RESEARCH INSIGHTS
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Reimagine writing assignments with AI: 5 approaches
students work through character motivation, narrative worldbuilding or genre can be powerful. For example, a teacher may ask students to use AI to suggest alterna- tive endings, a new character or dialogue for a piece of creative writing they are working on. RHETORICAL: LEARNING HOW WRITING WORKS A rhetorical approach involves using AI to help students better understand how writing works, particularly in terms of audience, purpose and style. AI can help students compare human- and AI-generated texts, deepening their understanding of rhetorical choices and gaining insight into how different writing styles and strategies can shape communication. An assignment may ask students to draft an initial response to a prompt in class (e.g., an argument for cellphone bans in school) and then ask AI to generate a response to the same prompt. The assignment may ask students to compare the two drafts and point out similar- ities and differences in the argumentative moves in each. CRITICAL: EXAMINING THE IMPLICATIONS OF AI A critical approach encourages students to engage in critical thinking regarding the ethical, social and technological implications of AI. This could involve ex- ploring issues like bias in AI, the environmental impact of large language models or the implications of using AI to complete writing assignments. Writing assignments that explore the critical dimensions of AI may not use AI at all but ask students to research more about the tool. One such assignment might ask students to run one of their own written assignments through an AI plagiarism detector, read reports about biases and inaccuracies in such technolo- gies, and then write a reflection about what they learned through the process. ALIGNING AI AND TEACHING STRATEGIES These categories provide distinct but complementary ways to align AI use with specific teaching goals. By deciding whether an assignment should emphasize assistance, resistance, creativity, rhetoric or critique, educators can intentionally guide how students interact with AI rather than letting the technology dictate class- room practice. ATA
Category
Purpose
Examples
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Assistive
Supporting the practice of writing
• Checking grammar • Dialoguing about ideas • Generating content
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Resistive
Resisting AI use by
• Pen and paper • Process-focused • Documentary or personal writing
foreground- ing students’ ideas and voices
Creative
Exploring the expressive dimensions of writing
• Cocomposing stories/poems • Making images or videos • Developing characters • Comparing AI/ human output • Changing audience/purpose • Generating differ- ent forms • Researching environmental impacts • Testing GenAI for bias and misinformation • Exploring ethical questions (e.g., plagiarism)
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Rhetorical
Highlighting how writing works
Critical
Learning about how GenAI technologies work
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