How to Review and Grade Writing Prompts in Book Taco

Writing Prompts are open-ended writing activities that students complete after reading a book. The student chooses a prompt from the ones you have enabled, writes one or two paragraphs, and submits their response. The submission then appears in your queue for review. You assign a grade, leave optional feedback, and either approve it or send it back for the student to revise and resubmit.

How it works for students

• Students access Writing Prompt from a book's activity page. They see a list of prompt cards — each showing a writing topic — and a category filter (All, Fiction, Nonfiction) that defaults to the book's category.
• The student clicks Use this prompt on the one they want. A writing modal opens with a text area. They write their response and click Submit.
• Once submitted, the student can read their text but cannot edit it. The page shows their current status:
  • Waiting for grade — submitted and waiting for your review.
  • You need to revise your text — you sent it back; the student can edit and resubmit. Your feedback note is shown.
  • Congratulations! Your text has been approved — you approved the submission. The student can see their grade and your comment.
• Students can only submit one Writing Prompt per book. If sent back for redo, they revise the same submission rather than starting over.

Prompts must be enabled. Students only see the prompts that are turned on. If a student sees the message 'Writing Prompt Disabled', go to Customize Program or the student's Student Group settings and enable the Writing Prompt module. To control which individual prompts appear, use the Default Prompts and My Custom Prompts tabs on the Writing Prompts page.

Step 1: Go to Writing Prompts

• In the left sidebar, click Writing Prompts.
• The page opens on the Grade Writing tab, which shows a card for every student submission. If there are submissions waiting to be graded, the sidebar displays a red badge with the count.
• Each card shows the student's avatar and name, the submission date, the book cover, the number of attempts, and a status badge:
  • Needs grade — submitted and waiting for your review.
  • Graded: X% — already approved with that score.
  • Redo: X% or Redo required — sent back; the student needs to revise and resubmit.
• The action button on each card reflects its status: Grade now (pending), View graded (approved), or Waiting student (redo sent, awaiting resubmission).

Step 2: Filter the submission list

• Use the filter panel at the top of the Grade Writingtab to narrow down the list:
  • Status — All Status, Waiting, Approved, or Redo.
  • Select Students — choose one or more students to see only their submissions.
  • Filter Mode (visible if you have groups) — switch between filtering by individual students or by group.
• Click Apply Filter to update the results.

Step 3: Grade a submission

• Click Grade now on any card with a Needs grade badge. The review page opens.
• The right panel shows the student's full submission: their name, submission date, the book title, the writing prompt they chose, their written response with the current attempt number, and a history of previous attempts if they have resubmitted before.
• On the left panel, fill in the grading form:
  • Grade (%) — enter a number from 0 to 100. The page shows the student's minimum passing grade as a reference. You can also leave the grade blank to send feedback only without assigning a score.
  • Teacher comments — optional when approving. Use the Quick comment suggestions to insert pre-written phrases: Great connection to the story!, Work on punctuation., Include more book details., and Please redo to reach X%.
• Click Save. If the grade meets or exceeds the student's passing threshold, the submission is marked as Graded and the student sees their score and your comment.

Leave the grade blank to send feedback only. If you enter a comment but leave the Grade field empty, the student receives your feedback and can redo the activity — without a low score attached to the attempt.

Step 4: Send a submission back for redo

• If the submission needs improvement, you have two options:
  • Enter a grade below the passing threshold and add a comment, then click Save. The student sees their score and your feedback, and can revise and resubmit.
  • Leave the grade blank, add a comment, and click Redo. The student receives only your feedback and can redo the activity without a score being recorded for that attempt.
• Once the student resubmits, the card returns to your queue with a Needs grade badge. Their new attempt is shown as the current submission, and previous attempts remain visible in the attempt history.

Q: Can I see what a student wrote in previous attempts? 
A: Yes. The review page shows up to two previous attempts inline. If there are more, click View All Attempts to open the full history in a modal.

Q: Can I change a grade after approving a submission? 
A: Once a submission is marked as approved, the grading form is replaced by a read-only view. To adjust a grade, contact support.

Q: Where do I manage which prompts students can see? 
A: On the Writing Prompts page, use the Default Prompts tab to toggle system prompts on or off, and the My Custom Prompts tab to create, edit, delete, and enable your own prompts.

Q: Where can I see all Writing Prompt grades across the class? 
A: Go to Reports in the left sidebar. The Writing Prompts report shows all completed submissions with grades broken down by student.