Getting Started (Educators)

Welcome, bold and creative educator, to your NaNo-Noveling adventure! We have a detailed "Getting Started" page for young writers as well, with clear instructions and screenshots for starting their first project. You can access it here!

This guide will walk you through exactly what you need to do in order to get your classroom up and ready to welcome young novelists to write!

1. Understand our classroom tools and gain parental permission

Our on-site classroom space allows you to gather students in the same class, hold class discussions, monitor students’ novel progress, read and edit students' novels, and control students' access to private chat and class discussions.

We know that individual schools, library systems, and youth writing programs can vary in terms of technology use guidelines and parental permissions. Please review our Terms & Conditions and Parent Proxy Agreement before you allow students to establish accounts.

2. Create your virtual classroom(s) and add students.

Click “Create my classroom” on your dashboard to get started. You can create as many classrooms as you need (for instance, if you teach multiple sections or grade levels). Manage all classrooms from your Dashboard, or from the View All Classrooms page.

Create your classroom

There are two ways for students to join your classroom, but both involve using your classroom's unique access code, found at the bottom right corner of the Overview box in the Admin section of each classroom's page:

  • Students can join your classroom as they're signing up for Young Writer accounts by inputting your classroom code. If they sign up this way, they don't need to input personal or parent email addresses! However, we recommend that students create accounts that are tied to email addresses whenever possible. This will give them greater control over long-term access to their projects. 

  • Students can also join your classroom after they've signed up by clicking the "Join a classroom" link on their dashboard and inputting your classroom's access code.

Classroom access code

3. Help students set up their projects

There are a few ways to write novels with NaNoWriMo. If there's an official NaNo challenge (like NaNoWriMo in November or Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July) students can participate by clicking "Yes!" when the "Take the Challenge" box appears on their dashboard the month before. 

Educators can create classroom-wide writing challenges for their students by going to the Challenge section of their virtual classroom. 

Students can also work on a personal writing challenge any time of year by clicking "Yes!" in the "Challenge Yourself" box on their dashboards (though educators aren't able to track or read these personal challenge projects).

Have students fill in as much information as they can about their projects when they create them—including their own personal word-count goals. They can update these novel settings at any time by clicking the wrench next to novel's title, so no pressure! If you plan to require all students to meet the same word-count goal, please tell your students what that will be.

More detailed instructions for students starting projects can be found on the Getting Started (for Young Writers) page!

Start your novel now

IMPORTANT DETAIL: Students can work on their projects in the on-site writing space to see charts and badges update automatically, or work on them somewhere else and update their word count manually from the Dashboard. They can switch between these options in their novel settings.

4. Start writing! (if you're ready)

With your classroom created, your students onboard, and their novels set up and ready, writing can start at any time. What happens now is up to you and how you choose to structure your curriculum.

We have full-fledged lesson plans that follow the common core. Choose your grade level below:

If you want to teach from a workbook, or have students do more in terms of self-study, organized journaling, and reflection, we have more grade-level options. Order these in paperback, or grab downloadable versions for free. 

Middle & High School Workbooks

Elementary School Workbooks

5. Other suggestions and resources

  • View our full list of Teaching Resources. This page goes beyond sharing curriculum to show you ever tool we've placed at your disposal.

  • Learn our pro tips for managing your Virtual Classroom.

  • Start a novel of your own to get familiar with the on-site writing space. Add Novel Notes to brainstorm ideas, add Chapters to write and update your word-count goal, and stay motivated with the charts and stats, Dare Machine, and Word Sprint tool. Students CANNOT read your novels, even your official NaNo one, but they will be able to see your title, word-count progress, and synopsis. 

  • Stuck? Read more on our Help & FAQ page.

A PROGRAM OF NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH, A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT THAT BELIEVES YOUR STORY MATTERS.