According to a recent article in New York magazine, nearly every student is using AI to cheat their way through college.
It’s happening in high school and lower grades too.
Sad and troubling, of course. But here at SCM we accept what we cannot change and then get to work. We seek solutions rather than lamenting the current state of education.
What follows is not about how to use AI in the classroom or somehow justify that an AI written essay is valuable or worthy of any grade whatsoever. (It isn’t, of course.)
Teaching students how to use AI is for the most part also a waste of time. They’re already way better at it than you.
What we need, however, is a way to safeguard the critical areas of learning that AI eliminates (or severely dampens). Namely:
- Critical and Independent Thinking
- Academic Grit
- Healthy Struggle
- Organization and Planning
- Complex Problem Solving
- Reading and Writing Skills
- Original, Creative Expression
There are more, of course, like preserving the appreciation of language, art, literature, poetry, mathematics, biology, etc. and their inherent value and beauty. In other words, that which contributes to a well-lived life.
This article is just a start, with lots to follow.
However, it may form the bases from which you can build your post-AI classroom. The idea is absurdly simple, but it does well to maintain the bulleted list above. It includes three parts, together representing a single lesson.
Part One
Remove all electronics. This means no access to laptops or phones for the entire lesson. Yep, like a 19th century schoolhouse. Pencil and paper only plus any other physical materials needed for the independent practice portion of the lesson.
Students are allowed—and should be encouraged or required—to take notes during the lesson. They are, after all, responsible for learning and understanding what is taught. (A crazy concept, I know.)
Part Two
Teach a compelling lesson based on your expert content knowledge. The objective may be narrow or broad and include the scaffolds of past learning. Your passion for the performance of teaching is a must.
Other elements would likely include:
- Storytelling
- Explicit Detail
- High Clarity
- Surprise, Novelty, Curiosity, etc.
- Precise Modeling
- Student Participation
- Proof of Understanding
- Proof of Ability to Perform
If you believe that it isn’t possible to teach a lesson your students would be interested in learning, then all hope is lost. You’re done for and probably shouldn’t be teaching. You’re also wrong. Even in this day and age, good teaching works.
Part Three
Shift 100 percent of responsibility to do the work, write the essay, solve for x, conduct the experiment, etc. over to your students while you observe. In other words, they do the work right then and there, in class, with the material tools you allow them.
No internet. No “research.” No cheating. Just, let’s see what you got. Let’s see how well you’ve learned and what you can create. Allow your students to think through, overcome, and wrestle with the assignment you’ve placed before them.
If you must, you can allow use of a Word document on a laptop. However, pencil and paper is best for all grade levels and for many reasons that we’ll cover in a future article.
DNA Ingrained
Again, if you’re convinced that your students will just sit there and do nothing, then go sell insurance or scream from the rooftops that allowing students anytime access to AI is somehow good for them.
With the right leadership and teaching skills, kids still love to learn and solve problems. This will never change. It’s ingrained in their DNA.
Remove the technology, take responsibility to teach them something cool, and they’ll tenaciously get after it.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll entirely remove technology from your classroom or that you’ll never allow your students to use AI.
It just means that you’ll constrain its use to ensure them the best and most well-rounded education.
PS – If teaching has become stressful for you, check out my new book Unstressed: How to Teach Without Worry, Fear, and Anxiety.
It’s a perfect summer read.
Also, if you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.
I love every bit of this! From, “accept what we cannot change and get to work”, to “With the right leadership and teaching skills, kids still love to learn and solve problems”. Thank you for being a voice that is not stuck on blaming, complaining and being a victim as a teacher!
I am giving a final essay old school with a blue book and an outline.
Yes, this is the best way, and it’s exceedingly difficult to do in the public schools, K-12. In my labor history class at university, I was required to write coherently on questions that the professor would write on the blackboard, seemingly at the spur of the moment. I often went through two blue books with constant hand shaking to relieve the muscle tension in my right hand, but I did it. I would receive copious, critical comments on my knowledge or lack of it. I still deeply appreciate his thoughts, and it’s been over 40 years since I sat for those exams.
