“My student cheated with AI.”
“This essay is ChatGPT, not my student’s work.”
These scenarios are becoming a lot more common. You assign a project and you get it back from a student. You take one look and you just KNOW. The student didn’t write that. Maybe it’s the lack of errors and the perfect grammar (when in reality, you know that isn’t what they’re currently capable of). Maybe it’s the dead giveaways—em dashes, words like “delve,” “embark,” and “unlock”. Hey, maybe they even ended their essay with: “Here’s your 500-word essay on the Colonial era. Let me know if you’d like further edits.” Of course, we’re not always 100% sure, but sometimes the shift is so obvious it practically waves a red flag. What do I do? Do I punish this? Do I ignore it? Do I rewrite my whole curriculum?
I don’t have a statistic for you, but I venture to say that, like most teachers around the world, you’re stuck wondering how to react. And you might even be wondering how to prevent this (yay for thinking ahead!) and you may wonder, “Why am I even teaching this way? Is there still a point? What now?”
Like with all things education, there’s no one right answer. The answer will depend on your school culture, the subject you’re teaching, your students’ ages, and so much more.
But here are some interesting things to consider that might help you in your decision-making:
AI is here to stay.
Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. And once you come to terms with that, it’s easier to come up with a decision.
AI detectors aren’t accurate.
The Aseres Hadibros come up as 100% AI-generated content. And there are humanizer apps that can take away the AI feel. Students know to add “add mistakes,” “make this 5th-grade level,” and “use human language as if written by a kid” to their prompts. So relying on AI detectors? It’s just not the way to go.
AI isn’t the only way to cheat.
Before AI, there was copy-paste. And before copy-paste, there was copying from the library. Scholars say students were cheating on Chinese civil service exams thousands of years ago, even when the punishment was death. So no, this isn’t new. It’s just evolved. That’s not to say that cheating is okay, but it’s to say that we need to think of academic integrity in a bigger way- not just zoomed in on AI. This doesn’t mean cheating is okay. It means we need to get smarter about what learning really looks like.
But how about a reframe?
If instead of looking at AI as a tool that “makes cheating easier” and “helps kids be lazier,” what about if we consider this instead: If AI can write it, we need to stop assigning it.
That doesn’t mean we lower the bar, it means we raise the relevance. Students don’t need more chances to summarize a textbook. They need chances to think, reflect, and say something real.
Let’s look at a common prompt:
Write an essay explaining three ways the Industrial Revolution changed the world.
It sounds fine. But it’s Googleable. It’s answerable by AI. There’s no real thinking required.
Now try this:
How might the Industrial Revolution connect to AI today, in a way that matters to you as an 8th grader at Bais Chaya High School?
Maybe they’ll bring in a personal story, or a headline from the news. Maybe they’ll write about how their younger sibling speaks to Alexa or Siri, or how their class used AI to make flashcards.
That kind of question goes somewhere AI can’t: into your students’ actual thoughts, memories, and opinions. Try plugging it into ChatGPT. You’ll get a response, but not with your student’s voice, nuance, or experience.
We don’t need trick questions (!!) we just need real ones. Ones that ask students to show up in the writing.
Some small changes that can go a long way:
- Ask for a memory. Describe a moment when technology helped or hurt your learning. What happened? How did it feel?
- Connect it to family. How has tech changed the way your family communicates, celebrates, or shops? Interview a parent or grandparent and write about what you learned.
- Bring in voice. Write your opinion as a note to a friend who disagrees with you. Keep it honest, but kind.
- Build in contradiction. Write about a time you changed your mind about technology. What convinced you? How did it feel to realize you were wrong?
- Focus on audience. Who do you think should care about what you just wrote, and why? What would you say to them?
These aren’t complicated. They’re just real. They require reflection, memory, empathy, and sometimes a little discomfort. That’s what makes them harder to copy, and more worth writing.
When students see themselves in their writing, they’re less likely to use AI. When the assignment becomes more personal, meaningful, and multi-layered, they connect to it more. Add a reflection question at the end: What part of this topic reminds you of something in your own life? What part of this scares you? What’s something here that you hope to remember in 20 years from now?
If you can change the essay prompt that you’re giving, that can help students use their minds (instead of their fast typing fingers) when coming up with their thoughts. By adding the personal layer, it’s more about what they think and less about what ChatGPT will predict. By writing the assignment through the lens of personalization, it takes on a new type of learning, one that embraces* AI and the future it brings.
*I wrote this word, not ChatGPT 😉
And don’t worry. You don’t have to rewrite your whole curriculum. Just tweak one prompt. Make it a little more specific, a little more personal, a little less ChatGPT-friendly.
Start with one prompt. Ask yourself: “Could AI answer this without knowing anything about my students?” If yes, tweak it. Add a layer of real life. A layer of voice. A layer of them.
You’re doing a hard job adapting in a fast-changing world, and you don’t need ALL the answers. But if your next assignment helps students think for themselves (even just a little more) you’ve already done something powerful.
AI can fill a page (and super quickly, too!) But only your student can fill it with something real. And that’s the kind of thinking that sticks.
Happy Teaching,
Mushkie
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