all their writing at the end, students excitedly pointed out theirs.  It created joy in writing again which many hadn't experienced since early elementary.”

— Brenda Mutziger, 7th-grade teacher

Furthermore, the platform empowers educators to "easily build [their] own challenges to match [their] lessons," ensuring the tool adapts to the teacher's curriculum, not the other way around.

For administrators: our commitment to evidence, security, and integrity

For school and district leaders, new technology must be evaluated on its pedagogical rigor, its security, and its evidence of impact.

"WeWillWrite offers a variety of prompts that meet all state standards for types of writing. It engages all my students, and even those reluctant to write will put out something. It is easy to integrate into our 20 minutes of writing each day and is a great supplement to whatever skill we are working on."

— Jennifer Mann, 4th-grade teacher

The pedagogical foundation

The platform’s effectiveness is rooted in its practical application of key learning principles, forming a clear logic model required to meet ESSA Level IV evidence standards.   

• Psychological safety (Rogers): Anonymity and low-stakes play create a non-threatening environment where students feel safe to make mistakes, removing the fear that paralyzes learning.

• Social learning (Vygotsky & Bandura): Team-based writing and collaborative analysis allow students to learn from and with their peers. The game provides clear, authentic models of effective writing for students to emulate.

• Learning by doing (Dewey): The playful competition transforms writing from a passive assignment into an active experience with an immediate purpose: to communicate, to entertain, and to help one's team succeed.

• Repetition and mastery (Bruner): The format allows for frequent, engaging "reps" of foundational writing skills, building stamina and automaticity without the pressure of a single, high-stakes assessment.

Every aspect of the platform, from its core mechanics to its smallest features, is intentionally designed based on foundational, evidence-based learning theories. This grounding in educational science ensures that the engagement it generates is purposefully channeled toward meaningful and lasting skill development. For administrators and curriculum directors, this provides assurance that the platform is not a novelty but a rigorous instructional intervention.

The question of AI

WeWillWrite uses AI to enhance, not replace, the craft of teaching. Our AI serves two distinct purposes:

1. To inspire: AI-generated visuals create rich, imaginative prompts that spark student creativity.

2. To analyze: The AI assistant automatically analyzes finalist texts and highlights literary devices, allowing teachers to connect abstract concepts directly to their students' work.

Every story is 100% student-made. This models a responsible use of technology, teaching students that AI can be a powerful tool for analysis and inspiration rather than a shortcut to plagiarism.   

"This is the first authentic use of AI in education. AI sparks creativity. It doesn’t take over my role."

— Aaron Grossman, 4th-grade teacher

Data privacy and security

Trust is the foundation of our partnership with schools and teachers. WeWillWrite is built to be compliant by design to be a seamless extension of your school's own legal and ethical obligations. 

WeWillWrite is fully compliant with all major student privacy regulations. Our policies and technical safeguards are designed to act as a seamless extension of the school's own legal and ethical obligations. 

• Legal compliance: The platform adheres to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It is also designed to comply with leading state-level privacy laws, including California's CCPA, Illinois's SOPPA, and New York's EdLaw 2-D.   

• Designated "school official": Under FERPA, WeWillWrite acts as a designated "School Official," meaning it handles student data with the same care and for the same legitimate educational purposes as a school or district employee. 

• Data security: All data is protected with end-to-end encryption, both in transit and at rest on our US-based servers.

• Strictly for education: The platform's data usage policy is unequivocal: student data will never be sold, rented, shared, or used for advertising or any other commercial purpose.

Conclusion

Student disengagement, writing anxiety, and teacher burnout are not isolated issues; they are interconnected challenges that impact everything from test scores to staff retention. Addressing them requires more than another tool—it demands a strategic solution.

WeWillWrite provides that solution. It is a single, evidence-based platform designed to produce cascading positive effects. It simultaneously tackles student engagement by making writing fun, supports teachers by dramatically reducing prep and grading time, and fosters a positive classroom culture aligned with core competencies.

It is a direct investment in your students' skills, your teachers' well-being, and your district's academic goals.

If you have questions about purchasing, implementation, or pedagogy, we’re here to help. For DPA or privacy inquiries, let us know at privacy@wewillwrite.com.

Ready to take the next step?

Too often, writing is treated as a solo task: one big assignment, one final grade. But learning thrives on consistency, community, and feedback.

When students write often, share unpolished work, and get timely responses from peers and teachers, they grow faster and engage more deeply. At WeWillWrite, we’re helping teachers build a culture where writing becomes a habit, and students feel heard, not just graded.

"Good writing is not a gift. It is forged by desire, practice, and assistance from others."
— Dr.Graham, Arizona State University

Frequency fuels fluency

Writing, like music or sport, improves through repetition. The more often you do it, the more natural it becomes. Cognitive science backs this up: frequent, low-pressure practice helps students internalize sentence structure, build vocabulary, and develop voice without the performance anxiety that high-stakes tasks can bring. According to cognitive load theory, regular practice helps shift foundational writing skills from working memory to long-term memory, freeing cognitive resources for higher-order thinking (Sweller et al. 255).

Moreover, writing fluency is strongly associated with writing frequency. Graham and Perin, in a meta-analysis of writing instruction studies, found that “students who wrote more frequently tended to perform better in both writing quality and length” (Graham and Perin 20). That’s why WeWillWrite is built around short bursts of writing, woven into a sequence of engaging challenges. Students don’t wait weeks to write something meaningful, they do it today, then again tomorrow, and again the next day. It’s not a marathon; it’s intervals. And that’s exactly what young writers need.

The power of timely feedback

While practice creates the opportunity for growth, feedback is what accelerates it.

