NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program encourages students grades K-12 to complete the challenging task of writing a novel during the month of November through a community website. Students set a word count goal at the beginning, depending on age and writing level, and work toward their target over the course of the month. Anyone who reaches his word count goal is a winner and is awarded a digital badge. Teachers can sign up their students as part of a class account, or students can sign up independently. Students create profiles, communicate with each other in forums, and find "writing buddies" who share similar interests. Buddies can give each other feedback through NanoMail. The site is actively monitored for appropriate content by NaNoWriMo staff.

NanoWriMo builds an enthusiastic, young writing community by connecting peer writers and sending pep talk emails to participants. It also offers free, downloadable workbooks that cover setting, character and plot development to support students through the novel writing process. Students who sign up independently might find they still do not have sufficient feedback or guidance to write a novel on their own. For teachers, there are additional lesson plans and classroom kits to help them support students with scope, planning and time management over the course of the month. Writing a novel could be a big or overwhelming challenge for many students, but they could successfully achieve the goal with sufficient adult support. Other students will enjoy the challenge of writing within a specific time frame along with the opportunity to write freely with limited parameters and collaborate with interested peers.

• Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
• Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
• Presents educational concepts accurately
• Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
• Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
• Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
• Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

• Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
• Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
• Visually appealing to children in the target age range
• Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
• Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
• Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
• Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

• Has a free or trial version
• Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
• Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
• Student should be able to use independently after first use
• Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
• Multiple users can save a profile
• Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
• Can play without sound and not distract others
• Students can save work between sessions
• Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
• Requires registration before using the first time
• Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
• Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
• Overall - Easy to use

• Anxiety
• Age inappropriate amount of work which could overwhelm or discourage students
• Attention
• Age inappropriate amount of work which could overwhelm or discourage students
• Organization
• Age inappropriate amount of work which could overwhelm or discourage students
• Students might need support with navigation
• Verbal Reasoning