How to Teach Authentic Writing in the Age of AI

2025-11-11

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The idea that you’re not a writer unless you stare down a blank page and produce text—that’s about to change, says high school teacher Jen Roberts. In her classroom, AI is not the enemy. It’s a tool she uses to help students become better writers. And yes, she sets guardrails. “You can be a real writer who started with an AI-generated outline,” she says. “You can have an AI thought partner who helps you plot out your story.” Yet for this to work in classrooms, “we need to readjust our expectations about student writing—a...

The idea that you’re not a writer unless you stare down a blank page and produce text—that’s about to change, says high school teacher Jen Roberts.

In her classroom, AI is not the enemy. It’s a tool she uses to help students become better writers. And yes, she sets guardrails. “You can be a real writer who started with an AI-generated outline,” she says. “You can have an AI thought partner who helps you plot out your story.” Yet for this to work in classrooms, “we need to readjust our expectations about student writing—and what we’re going to allow them to do and not do.”

In this episode of School of Practice, we dive into this radical pedagogical shift with Roberts, and examine the strategies she’s developed to weave AI into the writing process to deliver thoughtful, authentic student writing.

Related resources:

Authentic Writing in the Age of AI
Proactively Limiting the Use of AI in the Classroom
When Students Use AI in Ways They Shouldn’t
What ELA Teachers Should Know About AI Detectors
Research: Generative AI Can Harm Learning
Research: Cheating in the age of generative AI: A high school survey study of cheating behaviors before and after the release of ChatGPT
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