But not all feedback is created equal. Research from John Hattie and Dylan Wiliam shows that timely, actionable, and specific feedback has one of the strongest effects on student achievement, particularly when it focuses on the task and process (Hattie 173). Similarly, Dylan Wiliam emphasizes that feedback should "cause thinking" rather than merely correct errors (Wiliam 46).

In writing, this means:

• Pointing out effective word choices or strong sentence structure

• Naming what worked (and why), not just what needs fixing

• Prompting students to revise or reflect based on insights

The sooner the feedback arrives, the more likely students are to connect it to their thinking, and apply it. Because the feedback in WeWillWrite is built into the rhythm of the activity, students begin to anticipate it, reflect on it, and use it. And since they’re working on first drafts, they’re more open to improvement, they’re not defending a finished product, they’re exploring what could be better. This aligns with research suggesting that formative feedback is most impactful when it is immediate and tied to an active learning process (Sadler 121). 

For a great example of how this plays out in the classroom, Aaron Grossman and his 4th graders offer valuable insight into the role of real-time feedback in this GovTech article.

The ripple effect of shared writing

But frequency alone isn’t enough. Growth happens faster when students write in community. Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development posits that learners advance most rapidly when working slightly beyond their independent level with support from others (Vygotsky 86).

In WeWillWrite, students write alongside each other in real time, see each other's work, and engage with authentic peer feedback. This sparks a ripple effect: when one student uses a clever metaphor or a vivid sensory detail, others are inspired to try it too. Ideas spread. Tone mutates. Vocabulary lifts. All within the space of a few rounds of writing and reading.

We’ve seen classrooms where this happens naturally: what starts as a single sentence can echo across the room in dozens of creative variations. Instead of waiting for teacher approval, students respond to each other. It’s fast, social, and fun, because it feels like a game, not a graded task. As Bandura’s social learning theory suggests, such modeling enhances both skill and motivation (Bandura 55).

A culture of openness, not perfection

One of the most significant outcomes of frequent, shared writing is a cultural shift: students stop hiding their writing. They get used to writing openly, knowing it’s okay to be messy, vulnerable, or uncertain. They expect to share, and they respect what others have written, even when it’s different. Students begin to see writing not as a high-stakes test of ability, but as a collaborative process, an opportunity to experiment, express, and improve. 

WeWillWrite helps teachers create this space, with structure, pacing, and built-in norms that turn peer response into habit. According to Carol Dweck’s mindset research, environments that normalize imperfection and emphasize effort over innate talent encourage greater persistence and growth (Dweck 47).

As one teacher told us:

"I actually have kids asking to write now, which is unheard of in past years."
— Rosalie Gerbino

Why WeWillWrite works

Frequent writing opportunities build fluency through repetition and routine (Graham and Perin 20).

• Structured peer response encourages reflection and community learning (Vygotsky 86).

• Immediate, task-focused feedback from teachers, peers, and AI accelerates revision (Hattie 173; Wiliam 46).

• Low-stakes, gamified environments reduce anxiety and promote risk-taking (Dweck 47).

Flexible designed learning environments support inductive teaching by enabling teachers to improvise, respond in the moment, and maintain their role as instructional leaders (Bransford).

Together, these aren’t just writing strategies, they’re the foundation of a writing classroom. And with WeWillWrite, teachers can build that culture without the overhead of grading everything or planning every activity from scratch.

The platform provides structure where needed, but leaves room for what matters most: the teacher’s voice. Because at the heart of our inductive approach is flexibility. We believe that improvising teachable moments, responding to what students write, say, and notice in real time, is just as critical as the plan. That’s why WeWillWrite includes real-time AI-powered analytics, giving teachers instant insights into student writing. This empowers teachers to teach, reflect, and adapt in the moment, treating writing as a living, evolving practice rather than a rigid sequence of assignments.

Unfortunately, in many classrooms, time and resources make this ideal hard to achieve. Teachers are stretched thin, and giving thoughtful feedback on dozens of student texts every week is nearly impossible.

That’s where WeWillWrite comes in.

How WeWillWrite supports the science

We built WeWillWrite to help teachers do what research says works, without burning out. Here’s how:

• Quick setup – low prep, packed with inspiring, ready-to-use materials

• Structured as a repeatable writing flow, daily or weekly, to foster consistency and strengthen writing stamina 

• We make writing irresistible, students engage eagerly in a gamified space where their writing is appreciated, not just graded

• Fast, live formative feedback from teachers, peers, and AI, reinforcing learning and highlighting literary patterns

• The teacher remains the authority on best practices, setting criteria, guiding writing, and leading discussions when teachable moments arise.

• When students see writing as a reward, teachers can raise the bar, and students rise to meet it.

When students write often and get feedback that makes them think, revise, and grow, they flourish. If you're looking for inspiration, Bonnie Watson and Ethan Davide share excellent strategies for teaching students how to give and receive constructive critique in this webinar. Their approach helps students see feedback not as correction, but as collaboration.

Final thought: writing as a habit

Writing isn’t mastered through one big essay, it’s built through habit, reflection, and encouragement. The more students write, and the more they understand what works in their writing, the faster they develop voice, skill, and confidence.

For those seeking a writing classroom grounded in science and driven by student voice, WeWillWrite offers a practical, joyful, and deeply effective path forward. 

Want to learn more about how WeWillWrite can support your students' growth?
Visit our homepage about learning or read our FAQ.

Works cited

• Bandura, Albert. Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Prentice Hall, 1986.

• Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books, 2006.

• Graham, Steve, and Dolores Perin. “Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools.” Alliance for Excellent Education, 2007.

• Graham, Steve, and Karen Harris. “Designing an Effective Writing Program.” Educational Leadership, vol. 71, no. 7, 2014, pp. 56–61.

• Hattie, John. Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Routledge, 2009.

