There is currently a dearth of research inquiring into the ways that pre-service teachers (PSTs) are prepared to teach writing, including reading and responding to student writing. Furthermore, although the benefits of a practice-based approach to teacher education are widely cited, increasing financial and legislative pressures to shorten the length of university-based teacher education programs and to migrate to online spaces present challenges for including opportunities for PSTs to practice. In this study, we inquired into the experiences of one group of PSTs as they completed a digital Pen Pal Project, wherein they were partnered with sixth grade students to learn about and practice responding to student writing. Data analysis indicated that PSTs engaged in many different types of feedback yet struggled to provide specific feedback aligned with students' competencies as readers and writers. We draw on these findings to offer recommendations to teacher educators as they leverage digital spaces to realize the benefits of practice-based learning in preparing PSTs to teach writing.