{"id":20313,"date":"2023-08-31T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/?p=20313"},"modified":"2024-07-16T10:36:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T17:36:55","slug":"5-ways-english-teachers-can-use-chatgpt-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2023\/5-ways-english-teachers-can-use-chatgpt-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"5 ways English teachers can use ChatGPT in their classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When we at NWEA released a document sharing our views on writing instruction<\/a> last September, we were excited about the innovations happening with digital literacy. We even discussed a body of supporting research devoted to digital writing: \u201cReading is a rapidly evolving experience in the digital world,\u201d we acknowledged. \u201cReaders must be savvy consumers of digital and multimodal texts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, two months later, OpenAI released ChatGPT<\/a>, and teachers\u2019 worlds turned upside down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, there seemed to be a sense of panic. Teacher forums were flooded with valid concerns<\/a> about how students could use ChatGPT to cheat on written assignments. Some school districts even took steps to ban it. However, as the use cases for AI became more apparent, that sense of panic has started to shift<\/a> to, \u201cOkay, ChatGPT is here to stay. How can I leverage it to improve my students\u2019 learning?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My experiments with ChatGPT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I first started brainstorming for this blog post with a colleague, I honestly didn\u2019t know where I stood on AI, or what exactly I was going to write about. Each time I thought of an example of AI\u2019s potential instructional utility, I immediately followed up with an example of its potential dangers. My colleague remarked, \u201cLauren, you keep contradicting yourself. I\u2019m not sure you actually know what you believe about this tool.\u201d Ouch. But she was right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one hand, I know that AI applications like ChatGPT have become common in the workplace<\/a>, and the internet is inundated with various AI tools. I want students to be prepared to use the technology effectively and responsibly. On the other hand, I know that the process of writing facilitates critical thinking<\/a>. We don\u2019t always know what we think about a topic until we start writing about it. New thoughts and connections come to us as we write. This blog post itself is an example! If students rely too much on a chatbot to write for them, they could miss out on vital critical-thinking experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with this dilemma, I decided to go directly to the source: I asked ChatGPT to help me write this post. A few curious things happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first prompt was \u201cWrite a 1,000 word blog post on the benefits of using ChatGPT in the classroom.\u201d ChatGTP suggested teachers could use the AI to \u201cdevelop critical-thinking skills,\u201d \u201coffer personalized feedback,\u201d and \u201cenhance creativity by examining different perspectives.\u201d Great. These all sounded very plausible. However, when I asked it to write a blog post on the dangers of using ChatGPT in the classroom, I got eerily mirrored results. Dangers included \u201closs of critical-thinking skills,\u201d \u201cdiminished interpersonal skills,\u201d and \u201cexposure to biased content.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I dug a little deeper. When I asked ChatGPT to provide me specific <\/em>suggestions, I was able to cull the following promising ideas for instructional benefits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n