Students read an unfinished story, then write the ending — individually or in groups. Teachers control AI tool access and watch every student write in real time.
The Method
Continuation writing is a reading-writing integrated task where learners read an incomplete story and write a coherent ending. The method originated in China's National Matriculation English Test and is now widely used in language pedagogy and assessment.
The key mechanism is linguistic alignment — learners naturally absorb the vocabulary, grammar, and style of the source text as they write, bridging the gap between comprehension and production.
Example task (NMET-ZJ 2016)
“Jane stared at the empty campsite. No helicopters came. The silence was absolute...” (story excerpt, 334 words)
Task prompt
Continue the story. Write at least 150 words and use at least 5 of the underlined key words from the passage.
Opening sentences provided — students write the rest.
Research Basis
Grounded in Pickering & Garrod's (2004)Pickering, M. J. and S. Garrod. 2004. ‘Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue,’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27/2: 169–226. Interactive Alignment Model, extended to L2 contexts by Costa et al. (2008)Costa, A., M. J. Pickering, and A. Sorace. 2008. ‘Alignment in second language dialogue,’ Language and Cognitive Processes 23/4: 528–556..
The preceding story activates learners' communicative desire — they have something to say and a reason to say it.
The source text provides vocabulary and structure learners can follow, reducing the cognitive load of generating content from scratch.
Because continuation requires alignment with the English source text, mother-tongue structures are naturally pushed aside.
Learners become aware of the gap between their own language and the model text — a key mechanism for L2 development (Swain, 1985).
Writing happens within a rich context, not in isolated sentences — promoting cohesion and coherence at the text level.
Following the model text narrows the space for grammatical errors and improves language accuracy and complexity (Jiang, 2015).
The Platform
Generate or paste an unfinished story. Annotate key vocabulary with hover explanations. Set the writing prompt. Assign students individually or into collaborative groups.
Students join with a 6-character code — no account needed. They read the story, then write their continuation individually or in real-time collaborative groups.
Watch word counts and previews update live. Toggle AI tools mid-session. When done, end the session, write feedback, and review a full session report.
Teacher-Controlled AI
Every AI tool is off by default. Teachers toggle them mid-session. Changes reach students in seconds.
Students select any passage from the story and ask for an explanation. The assistant clarifies meaning without writing the continuation for them.
When students feel stuck, the AI suggests three possible plot directions — without writing a single sentence of their continuation.
On demand, the AI analyses the student's saved draft: one strength and one concrete suggestion to improve.
Create a task in under 3 minutes. Students join with a code — no accounts, no installs.