• Sadler, D. Royce. “Formative Assessment and the Design of Instructional Systems.” Instructional Science, vol. 18, no. 2, 1989, pp. 119–144.

• Sweller, John, et al. Cognitive Load Theory. Springer, 2011.

• Vygotsky, Lev S. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard UP, 1978.

• Wiliam, Dylan. Embedded Formative Assessment. Solution Tree Press, 2011.

• How People Learn (Bransford et al., 2000)

March 4, 2025, Austin, TX

Writing shouldn’t feel like a task, but it often does. The rules, red pens, and fear of getting it wrong can turn it into a grind. I’ve seen this firsthand as a dad, teacher, and product creator.

But it can be so much more. It can spark creativity, build confidence, and help students find their voice. When it clicks, learning becomes exciting and motivating. Writing can — and should —  be as fun as starting a band with your friends, except you’ve got keyboards instead of guitars.

So, we built WeWillWrite.

And today, we’re launching it at SXSW EDU 2025.

For us, it's not just about improving writing skills; it's about making writing come alive. A space where students feel heard, ideas take shape, and classrooms buzz with energy. Think of it as the world’s first rock concert for student writers. Our fast-paced, 2-5 minute story challenges help students grow, build confidence, and discover the joy of storytelling. The best part? It’s working! We’re thrilled to see it ignite the urge to write.

1 million students writing, 50,000 teachers leading the way

Not bad for a beta, right? Together with teachers, we’ve turned classrooms into spaces where writing isn’t a task — it’s a team sport. Kids compete, collaborate, and (gasp!) actually want to write.

“We Will, We Will… Write You!”

That’s how Lori Davis’s 4th graders in Wisconsin kick off their sessions — remixing Queen’s iconic anthem. “They cheer each other on, challenge one another and argue over the best words for their stories.

When I heard this, I was moved. It felt like a rock concert but with words. That’s when "WeWillWrite" immediately came to mind. And that’s exactly what we’ve created: writing as a shared, social, safe, and playful experience.

It’s powered by teachers. You’re the heroes. You turn "I can't” into "Look what I just wrote!" If we can make your job a little easier, that’s a win. Thank you for shaping this with us. 

A Father’s Mission: From Frustration to Innovation

This journey started at home. My two amazing sons, one neurodivergent and the other with a severe hearing impairment, faced huge challenges with traditional learning methods. It was tough.

So, my wife and I did something that felt wild, especially with two young children. We left our steady jobs and built Poio, a reading app that actually made kids want to read. It worked so well that Kahoot! acquired it in 2019. But we weren’t done yet.

Because reading is one thing. Writing is the next big challenge.

Writing as a Team Sport

I noticed something that teachers were seeing too: students were writing and reading less. What used to be fun became just another chore. Writing should spark excitement.

After way too many prototypes (and a lot of coffee!), I had a breakthrough: make writing a team sport. Two years and plenty of head-scratching later, we cracked the social dynamics of classrooms and created a tool that works for everyone — even neurodiverse students.

Building on Poio’s success, we’re helping teachers create playful, inclusive classrooms where students don’t just write, they love it.

Built for Every Student. Backed by Every Teacher

What I love most about WeWillWrite is how it’s designed for every student — from beginners to advanced. Every student feels capable and empowered to discover, create, and grow together while learning.

Fast-paced challenges keep them hooked, anonymity makes it fair, and instant feedback builds confidence. Students have the freedom to take risks and explore, all within a safe, secure space with strict data privacy measures. The fresh challenges keep it exciting, helping students learn from each other, build new skills, and form stronger bonds.

Teachers tell us their students aren’t just tolerating writing — they’re loving it. Liz Bloom, an 8th-grade teacher from North Carolina , says, “I’ve never seen kids this excited!”. And Sarah Langdon, a 5th-grade teacher from Texas, adds, “The competition drives them!”.

It’s incredible to see the energy and connection as students come together to write.

AI That Supports, Not Shortcut Learning

We use AI in WeWillWrite but it does not write for students. AI is used for feedback, visuals and discussions. The stories are all student-powered.

Let’s be real: AI can generate words, but can’t play like humans. And play is our secret ingredient. Aaron Grossman, educator from Nevada and EdWeek Leader to Learn From, says, “This is the first authentic use of educational AI I’ve seen.” 

A Movement energized by People

To all the incredible teachers, students, and my passionate team: Thank you for helping to shape WeWillWrite and igniting the urge to write. Like Queen’s anthem, we’re bringing students together! Here’s to writing being a team sport, to stories waiting to be told, and to the kids now singing, "We will, we will… write you!".

Spread the word! Share on social media, talk to schools, parents, or become an ambassador.
Join the movement at wewillwrite.com.

March is Be An Author Month, and we’re excited to partner with Book Creator to bring literacy to life for students everywhere.

What is Be An Author Month?

March is a month dedicated to literacy! We celebrate National Reading Month, Listening Awareness Month, and March into Literacy Month, making it the perfect time to inspire students to embrace creativity, articulate their thoughts, and harness the strength of their voice.

How can you get involved?

It’s all about authenticity. Kids love becoming authors—creating a book is a tangible and relatable experience. When students know their work will be seen beyond the classroom, they put in extra effort. Let’s turn learners (and maybe even educators) into published authors through reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities across all subjects.

This year, Be An Author Month is about Telling Your Story—empowering students to explore their unique narratives and share their perspectives with the world. There are countless ways to tell a story—through writing, drawing, coding, video creation, or audio recordings. Let's get creative and explore the possibilities together!

Why we’re supporting Be An Author Month

We share Book Creator’s strong belief in helping every student find their voice. We want to create a space where creativity feels fun and low-stakes, because that’s when the best ideas come to life. With our engaging social writing platform, students can express themselves and get recognition from their classmates along the way.

