Correctional Education provides an opportunity to use instructional methodologies that may not be appropriate for mainstream education classes. It is important to remember that students can be valuable sources of cultural information and motivational strategies if they are allowed to guide instructors to their own success. In this article, the author describes how men in beginning English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup (MCI-J) have responded to competition-driven writing activities in which a whole class is involved in critiquing individual student writing ability at the board.