Classroom Activities
Writing Playground: Short, Emulative Creative Nonfiction Drafts
After every novel study, students will engage in a week of writing creative nonfiction which will allow them to play with their craft and try out new literary or rhetorical strategies. After studying an essay type or structure and reading a mentor text that demonstrates that type or structure, students should write a 400-600 word draft emulating the mentor text. It can be over any subject as long as they follow the form or structure and try out at least three rhetorical strategies we pointed out in class from the mentor text. Teachers even may want to set a time limit on how long a student works on the piece, so that it doesn’t consume their nights. In order to ensure that students do this or even attempt this activity, this will be a completion grade. Teachers should remind students that these are drafts; this is their playground – their time to play with language and take risks. Teachers are not looking for perfection, but for soul and an attempt to creatively use rhetorical and literary devices. Remind students that these creative nonfiction drafts can be used for their big college essay at the end of the year, noting that revisions should take place. Students can start brainstorming and drafting in their writer’s notebook. I will have students type their drafts up without their names and email it to me before the start of school which will allow time to print copies for the Anonymous Writers of the Round Table: A Writers Workshop activity.
Anonymous Writers of the Round Table: A Writers Workshop
Presenting this workshop as a means of reading, sharing, and respectively critiquing drafts anonymously is key to its success – nobody will know who wrote what. The teenagers in your classroom will appreciate this. They will also know that this is a competition with AI. After hearing my rants and warnings about the use of AI in my classroom, my students will know that this is serious business. Students will be put into groups of five. At the beginning of the workshop, teachers should once again remind students that this workshop is anonymous. Each group will get six essays, one of which will be the AI-written essay. Each essay will be labeled A, B, C, D, etc. Every student will be required to read one of the essays aloud in their small group, with one student reading aloud twice. If students ask why we read aloud, a teacher may want to use Klinkenborg's words about the importance of reading aloud: “The ear is much smarter than the eye. If only because it’s also slower and because the eye can’t see rhythm or hear unwanted repetition.”41 Using the creative writing workshop method with a few modifications, each piece will be read aloud. Students should star the places where the writing succeeded and circle the writing that may need to be fixed or clarified. In the 2-3 minutes after the draft was read aloud, students should write one positive comment and one area of improvement that they are willing to share. Each person shares about the writing, even the writer of the draft, to honor the anonymity of the workshop. Once every draft has been workshopped, I will have students rank their set of essays from one to six, one being the best and six being the one that needs improvement. Teachers may stress to students it's not always about perfection of the piece, but the ideas and risks taken. Next, teachers should take up all the essays and tally who or what won. The next day, reveal who one in each class –robot or human. Also, students should receive back all the comments workshop mates made on their drafts as well. It might be important to create a different AI-generated essay for each class, so that word doesn’t get around because as we know, teenagers love to talk.
Visual Human vs. Robot Competition
After the Anonymous Writers of the Round Table: A Writers Workshop Activity, teachers will reveal who won with a visual contest board. I will have a drawing or picture of a robot and of a human and I will ceremoniously place the winner of each group in its appropriate place– a visual human vs. machine. The stakes are high with this year-long competition – if humans win this contest, my students will not have to take their spring final.
Robot Reflections: An In-class Writing
After the big reveal of who won the human vs. robot competition, I will have students do reflective in-class writing to help them process a competition with a machine. They will essentially have about 30 minutes to write about these questions: 1. Who won in their group and why? 2. What are you noticing about AI writing? Is the AI essay better or worse than yours and your peers and why? 3. What were your strengths and weaknesses in your writing? 4. How can you improve your writing, or what device or technique would you want to play with more next time? 5. Are your thoughts about AI-use changing, why or why not? The questions are designed not only to get students critically thinking about the use of ChatGPT as a substitute for human writing but to also reflect on their own writing and the risks they take with their creative nonfiction drafts. This is a great experiment. I have no idea what will come of my students’ thoughts surrounding AI, but, in the end, at least I will have them engaged with thinking about its use, rather than being mindless zombies using anything AI generates.
Culminating Activity: Beat those Robots and Get into College: The College Essay
While trying to get into the fictional McKee University, students will take one of their workshopped drafts and revise and expand into a 650-word college essay, using the Common App prompts. This essay will need to be polished and revised from their original drafts. There is a 45% acceptance rate for this fictional university, so students will need to try their very best. The college essay should be a culmination of all that they learned about the craft of writing and the importance of play and emulation. Hopefully from all the creative nonfiction writing they do, they will finally find their authentic voice and unique style, knowing that it is much louder and more genuine than anything a robot could produce.
Comments: