Teachers
How do I create a writing prompt and assign it?
Written by the TestFLE team.
In short
In “Practice”, then “Writing tasks”, you create a prompt, then you assign it to one student, several students or a class. You then read and correct each copy yourself: the platform does no automatic analysis of it.
Who this is for, and what you need first
- Who this is for
- Teachers whose school has chosen the Practice option, and school administrators.
- What you need first
- The Practice option, chosen by your school.
- A class of which you are the teacher: you only assign a prompt to your classes and to the students in them.
The steps
- In the sidebar, click “Practice”.
- At the top of the page, click “Writing tasks”.
- Click “New prompt”.
- In “Title”, type the title of the prompt, for example “Ma journée préférée”. It has 120 characters at most.
- In “Statement”, type the instructions the student will read before writing. They have 5,000 characters at most.
- Click “Create”. The prompt’s page opens.
- If you wish, drop a picture in the drop zone of “Prompt picture”.
- Under “Assignments”, click “Assign”.
- Under “Recipients”, click “One student”, “Several students” or “A class”, then choose the class or the students. “A class” is already selected.
- In “Opens (day and time)”, set from when the student can start.
- If you wish, set a “Closes (optional)” time.
- Click “Assign”. The assignment’s card appears, with the “Upcoming” or “Open” badge.
The three settings of an assignment
- The recipients. With “A class”, every student in the class receives the prompt. A student who joins the class later receives it too, and one who leaves it no longer sees it. With “One student” or “Several students”, only the students named receive it, even if they are in different classes.
- The opening. It is required. Before that day and time, the student does not see the prompt. The screen follows your device’s time.
- The closing. It is optional and must come after the opening. Without a closing, the student can submit at any time after the opening. With a closing, they can no longer write or submit once the time has passed, but a copy already submitted stays readable.
For a single student, from their row
You can also open a prompt to a student without going through the prompt’s page. In “My students”, click the three dots on their row, then “What is open to them”. In the “Writing” section, click “Open a prompt…”, choose the prompt, then click “Open the prompt”.
This route has no settings: the screen states “Open from now on, with no end date, to this student only.” What is open to a student describes this window.
Going further
Understanding the settings and special cases
What does a prompt contain?
A prompt brings together a title, a statement and, optionally, a picture. The statement is formatted text: the toolbar offers “Bold”, “Italic”, “Underline”, two kinds of lists, three alignments, “Text colour” and “Highlight”. The 5,000-character limit applies to the visible text, and the “… / 5000 characters” counter follows it as you type.
Too much formatting makes the text heavy. The screen says so (“formatting too heavy, remove some colours or highlighting”) and the “Create” button, or “Save” on an existing prompt, stays greyed out as long as the text is too heavy.
There is one picture only, in JPEG, PNG or WebP format, of 5 MB at most. Only the students who receive the prompt see it, and their screen marks it with their name. Pictures larger than 1600 px are reduced before they are sent, and the original is not kept. The upload is immediate: the picture is saved as soon as the file is chosen. To remove it, click “Remove the picture”; to replace it, drop another one.
What can still be changed?
As long as no copy has been submitted, everything can be changed: the title, the statement and the picture, with the “Save” button, then the assignment, with its “Edit” button.
As soon as a student submits a copy, the prompt moves to the “Locked” state. The title, the statement and the picture can no longer be changed (“A copy has been submitted: the title, statement and picture can no longer be changed.”). The assignment is locked in the same way (“A copy has been submitted: this assignment can no longer be changed, only removed.”). Submitted copies keep the title and the statement as they were when submitted. To change the instructions after a first submission, create a new prompt and assign it.
Removing an assignment or a prompt
On an assignment’s card, “Remove” opens the “Remove this assignment?” window (“Students will no longer see it and it will disappear from this page. Copies already submitted, with their correction, remain readable from each student’s detail page.”). You can remove it at any time, even after a submission, and the screen does not offer to undo it. Students no longer see the prompt, their draft, their submitted copy or the details of its correction. An assessment already published, however, stays visible in their results, with the copy’s title and date: removing the assignment does not make it disappear. You find the submitted copies in the student’s sheet, in the “Answers and written work” tab, under the note “Assignment removed”.
A prompt is removed with “Remove the prompt”, but only once all its assignments have been removed. As long as one remains, the button is greyed out and the screen says “Remove its assignments first.” The prompt then disappears from your list; the copies already submitted stay readable.
Who sees which prompts?
Each teacher only sees their own prompts. Prompts cannot be shared between colleagues: a colleague who would like to reuse your instructions has to create their own prompt. A school administrator sees the prompts of every teacher in the school, and the screen tells them so.
If the screen refuses to save
- A closing before the opening is refused (“The closing time must be after the opening time.”). Choose an earlier opening or a later closing.
- A picture in another format is refused (“Unsupported image format: JPEG, PNG or WebP expected.”). So is a picture of more than 5 MB (“File too large for this media type (image): 5 MB at most.”).
- A file that is not really a picture is refused (“The file content is not an image.” or “This image cannot be read.”).
- If the Practice storage space is full, the screen gives the MB used and available (“Not enough storage space:” followed by the space used, the quota and the space available).
- A locked prompt or assignment refuses any change, with the messages quoted above. The server replies “A copy has already been submitted for this prompt; it can no longer be modified.” or “A copy has already been submitted; this assignment can no longer be modified, only removed.”
- A prompt that is still assigned cannot be removed (“This prompt is still assigned; remove its assignments before removing it.”).
Related articles
- How do I correct a student’s copy, then ask them to revise it?From a prompt in “Writing tasks” or from the student’s sheet, “Correct” opens the copy: you annotate, choose an assessment and publish. Correction is manual, with no AI; “Publish and ask for a revision” sends the copy back to the student, three versions at most.
- How do I see what is open to a student and open something else for them?The “What is open to” window, followed by the student’s name, brings together their library materials, their Practice assignments and their writing prompts. Open it with “What is open to them”, in the menu on their row or on their sheet; it does not concern the placement test.
- How do I write and submit a writing task?The student writes their task in the “Writing tasks” section of “Practice”: the text saves on its own, then “Submit” sends it to the teacher. The teacher reads and corrects by hand, with no automatic analysis.