Shared Writing Assignments

Flat for Education’s Shared Writing assignments are designed to foster collaboration and creativity among students while building core music notation skills. These group-based activities allow multiple students to contribute to the same score, encouraging teamwork and musical dialogue. Whether students are co-creating a canon or arranging a piece together, this feature helps deepen their understanding of notation through shared musical thinking.

Creating a Shared Writing Assignment

Access creation tools

You can create a shared writing assignment in several ways:

• From the Assignment Library Go to your Assignment Library and click + New assignment. Then select Shared Writing as the assignment type.
• From within a class Create an assignment directly inside a class. Note that assignments created within a class are saved to the Assignment Library only after they are published.
• From a score If you are already working on a score, you can create an assignment directly from it by clicking on the + New assignment button at the top of the page. This option is available for Composition, Shared Writing, and Performance assignments.

Name your assignment

Choose a clear and descriptive name. Once named, you’ll be guided through the step-by-step assignment creation process.

Step-by-step setup

Follow the steps below to configure your shared writing assignment.

Choose scores (mandatory)

The first step is to assign a score to your students. You can:

• Choose scores from your Flat for Education Score Library (created or imported)
• Create a score directly within the assignment
  (Note: scores created inside an assignment are not saved to your main scores library.)

This step is also where you can configure score-related options, such as:

• Lock template – Prevent students from modifying the original notes of a template score
• Playback limits – Limit how many times students can play the score (useful for dictation or ear training)
• Restrict play-note – Disable automatic playback when notes are entered
• Restrict editor playback – Allow playback only from provided audio tracks

Select tools (Toolset)

Choose which notation and editor tools students can access by selecting a Toolset.

You can:

• Allow all tools, or
• Create a custom toolset to limit available features

This helps students focus on specific notation concepts instead of accessing the full editor.

👉 Watch this tutorial about using toolsets in classroom practice.

Add instructions

Provide clear and specific instructions to guide students through the assignment.

You can also attach supporting resources, such as:

• Documents and presentations
• Videos and audio files
• Read-only scores for reference

The instructions editor supports rich-text formatting, including bold, italic, and bullet points.

Sharing options and library organization

All assignments created in Flat for Education are saved in your Assignment Library and can be shared with other teachers in your organization.

To make sharing easier:

• Add teacher-facing guidelines to explain how the assignment should be used
• Add tags such as topics and grade levels to help you quickly find the assignment later

Post your assignment

Once everything is ready:

• Publish the assignment and assign it to one or more classes
• Use the Student Preview to see exactly what students will experience
• If you use Google Classroom, select the appropriate Classroom topic before posting

Note:

Grades are automatically synchronized with Google Classroom and supported Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as MusicFirst, Canvas, Schoology, Moodle, and more.

Learn more about LMS integrations here.

How to group your students

Grouping students allows you to easily assign collaborative work within a class. You can assign existing groups, create new ones, or edit groups at any time during the assignment setup.

Creating and managing groups

When assigning an activity to a class, follow these steps to manage student groups:

1. Assign existing groups

• Click “Assign group”
• Select the groups you’d like to use
• Click “Confirm” to apply them

2. Create new groups

• Click “Assign group”, then “New groups”
• Drag and drop student names to manually organize groups
• Or click “Randomize” to generate groups automatically
• Adjust group members as needed

3. Edit Existing Groups

• Click “Assign group”, then “Edit”
• Make changes to the group setup
• Click “Save changes” when you're finished

Exploring Extra Settings

Custom notation tools

Enable the Toolset setting to control which tools students can access. This allows for customized assignments, such as:

• Basic Note Input: Keeping only note entry and note values.
• Theory-Focused: Restricting tools to Roman numerals only.
• Guided Composition: Removing automatic transposition tools while keeping core notation features.

These settings help tailor the composition experience to match student learning goals.

Locking templates

Locking a template ensures students cannot alter existing notes, which is useful for:

• Filling in missing parts (melodies, chords, rhythms)
• Adding harmony, counterpoint, or instrumentation
• Analyzing a composition and responding to questions

Locked notes appear in a darker shade of blue to differentiate them from student-added notes.

Reminder: You can combine the Lock Template and Toolset features to provide structure while allowing creativity.

Reviewing Student Work

• Access student submissions from the "Students' Work" section.
• View progress in real time and provide live feedback.
• Click on a group's name for direct access to their work.
• Use the grading and feedback features to assess assignments.
• Grades sync automatically with Google Classroom and other LMS platforms like MusicFirst, Canvas, Schoology, and Moodle.

How are grades assigned in group work?

In group assignments, all students within the same group receive the same grade. If you choose to reset an assignment, it will reset the work for the entire group, not just for an individual student.

Other grading and reviewing capabilities are similar to those of classic assignments. You can learn more about grading and review on our dedicated help page

Tutorials and links

Looking for inspiration? Go to your Assignment Library, open the FFE Assignments folder and explore various shared writing assignments!