English with Mrs. Lamp

In our 21st-century classrooms, it feels as though technology is evolving faster than we can keep up with it. As English teachers in grades 9-12, we’re at the frontlines of a challenge that’s both daunting and exciting: how can we integrate AI responsibly in our classrooms while also preventing its misuse in academic settings? Read on to explore practical strategies you can implement RIGHT NOW to tackle AI cheating and enhance your teaching toolkit!

1. Go Back to the Writing Process and Use More Scaffolding

One of the most effective ways to deter AI cheating is by focusing on the writing process itself. Encourage students to break their writing into stages, and provide feedback at each step. I call this “chunking” a writing assignment; it’s not just for struggling learners anymore though! Here’s a breakdown of how this can work:

• Pre-Writing: Start with brainstorming and outlining sessions in class. These initial steps can be done on paper to prevent the use of AI for pre-writing tasks. I like to use graphic organizers to encourage original thought and support emergent writers. (Here’s an example.)
• Drafting: Have students write their rough drafts in class. This not only reduces the temptation to use AI but also allows you to observe their writing style and provide real-time feedback. I often circulate around the room & give verbal feedback during this stage.
• Revising: Encourage multiple revisions with in-class workshops. When students revise their work based on peer and teacher feedback, they engage more deeply with their content, making it less likely they’ll resort to AI for help. (All of my in-class writing lessons, PowerPoints, and materials can be found here.)

By making each stage of the writing process more clear, giving kids time in class to write, and making their efforts more collaborative, students will be more invested in their own work, feel like they CAN do well, and therefore be less likely to cheat. Plus, you’ll have a clear trail of their development, making it easier to spot discrepancies.

Many teachers have adopted a policy where all student writing goes on in class, under supervision. This allows teachers to keep an eye on the apps students are using. You can also require that students do all of their pre-writing on paper or with their computer locked down so they can only use a typing program.

Another useful idea is to give students points for each step of the writing process. Instead of having a large number of points for the final draft, give kids points for things like brainstorming and revising their thesis (10 points), finding evidence and planning out the organization of one’s arguments (20 points), revising and peer-editing body paragraphs for clarity, content, and argumentation (20 points), drafting and revising intros and conclusions (10 points); after all this, then the final draft might be 40 points. This encourages them to engage with the writing process rather than focusing on getting a product in your hands. When kids think the main purpose of the assignment is to give you a finished product, they are more likely to cheat, plagiarize, and use AI inappropriately.

2. On-Paper, In-Class Writing

Given the prevalence of AI tools, plagiarism from sources like Wikipedia and SparkNotes, and the old “copy & paste” we’ve all seen time and again, in-class, on-paper writing has become more valuable than ever. Here’s why and how to implement it:

• Timed Writes: By giving students prompts only in class and having them write their essays under timed conditions, you ensure that the work submitted is truly their own. (Find my timed writing packets here!)
• Paper and Pencil: While it might seem old-fashioned, having students write essays on paper during class helps eliminate the possibility of using AI tools to generate text. This is also useful for shorter efforts, like “one pagers,” exit tickets, and paragraph responses.
• Device-Free Zones: Create device-free zones during writing assignments. Make sure students leave their phones, smartwatches, computers, and other gadgets in designated places (like under their chairs or in their backpacks) to minimize the chance of using AI tools during exams or timed writes (or any time they are writing for a grade).

At the very least, you could have students do multiple low-stakes paper & pencil writing activities at the beginning of the year. Then, you keep those as samples to use in the future if they’ve turned in something that just doesn’t sound like them or match their abilities!

If you struggle with organization, going back to paper-based assignments may seem daunting. It was nice to have all of our students’ work organized and safe on our computers, right? Here’s a tip: Invest in some kind of system for collecting, keeping, and returning work. I like to use ONE bucket (cheap dish-washing buckets, the plastic kind meant to fit in the sink are the perfect size) for kids to turn in work. I have stacking mail filing trays to put their work in when I haven’t graded it yet (one for each period), and then I have a “banker’s box” style mail cubby (they are cheap, made of cardboard) to put stuff in that I need to hand back; there’s a hole for each class period.

3. Utilize Real-Time Feedback and Draft Tracking

Keeping tabs on student progress is crucial to heading off plagiarism, cheating, and AI misuse BEFORE the final draft is in and it becomes an academic dishonesty headache for everyone. Here’s how you can use technology without enabling cheating:

• Google Docs with Tracking: Use Google Docs for essays, enabling real-time commenting and revision tracking. This allows you to monitor your students’ writing process and intervene if suspicious activity is detected.
• Draftback and Revision History: Tools like Draftback and Google Docs’ version history provide insight into how students interact with their documents. Look for red flags such as minimal revisions or sudden changes in writing style. Draftback also lets you see how much copying and pasting they did!

