Feedback students act on, while they still remember writing it.
Set a prompt, bring in handwritten pages, read the marking and feedback, and guide a second draft in the student’s own words.
Step by step
Writing & feedback, step by step
Choose a writing prompt
Pick a prompt or task that fits your learning focus.
- Use an illustrated prompt or a teacher-created task that connects with your current learning focus.
- Discuss the audience, purpose, and text type before students begin. Keep the task manageable for the time available.
- Encourage students to use planning and idea-development tools to organise their thinking, then write in their own words.
Work with handwritten writing
Students write on paper; teachers review and submit the work.
- Students open the task prompt, write on paper and give their pages to their teacher.
- Teachers capture or upload the pages. Use good lighting and a flat page, keep the full page in the frame and check that every page belongs to the correct student and task.
- Teachers compare the editable transcript with the original page, correct recognition errors and submit the work for marking. Students can read the feedback when it is ready and ask their teacher about anything that does not match their writing.
Understand writing feedback
Read strengths and next steps alongside the writing.
- Read the student’s writing alongside the feedback. Start with a strength the student can recognise in their own work.
- Use criterion-level feedback to choose a specific next step. Writing Boost supports NAPLAN narrative and persuasive criteria.
- Treat feedback as a starting point for teacher judgement and discussion. Check any suggestion that does not fit the writing, task, or learner.
Help students improve their next draft
Keep revision focused, achievable, and in the student’s own words.
- Choose one piece of feedback to act on, such as making an idea clearer or developing a character.
- Ask the student to make their own changes with the advice beside their writing.
- Compare the original and revised work. Invite the student to explain how their choices improved the piece.
How it works
One piece of writing, six moments.
What happens to a piece of writing in Writing Boost, from the first idea to the next lesson.
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01Before writing
A prompt worth writing about
Pick an illustrated prompt or set a task of your own.
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02Writing
Their words, with the tools you choose
Students write in their own words, with the tools you switch on.
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03On paper
Handwritten? Still marked.
Teachers photograph the pages and check the transcript before marking.
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04Within minutes
Marked, then explained
A score and a reason on every criterion, then one next step.
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05The second draft
Better, in their own words
Students act on one piece of advice. The original keeps its marks.
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06Next lesson
What to teach next
Class patterns show what to teach next, with the writing behind them.
The cycle in pictures, a marked piece taken apart, the second draft and what the marking rests on.
Go further
Keep learning.
- One piece, start to finish The cycle in pictures, a marked piece taken apart, the second draft and what the marking rests on.
- The marking guide course Eleven short films on the NAPLAN writing criteria. The first is open to everyone; the rest are free with your email.
- How Writing Boost marks writing The scales, marking then feedback, spelling by rule, handwriting and school controls.
See your own students’ writing marked.
Bring a writing task you know well. In a 30-minute school demo we’ll show the student, teacher and school views, and answer your questions.
In 30 minutes, you’ll see
- Writing marked on the NAPLAN criteria, with feedback
- Smart Groups for teaching, and the leadership view
- Spelling Boost, in the same school plan
- Answers on pricing, onboarding and privacy
Scott LettsHosts our school demos
Still need a hand?
Tell us your school name, what you were doing and what you expected to see. Leave passwords and student details out.
