Over the summer, my Tik Tok algorithm suddenly discovered that I’m a writing teacher and began showing me hundreds of professional development videos. One part of me was, like, “Tik Tok, could you not.” And the other part of me was fascinated by the amount of great pedagogical content that middle and high school English teachers were making available to strangers on the internet.

One video that I found really impressive was @bee_in_the_library’s thoughtful lesson plan on opening up conversations with middle schoolers about how it’s acceptable, and not, to work with generative AI in her classroom.

I loved how this lesson explains some of the nuances of working with these tools that seemed to me to be missing from the wide variety of syllabus statements that have been circulating since last spring. Don’t get me wrong: I think statements are also very important. You can read mine here. But, to me, statements are a limited genre. They don’t really help us to get into the conversational weeds. They also function as a one-way speech rather than an invitation to a messier, ongoing dialogue.

Part of me just wants to ignore having these kinds of conversations with students. I think it’s because I feel like I’ve had to pivot and adapt more in the past three years than in my entire teaching career. Starting conversations around generative AI feels like (yet….another!!!!!!!!) thing I now how to think about cramming into an already packed semester.

But another part of me feels like facilitating conversations around generative AI present a great opportunity for my own growth. Last semester, in my early experimentation with incorporating generative AI-focused assignments into my class, I was so impressed by the thoughtful ways that so many students were already thinking about the problems and possibilities of tools like chatGPT. Some had never heard of it. But unsurprisingly, many were already thinking very critically and carefully about privacy, labor, the implications of this technology for their future within the workforce, and the ways they could partner with this technology without giving away too much of their own voice in the things that they write.

I think this was why @bee_in_the_library’s video spoke to me so much. Her materials seemed playful, generative, practical, and a great starting point for starting or facilitating more conversation. They don’t assume that students aren’t already thinking about the same questions that we are.

With her permission, I adapted her original slides and handouts for a more English 110 friendly context. She has agreed to let me share them with you, but she’s asked that we don’t make her original materials public. Because my materials are adapted versions of hers, I am linking them here under a password protected page. The password is the same as the one that you use to access the QC English Department materials. If you need it, just reach out.

I’m writing this post on September 1st, and I taught this lesson yesterday. Along with a few tasks that I took out of the samples (e.g. it’s still the beginning of the year, so we’re still doing some icebreakers and name games), it took roughly one class period.

If you’re not trying to spend an entire class period on this, I think that the activity where students have to make a mark on the continuum from “cheating” to “not cheating” took us about 20-25 minutes in total, and it really opened up some interesting avenues for further conversation. We ended up discussing a bit about the writers’ strike and the use of AI tools in the creation of film and television scripts, as well as some of the implications for these kinds of tools on the future of the workforce, which were exciting directions that I was not expecting to emerge. I also spent a bit more time than these slides would make it seem modeling for them how (and why) to disclose their usage to me, noting that this was less about surveilling them and more about understanding ways that these tools support their writing so that I can help other members of the class or future students. We’re figuring this out together.

Overall, I feel more confident that students and I are on the same page, and that we can enter into this semester partnering with each other as we explore the use of these tools: when to use them, how to use them, whether to use them, and when to make a different choice.

Please feel free to adapt these yourself for your own context (crediting @bee_in_the_library, since she was the one who made the originals) if you find them useful. And let us know how you’re talking about AI with your students this fall!