4. Ways to Detect AI Use

• Verbal Explanations: When you suspect AI use, ask students to explain their essay’s content and main points. If they struggle to articulate their own arguments, it’s a sign they might not have written it themselves!!
• Anomalies: Look for places where the formatting (spacing, font, font size, etc.) suddenly changes within the document, places where the student’s voice seems to change or disappear, overuse of commas, overuse of semicolons, and words being used that you are sure the student doesn’t know (especially delve, elevate, captivate, tapestry, leverage, resonate, transformative, foster, endeavor, embark, and unleash).
• “AI Typical” Writing Patterns: A.I. tends to use “not only X, but also Y” WAY more than normal student writers. It also uses certain transition words more than your typical high schooler, like furthermore, however, and in addition. You may also notice more “formulaic feeling” sentence structures without much variation, a more formal tone than you usually get from your students, or more metaphors and similes than your students usually use in their own writing.
• Formatting: AI often includes bullet points, bolded wording, headings, and clickable links. If you did not teach your students to write their papers like this, it can be a clue that it’s been written by AI!

5. Foster Authenticity through Regular Writing Practices

The more familiar you are with your students’ writing styles, the easier it is to spot AI-generated content. Try implementing these practices:

• Daily Journals: Have students keep journals where they write regularly. This helps you get to know their individual writing styles and spot inconsistencies later on.
• In-Class Rough Drafts: Require that students complete their rough drafts in class. This keeps them accountable and allows you to provide feedback throughout the process.
• Alternate Essays: If a student’s work is flagged as suspicious, provide an alternate essay prompt. This can act as a deterrent and help verify if the student can produce original work under different conditions.
• Time to Work in Class: If we give students time to work (and have access to us if they have a question) in class, they will be less likely to feel pressured to cheat or plagiarize just to “get it done” or because they “didn’t know what they were doing.”

6. Establish Clear Policies and Consequences

Setting clear guidelines about the use of AI and plagiarism is going to be essential for schools and teachers going forward:

• Zero Tolerance Policy: Make it clear that using AI or plagiarizing work will result in immediate consequences, such as receiving a zero for the assignment and having to redo it with a point deduction. I put a zero in the gradebook until they give me the re-do assignment, and the re-do loses 20-30% depending on how severe the cheating/copying/plagiarism was.
• Educational Approach: Teach students about AI’s role in academic integrity. Show them how to use AI responsibly for brainstorming and grammar checks but emphasize that their actual writing must be their own. Talk with kids about WHY we write and why it is important to do our own work. Get them to buy in with ideas about creativity, self-reliance, and growth (as a person and academically)!
• Administrative Support: Work with school administration to ensure that there is support for your policies and that students understand the seriousness of academic dishonesty.

Here’s how I deal with cheating, plagiarism, and other academic dishonesty.

7. How to Talk to Your Students About AI Use

The key to addressing AI in writing assignments is to clearly communicate to students that writing assignments exist to demonstrate their own thinking, understanding, and language skills. You need to discuss this with the kids at the start of each semester, and whenever you are introducing a new writing project that you suspect they may be tempted to use AI to complete.

Explain to them that when students use AI to generate, plan, or modify their writing, they’re not showing their own abilities – which is the fundamental purpose of each assignment. This isn’t just about plagiarism; it’s about academic integrity and the learning process itself! How can we learn or show we are learning if we are outsourcing all of our thinking to the computer?

Teachers should explicitly state in ALL of their prompts and assignment pages/directions/handouts that students must “write an essay in which you…” and then emphasize this part of the directions; emphasize that the work must be their own. Make it clear that using AI tools that change or suggest words (even tools like Grammarly’s advanced features) means they are co-writing with AI rather than demonstrating their own abilities.

To enforce this policy effectively, consider implementing these strategies:

• Ask students to explain their word choices and reasoning in face-to-face writing conferences with you.
• Include oral defense components where students discuss their writing process, or ask students to write a brief reflection on their writing process when they are finished with the assignment.
• Make your evaluation rubrics explicitly about assessing student thinking and language use, including the student’s “authentic voice” and elements like “sentence fluency and variety.”

By focusing on the process rather than just the final product, and by helping students understand that writing in school and in life is fundamentally about developing their own thinking skills, teachers can help students understand what constitutes acceptable use of technology in writing assignments, and what isn’t okay as well.