I appreciate what you have here. So many voices loudly demand AI in the classroom. Often there are three tactics they use:
Shame – “You’ve got your head buried in the sand.”
Demoralization – “AI is here to stay, you can’t do anything about it.”
As Hominem – “You think you’re the sage on the stage!”
Removing tech from the class is really about creating the conditions from which students can practice and master the fundamentals.
I wholeheartedly agree
Hooray! This article is great! Yes, alas, AI probably is here to stay, but high school students, for example, still should be able to confidently answer—in less than two seconds—what nine times seven is. Hopefully, the principal and Admin are supportive of the teacher using the great points in Michael’s article.
Thank you Michael for writing this important article! I am very concerned about teachers encouraging students to engage with AI. I agree that the less tech used at all in the classroom the better.
Could you also write about the importance of teachers themselves avoiding using AI? My district is pushing it on us like crazy – “oh use AI to grade your students’ work” “use AI to create lesson plans” “use AI to create articles for students to read” it’s appalling to me for many reasons.
How I would love to kick the techno-toys out of my room once and for all…and how I cannot, because a quarter to a third of my students in any given class have accommodation plans that include the use of their laptops to type notes. Admin tells me that I can monitor their laptops and take them away if they’re not using them properly, but if I try to do that, it takes up a huge amount of my teaching energy, and also their parents will complain and get them their laptops back.
I am dying to see the research that says students with attention difficulties do better taking notes on the computer. I bet it’s awful and totally non-replicable.
I love reading your posts and have one of your books. I have to add some thoughts. I teach physics and engineering. Here is where I love about Ai (especially chapgpt which is now blocked at my entire district). Students in technical fields that I teach need to be able to learn faster. They need to be able to grasp concepts in a condensed form. I’m not talking about the essay for history. I don’t do those.
I love presenting and teaching, but some days I like the students to teach themselves. This is a POWERFUL skill, especially in engineering. They will encounter challenges and design issues that they will solve on THEIR OWN. If I give students a prompt, “What is the photoelectric effect?”, then I get weird answers when they go to town on google. The internet is full of “you get what you get”. Oftentimes, I prefer them to use Ai. Ai is quite accurate for science topics. Students often state that Ai helps them learn concepts and dig deeper on topics. Ai gives them overviews that shave down on class research time. When students type in chatgpt “Give me an overview of electrical engineering” or “What are the optimal ways to make a rocket more aerodynamically stable?” they get good, condensed answers quickly. This aids their learning in my opinion.
However, my tests: No notes. No assistance. No Ai. No google. Only you and your brain.
Use the Ai as a tool to acquire knowledge and understanding quicker. Do not use Ai to write the paper for you. (Even though they will do so in college and probably in the professional world. ) Large Language Models and machine learning are accelerating scientific and engineering advancements. STEM fields need people with strong Ai and coding skills.
What an excellent article! Sometimes teachers need to look for work in private traditional schools or classical schools to teach in this manner. It’s all worth it!
I do teach in a private school and have also experienced the “Big 3” that Richard mentioned being pushed. I just smile. I do have a good amount of control. I love this article as I have shifted toward the pencil/paper method for students to express thoughts. I have a final “essay question” writing experience for my 8th grade students on the last week of school, post-report card.
Curious your thoughts on this for subject matters that are always on the computer. I teach high school graphic design. We do plenty of learning/note-taking/sketching/project planning not involving the computers but when it comes down to it, they are on the screen with internet access for a majority of the time in my class.
My school pays (probably big $$$) for Securely (I think there are other similar programs out there). It allows me to view all screens on my screen, limit the number of tabs open, and provides a report of all websites visited at the end of class. Not quite as secure as pencil and paper, but allows you to use screens for a course that requires it, without risking AI use.
Same. Our is called Classwize. What do you all use?
