• Critically deconstruct essays to assess strengths and weaknesses in content and structure
• Refine thinking through collaborative inquiry and role-play
• Apply standards of strong writing and nuanced thinking to the development of voice
• Respond to a chatbot with clarity, perspective, and human insight
• Maintain authorial agency while engaging AI as a co-writer or collaborator

Assignment Overview

Assignment Structure

1. AI-free writing
   Begin by choosing an essay topic that is appropriate to your classroom. Students should be familiar with the topic, or at least have some background knowledge of the subject area. For instance, an English class might choose the theme “Representations of Race in 20th Century American Literature.” Students will write a short, in-class essay using only human-generated sources and distraction-free tools (e.g., pen and paper or a simple word processor). Keeping the essay relatively short allows for quicker revision and ensures compatibility with chatbot input/output word limits.
2. Prompt the chatbot
   Using the same topic, students will now engage with a chatbot (e.g., ChatGPT or Claude). The chatbot can help brainstorm research questions, simplify complex texts, map out research plans, suggest sources, or assist in summarizing findings. Students should iteratively prompt the AI, experimenting and adjusting their inputs as needed. Encourage them to document each step of the process and reflect on how the chatbot’s responses influence their thinking.
3. Evaluate
   Once students have completed their final essays, they will evaluate their work using two approaches—first with AI, then without.
   • Start by using the chatbot to co-create a rubric for evaluation. As students apply this rubric, the chatbot can help them organize their ideas, identify patterns, and reflect on the distinctiveness of their voice.
   • Next, have students evaluate their essays without AI support. Ask students to critically assess their work using personal or peer-developed criteria. Encourage them to consider the limitations of the AI-generated rubric and push their analysis further, adding their own insights to go beyond what the AI offered.
4. Discuss
   When you are engaging in a Socratic dialogue with the chatbot, reflect with curiosity; ask questions that open up chance, surprise, and discovery; cite expert sources; and embrace ambiguity and complexity. Push the AI with follow-up questions like “Why?”, “How?”, and “What if?” to challenge its assumptions and deepen the exchange. Don’t accept its answers at face value. For inspiration, a Socratic dialogue might look like this: Student: “Why do you think the author’s portrayal of race is effective?” AI: “Because it challenges stereotypes.” Student: “What stereotype specifically? And how does the text challenge it?” Aim for at least 3–5 layers of follow-up in your exchanges.
5. Re-writing with AI
   Now that you’ve written one essay on your own, generated one with AI, and evaluated both, it’s time to rewrite your essay—first with the chatbot’s help, then independently. You’ll have access to the chatbot-generated essay transcript as a reference point to help you reflect, revise, and make your writing more distinct and thoughtful. Let the AI model suggest edits or rewrites, but treat these as prompts for further thinking rather than final drafts.
   • First, prompt the chatbot to revise the original essay.
   • Then, use distraction-free tools to write another human-only draft.
   • Compare these versions and continue refining as needed, drawing from both processes to enhance clarity, structure, and voice.
6. Compare
   Now bring in both peer and AI perspectives. Ask a classmate and the chatbot to review and compare the human-written and chatbot-revised essays. To prompt the chatbot for comparison, try: “Which essay demonstrates stronger rhetorical strategies?” or “Which essay more clearly expresses an original voice?” Use the rubric from earlier or generate a new one together. Look for interpretive claims, rhetorical strategies, and expressions of voice. What patterns or differences emerge across drafts?
7. Revise
   The presence of the chatbot’s voice should prompt students to assert their own. Encourage deeper engagement with sources, clearer articulation of ideas, and a strong sense of personal authorship. Use this stage to synthesize everything learned so far about AI, revision, and your own writing process.

• How did the essay change when you prompted the chatbot to a) respond from different political perspectives b) write in the voice of a specific essayist c) modify the essay for different audiences?
• How might writers from the past have undergone a similar revision process?
• When did the chatbot underperform–or overperform–in responding to your prompts?
• What did the chatbot miss? What did it get right? How do your observations relate to what you’ve learned about how LLMs work? Offer a theory about why it did well at certain tasks and poorly at others.
• Who did you choose to “speak” with in your chatbot dialogue? A scholar/mentor/elder/fictional character/historic figure? How did the nature of your learning shift depending on whom or what you were talking to? 
• What dialogue prompting tactics did you use? How were they different from the framing of your in-person conversation?
• Did any platform guardrails or institutional constraints appear? (e.g., “I am not able to give advice,” or “I have to direct you to our office of communications.”)
• At what stages did the chatbot enhance your learning? Where did it fall short or create confusion? 
• How do you think your essay would have turned out differently if you had completed it without a chatbot?
• Do you relate to your words differently than you would if you had written them “from scratch”?
• Can you find places where you pivoted away from the chatbot’s assumptions or questioned its framing?
• In what ways did your personal style and voice diverge from the chatbot’s tone?
• Did anything surprise you when you compared the essays? What questions, thoughts, musings, or curiosities popped up for you?
• What did you learn about yourself, your writing process, and the subject of your essay?
• What would be the implications for human writing if everyone co-wrote with chatbots?
• If you were to share a piece of advice to fellow students about co-writing with chatbots, what would you say?
• When might using chatbots jeopardize the trust between you and your teachers? Between you and your audience?