I vividly recall being in my classroom after learning about AI for the first time. I was curious about its capabilities, so I typed in one of my Lord of the Flies essay prompts, and Voilà, there it was. I mean, it wasn’t perfect, and it didn’t have direct quotes, but there was the five-paragraph essay in a matter of seconds that usually takes my students multiple days to complete.
That was in the fall of 2022. I remember showing other teachers in my department this during our regular English department meeting. Immediately, we knew we had to change our teaching practices…again.
It has taken time to adjust to teaching in a world with AI, just like how it took time to adjust to teaching with class Chromebooks and smartphones. And while there is no end-all-be-all solution that works perfectly for everyone, I’ve found that going back to paper works—or at least it works for now.
Since that moment when I realized that everything I’ve done as an educator would have to change, I’ve slowly made adjustments to my teaching practices to ensure that the work being turned in is that of my students’ minds and not a large language model.
Here are some things that are working for me as a high school English teacher:
Putting the Chromebooks away - Yes. The Chromebooks and digital assignments are easy to assign and easy to grade (some of them are even self-grading and will send to my gradebook immediately); however, that is where students use AI-enabled extensions.
Going back to paper-and-pencil essays - It is tough to read, but having students write their thoughts, even if it is their first draft, on paper is helpful to ensure the thinking is their own.
Using lockdown browsers for in-class essays - Whether you have your students type an entire essay at a time or just a paragraph, I’ve had great success with lockdown browsers. Sure, some students will inevitably find workarounds, but not many. I use the lockdown browser embedded in Canvas (my school’s LMS); however, I’ve also used managed Google Forms for writing.
Adjusting class assignments - This has been the biggest challenge. It has taken hours upon hours of thinking, brainstorming, trying, failing, and trying again to readjust how I do assignments and group projects. I think I’ve figured it out, though. I’ve created three literary analysis group projects that, if done correctly, eliminate all student AI use in the classroom.
Three (AI-proof) Literary Analysis Group Projects
I intentionally designed these three group projects to take place over the course of several days in class with students using paper only. To help eliminate AI from creeping into these projects, I ensure that student Chromebooks are put away, students' backpacks are zipped up, all phones and smartwatches are put away, and I collect the work each class period and redistribute it to student groups at the start of class. I also make sure students don’t use rogue papers that were brought in from home. Yes, it is a lot to manage, but knowing that the work comes from the students helps.
Literature Mini Debates
I used this mini debate project as a culminating project for my Hamlet unit at the end of the last school year, and it was a hit! However, I also have a generic resource that I designed to work with any piece of literature.
For this final project, students are partnered together and given a topic relating to the novel. Student pairs work together, research, and prepare for a debate about that topic. The mini debates are quick. Students have a brief opening statement, rebuttal, and closing statement to prepare for…and I encouraged no notes. Since the topics are so specific, I informed my students that they needed to be experts in their subjects.
For the actual debate, I grouped the student pairs with another pair, so four students presented at a time. They wrote down all their brainstorming and statements on paper, practiced together in class, and I even had the students do a dry run together.
This unit also comes with a brief slide deck teaching students about the debate process and a link to a YouTube video that times the debates for the students!
Literary Analysis Group Podcast
This podcast project is another project that I’ve had to tweak over the years to accommodate for the AI intrusion in the classroom. At first, students worked on this project and recorded it on their own using only their Chromebooks. However, I switched it up recently, and now students “live record” their podcasts. That just means they pretend to record it live in class in front of the students.
For this project, students choose a literary analysis focus for their novel and create a podcast based on it. I allow my students to be themselves on the podcast, or they can even make up personas. Some choose to be experts in their fields, and others choose to be characters in the book.
.jpg "Literary Analysis Podcast Project")
For a few days in class, students work together to create the questions and answers for their podcast. They also come up with a show title and a podcast thumbnail. As student groups “live record” their podcast show, students in the classroom take notes.
Like the mini debate project, this is another collaborative project that sparks authentic conversation about the novels and literature we read in the classroom.
Create a Literature Analysis Theme Park
Finally, the third project I designed to take AI out of literary analysis group projects and replace it with authentic student thinking and discussion is this Create a Literary Analysis Theme Park.
In collaborative groups, students work together to create a proposal for investors. Their goal is to create a theme park based on a novel or any piece of literature. This resource includes all the required paper planning sheets, so students do not need to use any technology or devices for the planning process.
In collaborative groups, students come up with a theme park name, a themed land, a ride, and a food item. Everything has to relate back to the novel you read in class (or one of the short stories you read in class).
Once all of the planning and proposals are finished, students present their proposal to the investors to try to secure funding.
This project encourages collaboration, discussion, literary analysis, and creativity!
As it always has, education is forever changing. As teachers, it is our job to constantly adapt and change to meet the current demands of the profession. And while at times it feels like trying to stay two steps ahead of our students, we can always go back and rely on the tried-and-true methods.
All of these collaborative projects are bundled together in an AI-proof Literary Analysis Activity Bundle!