I teach 8th grade ELA, and after noticing how many writing assignments that go home with students result in work that is AI generated, AI improved, or parent written, I stopped assigning writing for homework. I now assign grammar, vocab and reading response assignments for homework, In class, I dole out small portions of essay writing that can be accomplished within two – three periods such as writing the introductory paragraph for their essay or writing the first body paragraph, This way they have deadlines and more accountability. They hand write on good old fashioned yellow ruled paper and at the end of the period I stand by the door and they hand me their yellow paper atop all other planning and writing they have done to date for the particular essay while I add another staple to the stack. I conference with individuals during class and check over their growing writing packets after class as needed. About 20% are struggling writers and if they start to fall behind, I open my classroom for extra help during their recess (my prep) 2x a week. The problem I am encountering is that it’s SLOW. We’ve probably used up about 15 40-minute periods for gathering evidence, outlining, writing the intro, etc. I am astonished that they are only on body paragraph one. They are genuinely working, but the pace of their writing is troublesome. Maybe they haven’t actually completed their own work in years? Maybe my expectations are too high? I had a struggling writer who is constantly falling behind tell me she will
miss the next 5 days of school for a vacation and I wanted to flip a desk over. Not that I ever would. With 5 weeks of school remaining, she will NEVER catch up and will not likely earn a passing grade on the essay. She has a Section 504 with extra time allowed for assignments . I know this parent is going to offer to “help” her catch up at home. So, either I give up my preps for a week to help her, send it home for the parent to work on with her , or maybe just admit to myself that this practice isn’t sustainable. I would very much appreciate your opinion on this, especially, do you think this practice is sustainable???
Kevin, the physics and engineering teacher’s comments, resonate with me.
We need to teach students how to use AI to teach themselves.
The really difficult questions are, what will students need to know in the future, and why will they need to know it? How can we motivate our students to learn things that AI will do better than they (and I) can do in a few short years, if not already?
As a prospective math teacher, I intend to encourage AI use to work on homework problems. The catch is, that the students are going to face assessment question(s) just like the homework nearly every day. So students, work the homework problems however you like. Use AI, read the book, review your notes, form a study group, get help from parents, or teachers. All is fair in learning.
But, for the grade, it’s in class without AI.
I remember some of my kids’ elementary teachers deciding to have the students do ALL of their work for certain projects at school TO BE SURE it was their own work. Back then the worry was about PARENTS doing the work instead of the children – which was unfair to the children who did their own work. I think it makes sense now to avoid AI.
(I’m not actually a school teacher. I started following this website for tips in dealing with children in other organizations.)
This is such a well written article. I love everything you shared and can’t wait to implement what I read in my next school year’s lesson.
Thank you for this article! I am struggling because I have so many great lessons that I’ve spent a long time building online in DESMOS. But at the same time, I am seeing all the problems with AI plus old-fashioned cheating pop up in my classroom as I allow students to use their laptops.
I’m intimidated by having to change up lesson plans for the 4 different classes I teach throughout the day, but this is encouraging me to at least start moving in that direction. I’ll take it one class at a time and start moving back to pencil and paper — because I completely agree that is the only way I can guarantee students are actually thinking and learning for themselves!
As much as I attempt to remove the use of technology in my classroom, I still have to deal with the students that are physically addicted to their screens. I have had students throw temper tantrums, cry or shut down completely because I took their Chromebook away. These are not children with special needs but general education students addicted to screens. AI is the least of my problems when I can’t get them to stop watching Youtube videos of sports games without going into serious withdrawal. Take away their Chromebooks for a class and it is like watching patients at a drug rehab, twitching, scratching, pacing, and the bad moods. I fear for this generation.
Thank you, Michael. This is highly insightful and useful for today’s classroom in all grades. Technology is always good to have. It is inspiring how teachers should reset the marking scheme and rubric, such as having a major part of the marks submitted without the use of technology, i.e., by pen and paper only. It may also enhance spelling, composition, comprehension, and other basic learning skills.