Three Ways Khanmigo Writing Coach Will Improve Your Child’s Writing

By Sarah Robertson, Senior Product Manager at Khan Academy

The Literacy team at Khan Academy is excited to announce our latest tool for writing instruction: Khanmigo Writing Coach.

Writing is a skill your child will use every single day

Did you know that most students lack the writing skills needed to succeed in college and careers? 

In fact, only 25% of 8th and 12th graders are proficient in writing.

In school, students rarely get timely, detailed, and actionable writing feedback. 

These AI tools will suggest a way to rewrite a sentence, a paragraph, or an entire essay, and students can just accept the revision.

These are productivity tools, not instructional tools.

We’re excited to launch Khanmigo Writing Coach—an AI-powered tool that doesn’t just produce better writing, it produces better writers.

We created Khanmigo Writing Coach to do something no other AI writing tool does today.

Designed by teachers and writing instructors, Writing Coach emphasizes the writing process as much as the writing product. Instead of just generating AI feedback or automatically grading essays, Writing Coach supports students during each stage of the writing process without doing any of the writing for them.

Learners need help getting past the blank page

When we launched our Khanmigo Academic Essay Feedback feature last fall, teachers and parents were excited to have a safe, AI-powered instructional tool that could provide immediate, specific, actionable, standards-aligned feedback and support learners in revising their first drafts. “I was absolutely blown away with the quality of the feedback,” said Madeline Bartsch, an English teacher and department chair in Hobart, Indiana. “It certainly made me more optimistic about the quality of the writing I will receive from students in the future.”

But one thing we kept hearing was that while feedback was important, learners often struggled the most with just producing their first draft. 

As a former English teacher, I remember how often my 7th graders needed help just understanding the assignment. They needed support outlining their ideas and organizing their points. Even strong writers sometimes experienced “blank page syndrome”—the challenge of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards) and hammering out that first draft. More often than not, the learners who needed the most support were not always the ones asking for it. These students sometimes lacked the metacognitive skills that helped them know when and how to ask for guidance.

Three ways Khanmigo Writing Coach improves writing

Don’t have the time to help your kid with their writing assignments? Or maybe you don’t feel equipped to give them useful feedback? 

Khanmigo Writing Coach can help. 

1) World-class feedback

Khanmigo offers personalized feedback across various dimensions and supports students throughout the revision process. The grade level-aligned feedback is specific and actionable.

2) From idea to final draft

Writing Coach supports the entire process, from brainstorming to outlining to drafting.

• Brainstorming: Khanmigo helps students break down the assignment, formulate an approach, and ensure they have a solid understanding of what they want to write before moving forward.
• Outlining: Khanmigo guides students through outlining, teaches them the components of a strong thesis, supports them in developing topic sentences, and reinforces assignment expectations, such as the need to include supporting evidence.
• Drafting: Khanmigo never does the work for students; it provides guidance and motivation if they get stuck when writing the first draft.

3) Help along the way

Learners can ask clarifying questions about Khanmigo’s feedback and immediately implement revisions . Writing Coach mirrors the experience of a student working side by side with a dedicated tutor or coach, thereby enriching the learning experience and enhancing writing skills.

Get access to Khanmigo Writing Coach

We’re excited to see how Writing Coach will improve writing skills and make regular writing practice more feasible. 

Parents: For just $4 a month, your child can have unlimited access to Khanmigo, including access to Writing Coach. Get a coupon today to try it free for your first month.

With Khanmigo, learners have access to a tutor that can not only support them in their essay writing but can also act as a creative partner in narrative writing, simulate literary characters, or serve as a debate partner to help students prepare for argumentative essays.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to develop this transformative tool!