Artifical Intelligence and the Teaching of Writing and Thinking

Artifical intelligence writing programs such as ChatGPT have been announced as The End of High School English. And students wondering, Why Aren't More Teachers Embracing AI?

Clearly this powerful new technology is around to stay, and only getting stronger. Rather than viewing AI as our enemy, how can we use AI to improve the teaching of writing, enhance our student's analytical skills, and prepare them for writing in the brave new world before us?

First, using the Internet, research AI as a teaching tool, learn about best strategies for prompting AI writing, and gather other ideas and strategies for teaching using AI.

Second, create a series of creative and interesting Al writing experiments that will allow secondary students to learn about the range of what AI can do, and explore ways AI can foster student creativity, genre exploration, analytical thinking, metacognition and improved writing skills.

In your research you may explore any of the emerging AI writing tools such as ChatGPT, Bing, or Claude, or AI Poem Generator, Magic School, or ?? It may be interesting to compare are contrast different tools.

Activities might include:

1. Analyze and assess AI writing for accuracy, completeness, bias, and quality of writing.

2. Intensely revise an AI-generated text to select what to use and how to organize it coherently, and do so working from multiple alternative versions generated by AI.

3. Combine AI with student writing, to foster drafting and revision - in both directions, students of AI and AI of students.

4. Explore typical writing "rules" & unconventionality - five-paragraph organization, thesis statements and topic sentences, avoiding run-on sentences, fragments, avoiding "I", colloquial expressions, etc.

5. Use AI to explore "voice" in writing, "the unique style, personality or perspective of a piece of writing."" Including age, ethnicity, background, interests, talents as components of voice.

Finally, choose at least one of these activities, spend time engaging in it on your own, and prepare to report on what you learn to the class.

Created by: allen.webb@wmich.edu
Revised Date: 9/23