What if writing in school felt like a team sport? Not a worksheet, not a silent block of independent work, but something the whole class does together. Imagine a room that gets quiet to write, then comes alive when it is time to share.
If that sounds like a big shift from what writing time usually looks like in your classroom, you’re not alone. As a classroom teacher, my students talked about their writing and asked for peer feedback, but it wasn’t a high energy part of our day. For lots of educators, student writing feels more like a solo activity with one student, one space to write, and one task for each student.
Today on the blog, I’m sharing collaborative writing activities for the classroom with a look at WeWillWrite. It’s a social writing platform that turns writing into a whole-class activity. I had the chance to chat with their team and see it in action at the ISTELive conference this June. And I have a feeling it might be just the thing to change the energy of your writing block this school year.
Why Collaborative Writing Activities for the Classroom Matter
When I first started teaching, independent writing time in my classroom looked the way it does in most classrooms. Students writing on their own, in a mostly quiet room, and me circulating to check in with one student at a time or pulling students over for writing conferences. In my conversations with educators, writing still comes up as one of the trickiest parts of the day. That’s true in classrooms where teachers teach every subject to the same group of students all day, or where they might work with different groups of students throughout the day.
In lots of classrooms when students are writing, they work alone, get some limited peer feedback, and teachers respond to one piece of writing at a time after the class period is over.
When writing becomes social, everything shifts. Students learn from what their classmates wrote, not just from feedback on their own work. Peer and teacher feedback happens out loud, so the whole class gets better together, not just one student at a time. After talking to a few teachers who use WeWillWrite with their students, it was so much fun to get a behind-the-scenes look (and put my student and teacher hat on) and see how it works.
What Is WeWillWrite?
WeWillWrite turns writing into something the whole class does together. Instead of each student working alone with private feedback, everyone writes at the same time, on the same thing. Then they share what they wrote, react to each other, and learn out loud as a group. It’s writing as a shared class moment, not a solo assignment.
Here’s the part I love: the center of it all is always the writing itself. Not points, not badges. The thing students make is what everyone looks at, talks about, and celebrates.
If the idea of putting student writing on the big screen feels intimidating at first, I totally understand the hesitation. But because students write together and share as a team, the experience is so much closer to a team sport than a spotlight. No one is singled out, and everyone contributes to the moment.
Learn more about WeWillWrite >>
How a WeWillWrite Session Works
So what do these collaborative writing activities actually look like in action? You start by picking or creating a writing challenge, which WeWillWrite calls a set. Your students get a short, timed window to write, and the room goes quiet. That quiet is part of the experience. Everyone is in the same moment, heads down, working on the same thing.
Then it opens up. The texts come up on screen, and you read student writing out loud and talk about it with the whole class. Every student gets to learn from what their classmates wrote. The class reacts and votes anonymously, and the top lines get celebrated on the big screen. Kids react, join in, and have fun around the writing.
That rhythm of writing together and then connecting is the heart of it. And even a playful prompt is real practice in skills like building an argument and organizing thoughts. A middle school ELA teacher might run a persuasive prompt where students argue for the best class pet, while a fifth grade teacher might use a set that asks students to describe a setting using all five senses. With a ready-made set, there is little to no prep.
As you run these collaborative writing activities, you’re in the middle of the room leading the moment. You can read favorite lines out loud, ask follow-up questions, and celebrate strong word choices instead of sitting behind a screen watching a dashboard.
Why These Collaborative Writing Activities Fit the First Weeks Back
If you’re thinking ahead to a new school year, this is where WeWillWrite really shines. The first weeks back are when you’re setting up writing routines, building classroom culture, and establishing norms for how students participate online. These collaborative writing activities check all three boxes:
- Anonymous voting lowers the stakes. Quieter and more reluctant students take part because no one knows whose line is whose. The student who hasn’t said a word all week might just write the line that wins.
- It builds a writing routine fast. This is something you can run weekly from day one, so students know that writing together is simply what your class does.
- It helps set classroom culture and connection. In those first days when the tone is being set, a shared writing moment gives students a reason to lean in and listen to each other.
- It’s low prep and ready from day one. There’s not a lot of steps to follow to setup WeWillWrite, so you can run a session in those busy first weeks without adding to your to-do list.
Regular readers of the blog know that I love classroom activities that are low prep and high impact. With WeWillWrite, you can boost engagement from an activity you can start in about five minutes. It gets every student writing, including the ones who normally stay quiet or don’t jump up to share.
Explore ready-made sets from WeWillWrite >>
Getting Started with Collaborative Writing Activities for the Classroom
Ready to give collaborative writing activities for the classroom a try? Start small. You can sign up for a free account and run one ready-made back-to-school set with your students. You can also create your own set to see how quick it is to tailor a prompt to whatever you’re teaching.
And if you’re planning your back-to-school activities now, consider adding one WeWillWrite session to your first-week plans. A live, interactive writing moment is a wonderful way to show students from day one that your classroom is a place where everyone’s words matter.
You can set up your free account in WeWillWrite today and kick off the school year with writing routines that take minutes to run and help build classroom culture from day one!