WeWillWrite is all about making sure every student gets a chance to shine—even those who don’t usually speak up in class, have trouble focusing, or struggle with spelling. That moment when a friend says, “Wait… YOU wrote that?! Awesome!” can boost confidence and spark a love for writing. It might even plant the idea: Hey, maybe I could be an author too. We believe that kind of motivation can make a big difference in developing strong literacy skills.

How to combine WeWillWrite with Book Creator

WeWillWrite and Book Creator make a great app smash! A perfect way to team them up is:

• Kick off a session with one of our dedicated sets from Book Creator Be An Author Month: Tell Your Story.

• Once the dust has settled and students have finished writing, they hit​​​​​​​ “Copy to clipboard” on their screens as the end titles roll.

• Head over to Book Creator and paste it into the Tell Your Story Competition book.

• Boom!—you have a great foundation to build on.
  

How to take part in Be An Author Month

Head over to the Book Creator website to get started - you’ll find:

• Templates to help with reading and writing

• An Activity Journal with daily prompts throughout March.

• Inspirational webinars featuring expert authors and educators.

• A special personal narrative competition for the whole world to participate in!

Permalink

]]>Give Your Students a Voice - Be An Author Month 2025Morgan BoegerFri, 14 Feb 2025 16:30:55 +0000https://wewillwrite.com/blog/icymi-latest-updates-to-wewillwrite6347f9c65754d300a941501c:6347fc30c5480725f6cf2713:67ade6ca30532b5cfabb9157If you’re new to WeWillWrite or aren’t part of our mailing list, you may not have heard about our latest updates. We’ve combined them into this blog post so you don’t miss a thing! Read on to learn what we’ve been up to.

TL;DR:

• You can create your own challenges or modify ours however you like.

• We explain how it works to replace student texts.

• There are now pacing controls, including a button to pause the game at any time.

• If you exit a game early, you can continue later from the start of the last incomplete challenge.

• The scrolling texts at the end of the game is now interactive, and you can spotlight individual texts to celebrate those sweet “That one’s mine!” exclamations.

• We share what’s next.

Quick things of note:

• Middle school teacher R. Erin Comninaki created a great teacher deck on getting started with WeWillWrite.

• When you download student texts, they’re now paginated by individual student.

• Click a student’s name in the lobby to send them back to rewrite their name, or update their name after playing by navigating to Manage class → Manage students in the portal

Create and Modify Challenges

Our #1 request this fall was the ability to create your own challenges, and it’s now here.

Whether you build them from scratch or adapt them from existing sets, you’ll find new ways to spark creativity.

Best practices

A few tips for success:

• Mind your images: Avoid placing critical details in the lower part of the image. For best results, use images with an aspect ratio of 16:9 or fit them to this size beforehand.

• Keep it focused: Limit the prompt to a single deliverable for clarity and simplicity.

• Write short tips: Students who read tip cards rely on them heavily. Thoughtful, clever tips can help both you and your students approach challenges more effectively; it's a win-win! Keep in mind that while you can save your drafts at any time, all fields must be completed before a challenge is playable.

Check out R. Erin Comninaki’s “Creating Challenges” webinar and slide deck for more!

Replace Texts

If a silly or off-topic response makes it to the finals, you can replace it with another text from the same team.

On the screen that displays the round’s finalists, hover over and click the top-right corner of the finalist’s text.

Note: This cannot be undone. If another text does not appear in its place, there are no more texts available from that team. Running out of texts can be due to any combination of the following:

• Texts were removed due to detection of another student’s name or inappropriate terms

• Members of the team did not write a response

• All remaining texts were replaced

All texts, regardless of their removal from the game, will be available to you in the “Student Texts” section of the portal.

Pacing Controls

Sometimes you need more flexibility with timing. These updates put you in the driver’s seat.

Gradual timing

Sets automatically start with shorter rounds and gradually build up to longer ones, helping students to build endurance and stay engaged. Reorder the challenges, deselect what doesn’t fit into your schedule, or click Save to My Sets to mix and match however you like! 

Continue Later

Whether you have a tight schedule or spontaneous interruption, you can now pick up from the start of the last incomplete challenge.

Note: Currently, the checkpoint for saving student texts and continuing later is at the beginning of the next challenge. We’re working on updating this, but be sure to let the game progress to the next image in the meantime!

Perfect as a Bellringer

Many teachers have shared how they use WeWillWrite for week-long bellringers, with one writing challenge each day. Now, managing these multi-day sets is even easier. Keep your students engaged throughout the week, building up to a Friday finale with results they’ll love!

Plan Bigger, Play Better

We know how much your students love completing a game, seeing their work showcased in the scroll text, and celebrating with the victory screen. With the ability to pause and continue later, you can now take on larger sets or adapt to unexpected changes without losing momentum.

Next time, instead of rushing through, why not pause in the middle and finish strong another day?

Spotlight the Hidden Gems

What’s Next for WeWillWrite?

Throughout our beta program, we’ve received so much insightful feedback on how we can best support you and your students. After our launch on March 4th, we’ll be working on solutions like expanding on accessibility, supporting small class sizes, and smart ways to minimize silly or nonsensical texts. Stay tuned!

Is there a feature you’d like to know more about? Let us know!

Who is this guide for?

The strategies we share here are from 4th to 12th grade teachers. While many of you already enjoy it as a quick bell ringer or exit activity, this guide takes it further. It’s for those looking to transform sessions into dynamic, 30+ minute activities by sequencing 3-5 challenges and integrating teaching strategies both before and after the game.

By applying these practices, you’ll unlock the full potential of WeWillWrite to captivate your students and deepen their understanding. Ready? Let’s dive in!

