AI in The Classroom: Transforming The High School Experiences

AI in The Classroom: Transforming The High School Experiences

Can Artificial Intelligence truly be used in a high school classroom? Two EHS teachers Dr. Magliozzi and Mrs. Peterson believe AI can help benefit students. They wrote a book called AI in the Writing Workshop that explores how educators can use AI as a tool in students’ writing without “sacrificing authenticity, creativity, or critical thinking.” AI can allow students to be thoroughly involved in the writing process and understand the ethical considerations. 

In the book, they used their students to demonstrate how effective AI can be in the classroom. Dr. Magliozzi and Mrs. Peterson both agree that the biggest benefit to using AI in the writing process is giving students “confidence and momentum”. They believe students mostly struggle with the blank page at the beginning of the writing process and AI can allow students to brainstorm and organize their ideas into a more concise start. They say AI “becomes a scaffold—not a shortcut” to break the wall of writing block and entry to their creativity. Along with the benefits for students, there are also benefits for teachers. Instead of telling the student where to go next for their writing piece, AI allows for a collaborative conversation and adds a voice to the next step suggestions. 

As Dr. Magliozzi and Mrs. Peterson incorporated AI into their classrooms, they had some interesting reactions. Some students “rejected AI because they were worried it would erase their own voice”. This gave them the chance to show how the writer can use their tools like AI and keep their writing style and tone to be more prominent, ensuring originality. They created rules when using AI to establish “integrity, transparency, and growth”. Using AI responsibly is an important value for students to know because most students are already using forms of AI like ChatGBT, and having open conversations on how they use it will allow for a better relationship with the tool and the teachers. Specifically, AI can help students with “skill development in organization, word choice, and revision” and can be a crutch for students. Dr. Magliozzi and Mrs. Peterson teach their students to question AI and what it produces in their questions. This also advances the students’ media literacy skills that can support them even outside the classroom. AI has supported Dr. Magliozzi and Mrs. Peterson’s classes by providing more suggestions to the writing process and made them realize how protective their students were over their individual voices so they don’t sound like robots. 

AI has many positives that allow for students and teachers to learn from. The negatives of AI allows for a conversation between the teacher and the students over whether the response was useful or not. Dr. Magliozzi and Mrs. Peterson’s book can help expand high school students’ writing skills and experiences. Check out AI in the Writing Workshop to expand your horizon on how writing workshops can function as we continue to progress with technology!