While Learning Together author Elham Kazem and others suggest that school leaders should work with teachers to analyze student writing more regularly…,” Education Week’s Sarah Schwartz tells us: “[There is] an emerging group of middle and high school teachers using generative AI to help give feedback, and, in some cases, score students’ written work.”
More regularly, to my mind, means personally reading and responding, but that’s no longer a given. In fact, AI has already hit many English classrooms via:
- Class Companion, scores students’ writing. The site’s lure: “Give students AI tutoring and instant feedback on assignments. Multiply your capacity as a teacher. Unlock the power of unlimited retakes. Watch engagement and outcomes soar.”
- Magic School AI, “provides feedback, allowing students to adjust their writing and try again before they submit it to Class Companion for a grade.” Boasts the site: “We are the award-winning, most used, and most loved AI for educators in the world – now in nearly every U.S. school district and in 160 countries around the world. MagicSchool is built for educators, by educators, providing a genuine opportunity to reclaim valuable time for educators, combat burnout, and elevate the art of teaching.”
Seems a bit like handing over the reins,..
MOREOVER:
*** Missouri South Middle School’s Van Otterloo warns, “More broadly, AI is missing some of the more intangible skills that a good teacher possesses. It doesn’t know individual students’ strengths and weaknesses, or what skills they’re working on mastering.”
MOREOVER:
*** Ohio high school English teacher Chad Hemmelgarn says, “…Abdicating the responsibility of reading and considering kids’ writing would betray a deeper level of trust that students give him every time they turn something in. Especially if it’s a big writing project, the student has really put themselves out there. Nobody wants to be that vulnerable, and we ask kids to do that every day. I’m going to take that very seriously.”
PLUS:
Kids too, rely on AI.
As MLN managing director Victoria Livingstone, says, “Writing is hard work. It is sometimes frightening. With the temptation of AI, many—possibly most—of my students were no longer inclined to face the challenge… I found myself spending more time giving feedback to AI than to my students, so I quit.”
Kind of the bottom line, no?
~ With thanks, Carol