1. Suggestions for a Pre-Game Introduction

WeWillWrite is an excellent classroom management tool, with many students eagerly wanting to play. This enthusiasm creates a golden opportunity to capture their full attention and deliver a key teaching moment before they dive in.

1. Introduce a literary device
   Briefly explain the theory behind a specific literary device and encourage students to explore and apply it during the game.

2. Highlight a game criterion
   Choose one of the 12 game criteria for fiction or non-fiction writing. Explain its significance and challenge students to focus on delivering with precision.

3. Showcase a student text
   Motivate your class by sharing a standout text from a previous session—especially one that didn’t win but demonstrates qualities worth highlighting. You can find such examples in the Student Texts archive in our portal to inspire students and set expectations.

4. Set expectations for behavior and rules
   Clearly outline the game rules and behavioral expectations. Highlight what on-task, focused participation looks like and emphasize consequences for submitting off-topic texts (e.g., replacing non-relevant texts).

2. Exploring Different Ways to Introduce Challenges

Personalizing the way you introduce challenges is a powerful way to inspire creativity and engage your class. Here are several strategies you can use to add variety, spark their thinking, and set the stage for success:

1. Silent thinking time
   Give students uninterrupted silence for all 30 seconds before the writing time begins. This pause gives them a chance to reflect, organize their thoughts, and access deeper creativity without external distractions.

2. Guide their observations
   Visual prompts can sometimes feel intimidating, causing some students to rush into their first idea before fully observing and understanding the many details in the images. Help students engage more thoughtfully by guiding them to “read” the details or interpret the prompt. Use questions like, "What is this?" while pointing to specific visuals, or "What do you notice? What could this be? What might be happening here?" These questions spark creative ideas, encourage connections, and build confidence in approaching the task with greater depth.

3. Share your ideas
   Sharing ideas demonstrates that there are many valid ways to approach the challenge, which can reduce anxiety and stimulate creative thinking. Offer a few creative examples or starting points to inspire and increase confidence in approaching the writing challenge. You can also use the tip cards to prepare ahead of time by clicking “Details” of the challenge set in the portal. These cards align with the challenge criteria and are a great resource to jumpstart creative thinking.

4. Focus on the criteria
   Tie the challenge to the specific goals of the session, whether it's practicing a literary device or honing a particular criterion. Explain the goal or criteria and reinforce this focus while analyzing their texts later in the game.

5. Provide sentence starters
   For students who struggle to begin, sentence starters can be a lifeline. Write a few on the board or prepare them in advance. These provide structure and inspiration, helping students move past the blank page and into the flow of writing.

3. Help Students Vote for Better Team Winners

Sometimes, the best texts don’t make it to the finals. By guiding your students on how to evaluate and stay on topic, you can help them vote more thoughtfully and avoid choosing texts based on popularity or humor alone. Here are some steps to encourage better voting habits:

1. Encourage reflection
   Walk around and ask open questions like “Which one is more on track? Which one is answering the prompt best? Who could win the finale? Which one is most exciting?”

2. Clearly explain the criteria, focus, or goal
   Provide clarity by articulating your overall objective or the specific focus of the challenge. Clearly explain the task criteria to guide students’ efforts. For example, ask questions like, "What defines an atmospheric text?" or "Are we looking for emotional appeal or logical arguments?"

3. Explain consequences for off-topic texts
   Let students know that if a team selects a silly or off-topic text for the finale, you as the teacher have the authority to replace it. While texts remain anonymous to students, remind them that the platform tracks who wrote each text, ensuring accountability.

4. Replace inappropriate texts in the finale
   If a team selects a text that is silly or doesn’t appropriately answer the prompt, take a moment to address the situation constructively. Start by explaining why the text does not align with the rules or criteria of the challenge. Then, replace it with another text from the same team that better fits the prompt. This approach reinforces the importance of staying on topic, encourages accountability, and ensures a fairer outcome for all participants.

4. Strategies for how to present finalists

The way you choose to orchestrate the final can significantly impact the number of teachable moments you create with your class. We encourage you to reflect on your approach and experiment with different variations to observe how your students respond and maximize learning opportunities.

1. Teachers read texts in alphabetical order
   Presenting team texts in alphabetical order ensures fairness, as the randomized order eliminates any perceived advantages.

2. Teachers read the best texts first
   Starting with the text that has the most potential can set a high standard for the class and give you a better opportunity to highlight strong writing techniques, explain literary devices, and clarify your expectations for quality work. This approach works well to inspire students and show them what success looks like.

3. Focus on thoughtful texts
   Subtly steer attention toward texts that demonstrate effort and align with the prompt. Spending more time discussing well-crafted texts sends a clear message that emphasizes their value.

4. Students read their own text
   If your students feel confident and are comfortable speaking in front of the class, this strategy allows them to practice reading aloud and performing. However, be mindful that some students might vote based on personality or delivery rather than the quality of the text. Use this approach thoughtfully to ensure fairness.

5. Let a student control the presentation
   Assigning a student to control the presentation interface gives them a leadership role and frees you to circulate around the room. This empowers students, builds their confidence, and gives you more opportunities to observe, coach, or address individual learning needs.

5. Effective Analysis of Student Texts

Analyzing the finalists’ texts is a golden opportunity for you to shine as a teacher and provide frequent feedback to your students. This moment is particularly effective because inductive learning keeps students highly engaged—they’re eager to listen, improve, and win. By using peer texts as role models and combining your guidance, you can foster both learning and motivation.

1. Positive feedback
   Highlight specific strengths in the text, such as vivid imagery, creative ideas, or effective use of a personal tone. Celebrate successes to build confidence and encourage students to learn from each other’s strengths and areas for improvement.

