Back to School: How the "Get to Know Your Writers" Challenge Works

Get to Know Your Writers is a free three-week back-to-school challenge for grades 3–12. It's built around the Back to School Writing Kit: a printable pack with one low-pressure writing task per week.

Here's the idea. The first weeks of school are full of activities that help you learn names, interests, and personalities. This kit goes one step further; it helps you learn how each student writes: how they communicate an idea, develop it, organize it, use language, and handle conventions.

Students write by hand. You scan or photograph the stack, upload it to CoGrader, and get standards-aligned feedback back, without hand-grading every page.

CoGrader is free for teachers, the kit is free, and nothing in this challenge requires a payment or a credit card. Teachers who sign up during the campaign also get three months of CoGrader Premium, free.

The challenge runs from August 10 to late September. You can join anytime during that window.

This isn't a benchmark or a label. It's a light, fun starting point for you and your students, a picture of where your writers are in week one, not a score that follows them.

The Back to School Writing Kit contains four PDFs:

Print the student packet that matches your grade band. Each packet includes:

From inside CoGrader. Sign in, click on Set up the challenge on the Back to School banner on your dashboard, pick your grade band and week, then click Download printable. The PDFs will be stored on Google Drive.

No pre-teaching is required. These tasks show what students can already do, so you don't need to teach the genre first or have students research anything.

Each week stands alone. If you miss a week, start late, or run the three tasks over a month instead of three weeks, that's fine. Nothing unlocks in order, and nothing expires on you.

The whole flow lives behind the Back to School banner. When you start a week from there, CoGrader fills in the class, assignment name, prompt, and rubric for you. You don't have to type any of it.

Sign in to CoGrader and click on Set up the challenge on the Back to School banner at the top of your dashboard.

Choose Grades 3–5, Grades 6–8, or Grades 9–12. CoGrader uses this to select the right rubric and set the reading level.

Pick the warm-up, Week 1, Week 2, or Week 3. Every week is available from day one. You don't have to complete them in order.

Photograph or scan the stack and upload it as one PDF. You don't need to scan each paper separately.

You'll see the same upload options as any handwritten assignment:

CoGrader splits the scan into one response per student. Check the split before you continue:

Read the individual feedback, adjust anything you want to change, and then decide whether to share it with students. You can also print it or keep it for your records.

The class view shows you where the class is strong and what to teach next, which is the part that actually saves you planning time.

Use the same class and the corresponding week's rubric. All three samples end up in one place.

The first time you start a week, CoGrader creates a class called "Get to Know Your Writers." Every week goes into that same class, so all three samples sit together.

Most upload problems come down to the scan itself. Before you upload, check that:

If the handwriting isn't being read properly, a blurry, angled, or shadowed page is almost always the cause. Photograph the pages flat and well lit, and you can correct any misread before the feedback is generated.

All three weeks use the same five domains. That's deliberate. Using one rubric across three genres is what lets you compare the same student from week to week.

Each domain is scored on a four-level evidence scale:

If your school or district uses a different standards framework, you can select it when you set up the assignment, or upload your own campus or district rubric.

Each packet asks students to self-assess before they see any feedback, using the same five domains as the rubric. After feedback is shared, they record one strength CoGrader noticed, one next step it suggested, whether they agree and why, and one change they'd make if they revised.

Here's language that works well with students:

"Feedback is information you can consider. CoGrader may notice something useful, miss something, or describe an idea differently than you would. You can agree, disagree, revise, or ask me to help you interpret it."

You can also skip sharing entirely and use CoGrader privately to support your own feedback process.

We're giving away over $2,000 in prizes during the Back to School Challenge.

Two things:

You have to be in the community to take part. That's also where we announce every winner.

→ Join the Teachers' Community

The drawing is on August 28, and we announce winners in the community. We also give away a teacher-favorite prize inside the community each week during the challenge.

✉️ Use the same email everywhere. Use the email on your CoGrader account and the one you use in the community. That's how we connect your grading to your entry.

If they don't match, email support@cograder.com and we'll sort it out.

The community is also where you'll find live CoGrader tutorials, upload help, weekly challenge reminders, and other teachers running the same three weeks.

Is it free? Will I be charged?

Completely free. CoGrader is free for teachers and so is the whole kit. Nothing in this challenge requires payment, and there's no credit card.

Do I get free CoGrader Premium?

Yes. Teachers who sign up during the Back to School campaign, August 10 to late September, get three months of CoGrader Premium free.

When does the challenge run?

August 10 to late September. You can join any time in that window and run your three weeks from there.

How do I enter the giveaway?

Join our Teachers' Community and complete the Week 1 writing activity. You need to be in the community to take part. The drawing is on August 28, and winners are announced in the community.

Do my students need accounts or devices?

No. Students never create accounts and never log in. They write by hand, and you upload their work on behalf of the class.

What happens to my students' writing? Is it private?

Because students have no accounts, no student personal information is stored. CoGrader is built to meet FERPA and COPPA requirements. You upload, you review, and you decide what gets shared back. No student data is used for the giveaway.

Which packet do I download?

There are three: grades 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12. Pick the one that matches your students. The Teacher's Guide covers all three.

Can I use this with more than one class?

Yes. Create a separate assignment for each class or section and use the same week's rubric for each.

I missed Week 1 / I'm starting late. Can I still join?

Yes. Each week stands alone, and you can run them at whatever pace fits your first month.

Do I have to complete all three weeks?

No. One task already tells you something. But three tasks across three genres tell you considerably more than any single prompt, so it's worth running all three if you can.

Can students type instead of writing by hand?

Yes. The kit is built for handwriting because that's what the first weeks of school actually look like, but CoGrader accepts typed work too.

Can I change the prompts?

Yes. Rewrite, shorten, or swap anything. Keep the genre for that week so the rubric still matches what students wrote.

Can I use this if I don't teach ELA?

Yes. These are open-response writing tasks, and teachers use CoGrader for writing across ELA, social studies, and science. No subject pre-teaching is required.

Is the warm-up scored?

No. Build Your Algorithm is an engagement and relationship-building activity, not a graded task.

My school uses different standards.

When you create the assignment, you select your standards framework and CoGrader applies the matching expectations. You can also upload your own campus or district rubric, or pick one from our rubric library.

Can I export the results?

Yes. Class and student results export to Excel, CSV, or PDF, and can be printed.

The feedback doesn't match what I see in the writing.

Treat it as a first pass, not a verdict. Check the writing, the rubric, and that the right grade and genre were selected, then edit the feedback however you need. You always have the final say.

Where do I find the printables again?

Sign in to CoGrader, click the Back to School banner, pick your grade band and week, and click Download printable. The PDFs are stored on Google Drive, so you can get to them any time.

I still need help.

Email support@cograder.com or ask in the Teachers' Community. Plenty of teachers there are running the same three weeks.