Pedagogy 2025

Abstract

Many First Year Writing teachers have had to grapple with what the emergence of AI has meant for a class whose goal is primarily about teaching students how to communicate better and express their own authentic ideas and voices. While many of my colleagues are retreating to blue books and other paper-and-pen in-class assignments, I attempted a more forward-facing approach with my students. This approach centers readings about AI and honest discussions by treating the students as partners in their own learning. Together we use AI in very selective ways and reflect upon each step of the process. So when students told me that a main use of AI was for brainstorming, I had them experiment with it after having them go through a lengthy brainstorming process without AI. They then reflected on the different methods and compared the results. The larger goal of this course is to dispel the myth of AI as a magic machine while at the same time seeing if there are use cases for it in the writing classroom that don’t outsource their own thinking. Assignments and discussions have largely been built off of John Warner’s book More Than Words: How to Think about Writing in the Age of AI, Brett Vogelsinger’s Artful AI in Writing Instruction, and Randy Laist’s Rethinking Writing Instruction in the Age of AI. This experiment comes after witnessing students use AI in my courses as a substitute for their own work and a desire to meet students where they are.