2. Explain literary devices through examples
   Use the feature at the bottom of the screen to highlight relevant literary devices directly within the text. By clicking on a specific device, you can draw students' attention to how it’s used in context. Repeating this process over time creates powerful teachable moments, helping students recognize patterns and better understand how these devices enhance writing. This hands-on approach makes learning more engaging and impactful as they see these concepts come to life in texts they’re already invested in.

3. Explain the challenge criteria
   Each challenge comes with a default focus, but you’re free to adapt or create your own criteria—either by explaining it verbally or writing it on the board for all challenges. If you choose to stick with the default focus, it’s essential to help students understand how and why certain texts excel at meeting the criteria while others may fall short. Discussing these differences not only clarifies expectations but also fosters critical thinking and helps students refine their writing skills.

4. Offer critical feedback
   Provide clear, actionable suggestions for improvement, such as refining sentence structure, staying on topic, or adding more detail. Frame your feedback as opportunities for growth, encouraging students to see critique as part of their learning journey.

6. Comparing Two Texts: A Back-and-Forth Analysis

Comparing two texts can create powerful teachable moments, especially when the texts offer clear contrasts. This approach helps students analyze writing critically and understand what makes one text more effective than another. By comparing texts in real time, you not only engage students in critical thinking but also show them how to apply these insights to their own writing. These moments can leave a lasting impact on their skills and confidence when writing longer pieces. Here are two scenarios to consider:

1. Contrasting tones or styles
   When two texts differ significantly—such as one being very suspenseful while the other is less so—it provides an excellent opportunity for discussion. Ask questions like: "Why does this text feel scarier than the other?" or "What techniques are being used here?" Guide students to explore elements like word choice, sentence structure, and imagery to uncover how these contribute to tone and impact.

2. Contrasting strengths of arguments
   If one argument is clearly stronger than the other, dive deeper into the differences. Discuss with students:

• "What makes this argument more convincing?"

• "How is evidence used effectively here?"

• "What role does emotional persuasion or logical structure play?"

7. Recap before allowing students to vote

Presenting 3-5 texts in the finale can be overwhelming for some students, especially when they may have forgotten the first ones by the end. To help them process the options and make thoughtful decisions, here are strategies teachers have successfully used to slow down the pacing and ensure a better voting experience:

1. Recap finalists
   Point to each finalist text on the board and provide a brief recap, highlighting a vivid phrase, memorable character, or unique plot point from each story.

2. Remind students to vote thoughtfully
   Use your voice as the teacher to guide their focus. Encourage students to prioritize the criteria and the prompt’s intention. Reinforce this by emphasizing what defines high-quality writing. Encourage them to vote based on writing quality and creativity rather than humor or popularity.

These steps help students feel less rushed, reduce decision-making stress, and promote a more thoughtful, criteria-based voting process.

8. Ending of the Competition

Our goal is to help teachers celebrate all students’ efforts while fostering a growth mindset in the classroom. However, some teachers have shared that their students thrive on a bit of competition and exposure. Here are some strategies to balance celebration and encouragement while keeping all students motivated:

1. Celebrate winning team members
   Ask the winning team members to raise their hands, and encourage the class to applaud their efforts. This recognition can be especially impactful for struggling students who were part of a strong writing team, as it boosts their confidence and encourages them to keep trying.

2. Celebrate total word count
   Write the class’s total word count on the board and challenge them to surpass it in future sessions. This collaborative goal emphasizes growth and teamwork over individual competition.

3. Highlight overlooked texts
   Scroll through texts intentionally to pause on standout pieces at the end of the session. Use this opportunity to celebrate these “hidden gems,” giving them the recognition they deserve and reinforcing that every student’s effort matters.

These strategies help end the competition on a positive and inclusive note, celebrating both individual and collective achievements while promoting a culture of growth and learning.

9. After a successful competition

After a successful match, students often feel a strong sense of satisfaction and excitement about their work. Many may even want to continue developing their texts and ideas. This enthusiasm provides you with countless opportunities to foster growth and development beyond the WeWillWrite platform. Here are some ideas inspired by our community of teachers to help students refine their skills and creativity:

1. Improve grammar and punctuation
   Print or email the students’ texts and ask them to focus on improving grammar and punctuation. Have them return the revised versions for feedback or discussion.

2. Revise texts by hand
   Provide printed copies of their texts with your comments and suggestions. Ask students to rewrite their improved versions by hand to reinforce blended learning.

3. Peer feedback: two stars and a wish
   Print out the texts and have students read their peers’ work. Ask them to identify two strengths (stars) and one suggestion (wish), then return the feedback to the author.

4. Team collaboration
   Print all team texts and have each team sit together to create a new, collaborative story inspired by elements from their original pieces. This activity emphasizes teamwork and creativity.

5. Extend writing in Google Docs
   Ask students to copy their text into Google Docs and continue developing it, focusing on expanding ideas, adding details, or enhancing structure (beginning, middle and end).

6. Design a project in Book Creator
   Encourage students to take their text into Book Creator, where they can design a visually appealing project that integrates their writing with images, layout, and design elements.

7. Home assignment
   Have students copy their text and use it as the foundation for a home assignment. They can expand it into a more detailed story, essay, or report.

8. Class anthology
   Compile all the final texts into a class anthology to celebrate students’ work.

9. Oral presentations
   Ask students to present their improved texts to the class, focusing on delivery and confidence.

10. Creative extensions
    Use the texts as inspiration for artwork, scripts for short plays, or even multimedia/video projects.

These activities transform competition excitement into ongoing opportunities for growth, creativity, and deeper learning.

We need your help to show, not just tell!

Your teaching strategies can inspire others! If you're able to create videos demonstrating these or other approaches for fellow teachers, we’d love to reward you with additional free subscription months.

