The rise of generative artificial intelligence is reshaping nearly every school subject—but maybe none more than English class.
When generative AI became widely available, some teachers wondered whether they should keep teaching students to write a classic five-paragraph essay on say, the concept of the oversoul in The Grapes of Wrath. ChatGPT and Gemini, after all, have the topic covered, and either tool can formulate the essay faster than humans.
Other teachers reverted to pen-and-paper essays to head off cheating.
And many teachers found themselves somewhere in between.
The National Council of Teachers of English recently stepped up to provide educators with some principles and examples for how to think about AI in the context of English class.
The organization stresses that this framework for AI in English/language arts is a rough draft put together with broad input—but the group wants educators to offer their feedback on it.
The process recognizes that AI is “a moving target,” said Antero Garcia, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and NCTE’s president. “What’s happening in the world of AI is constantly changing.”
At a time of big backlash to education technology in general and AI in particular, NCTE isn’t “drawing a line in the sand” by coming out as pro- or anti-AI, Garcia added.
Instead, the organization recognizes that AI is a “living reality” for many English teachers. NCTE is seeking to offer teachers’ support on how to use the technology in a way that enhances students’ critical-thinking and writing skills.
The organization also wants students to recognizes AI’s pitfalls, including its propensity to spread inaccurate or biased information, he added.
Students need to know how to “check facts that are disseminated by these tools,” Garcia said.
Among NCTE’s recommendations:
Help students become critical thinkers—with AI
AI shouldn’t replace a student’s thought process, but the technology can help them “deepen” their thinking, NCTE’s draft guidelines say. For example, AI could serve as a starting point for ideas, but students must be pushed to go beyond the technology’s suggestions, applying their own creativity and reasoning.
This could take the shape of students and teachers “co-designing” prompts and discussing different queries that yield different responses. Students could also compare an AI-created writing sample to a human-crafted one on the same topic.
Teachers and students can apply a critical eye to AI’s responses, asking questions such as “Is this accurate?” and “What did the technology leave out?”
Help students critically examine AI’s source material
Teachers need to help students understand that the answers coming from generative AI are drawn from massive datasets that comprise the internet, books, and social media. AI’s responses aren’t the work of a knowing machine; they reflect widespread misconceptions, stereotypes, and flaws that have been incorporated into AI’s universe of source material. AI may also fabricate facts and citations, and even invent historical events.
Students can get a hands-on understanding of this dynamic by investigating specific websites or authors cited by AI tools to see if they are genuine and reputable, and if the AI tool has accurately portrayed their contents, NCTE suggests. They can also compare an AI tool’s analysis of a primary source—say, a historical document—to a published, scholarly take on the same material.
Teach ethical and responsible use of AI
Students need to understand academic integrity in the context of AI—for instance, that they can’t pass off an essay crafted by a large language model as their own work, NCTE notes. Teachers should also model ethical AI use. They can let their students know when they have used AI tools to create an assignment or build a graphic, for example.
Teaching ethical AI use can mean creating a clear classroom policy on when and how students can use AI for writing assignments, showing students how to cite the use of AI tools in their work, and helping students decide when to use the technology or rely on their own knowledge and intellect.