8. Show Students What AI CAN’T Do

We need to regularly discuss the limitations of AI with students. Use examples where AI fails to understand context or nuance to highlight the importance of human creativity and insight. Here are some ideas for teaching activities & lessons that will open students’ eyes:

• AI vs. Human Writing Exercise
  • Activity: Provide students with an AI-generated piece of writing and a piece written by a human (perhaps a well-known author or a sample from their own previous work). Have students compare and contrast the two pieces.
  • Objective: Identify aspects where AI writing lacks depth, originality, or personal touch. Discuss elements such as:
    • Creativity and Originality: AI often generates text based on patterns in existing data, leading to generic or formulaic content. Students can look for instances where the AI-generated text lacks genuine insight or originality.
    • Context Understanding: AI may struggle with nuanced contexts or specific cultural references. Students can pinpoint where AI fails to grasp or appropriately address complex contexts.
• AI “Roast” Session
  • Activity: Create a prompt and ask AI to generate a response. Then, have students critique the AI’s output, identifying errors, awkward phrasing, or lack of depth.
  • Objective: Highlight AI’s limitations in understanding subtlety and complexity. For instance:
    • Contextual Errors: AI might make mistakes in understanding or generating content related to cultural or historical context.
    • Sophisticated Thought: AI often lacks the ability to generate sophisticated or critical analysis. Students can identify where the AI fails to engage in deeper thinking or fails to provide well-reasoned arguments.
• Real-Time AI Interactions
  • Activity: Have a live session where students interact with an AI chatbot on a specific topic. Afterward, students analyze the AI’s responses.
  • Objective: Demonstrate AI’s limitations in real-time:
  • Complex Queries: Pose complex, multi-layered questions and observe how the AI struggles to provide nuanced answers.
  • Consistency: Ask follow-up questions and see if the AI maintains consistency in its responses. Often, AI can provide contradictory or incoherent answers upon further questioning.
  • Note: I like to play with this a bit on my own first, and then show them “humdinger” examples of the AI being stupid. Try screenshotting some of AI’s biggest FAILS to show to your students!
• Creative Writing Prompt
  • Activity: Give students a creative writing prompt and ask them to generate a piece of writing using AI. Then, have them write a similar piece themselves.
  • Objective: Show where AI falls short in generating truly creative or personal writing:
  • Personal Voice: Compare the AI-generated piece with the students’ own writing to see how the AI lacks personal voice or unique perspectives.
  • Emotional Depth: AI-generated content often lacks genuine emotional depth. Students can discuss how their own writing might capture emotions or personal experiences better.
• AI Analysis of Literary Themes
  • Activity: Provide an excerpt from a classic literary work and ask students to analyze its themes and motifs. Then, use AI to generate an analysis and compare it with students’ interpretations.
  • Objective: Illustrate AI’s limitations in literary analysis:
  • Depth of Insight: Discuss how AI might provide a superficial or inaccurate interpretation of literary themes compared to a well-thought-out human analysis.
  • Originality in Interpretation: Highlight how AI often relies on pre-existing interpretations rather than generating fresh, original insights.
  • Note: This is a REALLY good activity to do with AP Lit students at the start of the year to encourage them in giving you THEIR interpretations rather than stale, lame AI/online interpretations.
• Error Identification in AI Writing
  • Activity: Present students with a piece of AI-generated text that contains deliberate errors (e.g., incorrect facts, awkward phrasing, or unnatural language). Have students identify and correct these errors.
  • Objective: Show students how AI can produce text that seems plausible at first glance but contains mistakes that a human writer would be less likely to make.
  • Fact-Checking: AI might generate inaccurate or misleading information. Students can practice verifying facts and correcting misinformation.
  • Language Nuance: AI sometimes uses language awkwardly or incorrectly. Students can refine these areas to demonstrate how human writers achieve natural, fluent language.
• Prompt-Based AI Comparisons
  • Activity: Provide the same writing prompt to AI and to students, and then compare the results.
  • Objective: Show how AI can produce competent but often formulaic and less nuanced responses:
  • Repetition of Patterns: Discuss how AI often relies on templates or patterns, leading to repetitive or generic content that lacks depth.
  • Personal Insight: Contrast AI’s responses with students’ work to demonstrate how human writers bring unique insights and personal touches.

By incorporating some of these activities into your classroom, you can show students the limitations of AI, encourage critical thinking, and highlight the value of authentic human writing and creativity!

Conclusion

Navigating the world of AI in the classroom requires a blend of traditional methods and innovative approaches. By focusing on in-class, paper-based writing, providing regular HUMAN feedback, and fostering an environment where students understand and appreciate the value of their own work, you can effectively minimize AI cheating and enhance their writing skills. Remember, the goal is not just to catch cheaters but to cultivate a love for authentic writing and critical thinking in our students!

Keep these strategies in mind, stay adaptable, and continue to inspire your students to engage with their writing process genuinely!

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Have you tried any of these strategies? What’s working (or not working) for you? Do you have any ideas of your own to share? Drop a comment below!

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About the Author: Carly Lamp has taught English 11/English III (American Lit) for 13 years & AP Literature for 10 years. She creates thorough, thoughtful, and rigorous materials, units, and resources for high school English teachers through both her blog and her TPT store (both named English with Mrs. Lamp). She LOVES teaching writing and helping new teachers and homeschool parents teach with confidence!