Already sharing on social media? Let us know! We’d be thrilled to see and share your content.

At the core of WeWillWrite is the engaging, interactive experience that brings writing to life in your classroom. In this post, you’ll see how you and your students can build a culture of excitement around writing, where everyone can learn from each other and grow together. As the teacher, you are the cornerstone of this experience, guiding your students as they explore, create, and share their ideas.

Time to engage your students!

Click “Play” on the set you’ve chosen, and you’re off and running. The first thing you’ll see is a modal asking if you want to play all challenges in the set. Sometimes, you might not have time to go through the entire set, so you can choose to play just part of it. If you choose fewer than the full number of challenges in the set, the last challenge(s) will be removed from the session. If you would like to choose specific challenges, you can click “Copy set” before pressing start to reorder, add, or remove challenges.

Tip! You can always play just part of a set if you’re short on time.

The Lobby

When you start a game, you’ll be taken to the lobby. Here, the classroom screen will display the PIN code and link that students will use to join the game.

Tip! Remind your students to use their real names the first time they play. This is also a good opportunity to mention that they shouldn’t use classmates’ names in their texts.

The first time students play, they’ll enter their names. While the writing competition is anonymous for students, you will you know who wrote each text once the game has concluded. Remind them to use their real names so you can track their progress, see how they’re participating, and identify if they need extra support. The game automatically filters out any texts that mention classmates’ names. Telling your students that you can see who wrote each text helps to create a safe environment where students are held accountable. This is also a great opportunity to discuss how freedom of expression comes with a responsibility to others, and why they should avoid using classmates’ names in their stories.

Tip! Keep the class atmosphere casual and emphasize the anonymous competition aspect, which encourages creativity and risk-taking!

Team Assignment

Once everyone has joined, you’re ready to start the game! Students will be randomly assigned to 3 or 4 teams, depending on the class size. Students will see which team they’re on, indicated by an animal symbol, but who’s on their team remains a secret. This phase usually sparks curiosity and excitement!

From this point on, the game runs on a timer that automatically moves you to the next phase. The exception is the final round, where you can take as much time as you need to explore the students’ texts together. If you want to move forward more quickly, you can always click the progress bar button in the top right corner.

Presenting the Challenge

Now it’s your turn to inspire your students! The task, image, writing prompt, time limit, and criterion will appear on the classroom screen. Present the task to your students. Explore and interpret the details of the image together to sow the seeds for some great ideas! This is your chance to use your talent as a guide and motivator. Be sure to remind them to focus on the criterion while they write.

You have one minute for this part. Based on thorough testing, we’ve found that this strikes a good balance between teacher guidance and keeping students engaged (even though it might feel a bit short for some teachers!).

Tip! This is your opportunity to drive curiosity—ask open-ended questions and encourage diverse interpretations.

On Your Marks, Get Set—Write!

During this phase, you’ll notice a unique focus in the room—an almost magical quiet accompanied by the sound of tapping keys as students immerse themselves in their writing.

Students’ screens during this phase will consist of a white text box to type in, surrounded by two help cards on either side. This layout provides guidance and support at every step, boosting participation and helping students feel more confident about their ideas. They have access to three types of support:

• Tip cards

  On the left side, students will find a tip card containing up to four sentence starters and guiding questions if they need a boost or feel stuck.

• Team card

  When students choose the “team card” with their team’s symbol on the right side, they’ll see the beginning of what their teammates are writing. Seeing another perspective often motivates students to bring their best ideas to the table and encourages healthy competition.

• You!

  Finally, the most powerful support system: you. Walk around, show curiosity, and offer encouragement. Your encouragement shows students that their ideas matter and that you’re there to support their creativity. Plus, it’s fun to peek at what they’re focusing so hard on!

Tip! Encourage students to use the tip cards if they need a little help to get started, stay on track, or come up with fresh ideas.

Tip! Get involved in the process and be curious. Walk around the classroom and make yourself available. Take a peek and encourage students if you see them writing something fun or interesting!

The challenges last between 2-4 minutes. When there are 20 seconds left, students will get a flashing signal. Once the time is up, they can rate how satisfied they were with the challenge, their process, and their final result.

Don’t be surprised if some students react when the time runs out—they might not have finished their text. That’s okay! It’s all about the process and the joy of writing. This is a sign of engagement!

Learning from Each Other: The Duel

Now it’s time for students to see what their teammates wrote! Each student gets two texts from their own team to read. The texts are distributed so that every student's writing is always read by two classmates. Depending on how much the class wrote, students have between 30 and 80 seconds to read the texts. In this duel, they’ll compare the texts based on the given criterion. After reading, they vote on which text best meets the criteria, such as most exciting, funny, atmospheric, imaginative, suspenseful, convincing, or interesting.

Tip! Remind students to compare the texts based on the given criterion.

This is a tool for building writing fluency, and we aim to encourage as much creative freedom as possible because we know it’s a key motivator. However, as with any creative activity, this can sometimes result in texts that may not be entirely appropriate or that push some boundaries.

Our filter works so that if a student writes something inappropriate or uses a classmate’s name, those texts won’t be eligible to be read. Instead, they’ll be replaced by other texts from the team. The student won’t be notified of this during the competition, but you can view it in the “Student texts” section afterward.

Learning from Each Other: The Finals

The excitement builds! The text from each team that gets the most votes will represent the team in the final round. Students will see on their screen which text from their team advanced. This is always exciting, and it’s completely normal to get a few reactions—another sign of their engagement!

Excerpts from each team’s text will now appear on the classroom screen. If a text passes through the filter but isn’t to your approval, you can simply hover over the “X” in the corner and click “Replace” to remove it from the competition. The text will then be replaced with the one that got the second most votes from that team.

Now it’s your chance to use your storytelling talent! Click “Read and assess” or an individual text excerpt, and the full text will appear on the screen. Your role is to share the stories to the class, bringing their ideas to life and showing enthusiasm for the potential of what they’ve written. Each text has a letter assigned to it for easy voting, and it can be helpful to point these out as you read.

Tip! Immerse yourself in the texts, treating them with the same intrigue and respect as you would any author’s work. This positive reinforcement evens the playing field and builds confidence in all your young writers!

Each text will display with the assistance of our AI-powered classroom support tool, which highlights the literary devices and writing techniques in their work. These elements appear as buttons beneath the text, which you can click to reveal exactly where the technique is used. This creates a dynamic way to engage with the writing process, supporting your teaching and promoting an inducting learning method which turns students’ own examples into teachable moments on writing concepts.

While AI will never replace the personal impact you bring to the classroom, it can enhance the writing experience by providing positive reinforcement. For a young writer, seeing their own examples highlighted according to academic criteria is a tremendous confidence boost. By acknowledging these highlights, it further validates their progress and encourages a positive attitude toward writing as a skill they can master and enjoy.

Tip! Encourage open discussions around the texts with the class.

Now comes the exciting conclusion—it’s time for your students to decide which team’s work will earn the top spot! With the final votes about to be cast, anticipation fills the room. When you’re ready, click the button in the top right corner to start the voting process. As the votes are tallied, points will be awarded to each team, and a breakdown will be shown of the team standings and points awarded so far. This is often when you’ll see reactions in the classroom—the excitement of competition really comes to life!

Conclusion and Celebration

Once the points are awarded, the game moves on to the next challenge in the set. When all challenges are completed, the game is over, and the team with the most points wins! At the very end, a scrolling screen will show all the texts students contributed. It’s exciting for students to spot their own text, and it’s common for them to point it out with enthusiasm!

You’ll see a brief summary of some stats from the game you just played, like the number of words written, total number of texts, how many students wrote more than one text, and how satisfied they were with the tasks. You can scroll through the texts as long as you’d like, highlighting the efforts of those whose texts didn't make it to the finals this time around.

Tip! Feel free to use the final stats screen and the scrolling texts as a celebration of how much you’ve accomplished together!

We created WeWillWrite to support your writing instruction and make writing practice ten times more fun for your students. So, how do you get started with this tool, and how can you get the best experience for both you and your students? Here are some key steps—and tips—to kick off your writing journey together!

By teachers, for teachers

WeWillWrite is designed by teachers, for teachers. We understand that no technology can replace the essential role you play in your students’ learning. That’s why our tool is here to support your teaching, providing structure for writing practice that fosters a love for writing! Our goal is to help you create a meaningful learning environment where your expertise gives students a great writing experience.

Save prep time

Our tool saves you prep time while still delivering high-quality lessons with strong learning outcomes. In our portal, you’ll find a variety of task sets ready to go. Head over to portal.wewillwrite.com and browse through the challenges that best suit your students. After all, you know them best!

The Pre-Made Challenge Sets

We’ve developed a wide variety of challenge sets tailored for teachers, designed to ignite your students’ urge to write. They’re super practical, saving you prep time while keeping students engaged.

As you browse through the different sets, you’ll notice each one includes an estimated completion time, which helps when planning your lessons. Each set contains individual challenges that students will complete in one round of WeWillWrite.

Our collection includes both fiction and nonfiction challenges, tailored for different age groups and covering various text types and topics.

The Writing Challenges

Each task has two main elements:

• A picture

  The most important element—our research and testing have shown that images make the tasks more accessible to a wider range of students and spark lots of ideas. Plus, they’re fun to explore together!

• A writing prompt

  This provides the task details and additional context or instructions.

  
  

Tip! Review the challenges ahead of time and think about how you’ll present them to your students. What details do you notice in the images?

Within each set, you can click on any challenge or “Show details” to view:

• Four tips

  Each challenge includes four tips designed to support students through the task, helping them start or stay on track. During the writing phase, students can click on the tip card to receive one tip at a time.

• A criterion

  Each task comes with a specific criterion to guide students’ writing, with different criteria for fiction and non-fiction.

Fiction

Nonfiction

• Writing time

  Challenges are designed to encourage quick, focused writing bursts. This lowers the barrier to getting started and helps students realize that ideas often emerge as they focus intensely. Writing quickly helps students embrace mistakes, reducing intimidation around the writing process.

  While our game is primarily focused on building writing enthusiasm and practice, the student texts can serve as a great starting point for spelling and grammar exercises afterward. Our carefully balanced writing times help all students stay engaged, whether they need extra focus or tend to write quickly. We’re constantly refining these times and welcome feedback from teachers like you!

Making Your Own Challenge Sets

If you’re feeling creative and enjoy making things your own way, we totally get it. We do too! You can customize sets in two ways:

• Copy a pre-made set

  If you like a set but want to make a few changes, just click the “Copy set” button in the set overview. This will create a duplicate in “My sets,” where you can add or remove tasks to fit your needs.

• Create a set from scratch

  Start fresh by clicking “Create set” in “My sets.” You’ll have access to our entire challenge library, where you can filter by genre, topic, grade level, task type, and writing time. Mix and match to create the perfect set for your class!

The Classroom Simulator

Before introducing WeWillWrite to your class, you can try out the tasks using our classroom simulator. This feature lets you see how the game will unfold, with explanations along the way. One screen will show the classroom view, while another will show the student view. It’s a great way to get comfortable before going live with your students.

Wrapping up

Now you’re ready to bring WeWillWrite into your classroom! Explore the portal, experiment with the challenge sets, and watch your students unleash their creativity through short-burst writing. We can’t wait to hear how WeWillWrite transforms writing with your students!