WICOR® and AI: Writing

In this episode, we'll explore how you can positively and productively leverage artificial intelligence (AI) as a cowriter and writing assistant during the writing process. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

#261 — WICOR and AI: Writing

12 min
AVID Open Access

Keywords

ai, students, writing, ideas, suggestions, writer, improve, organize, topic, number, professional writers, learning, write, tools, list, draft, paste, skills, process, drafting

Speakers

Paul (98%), Transition (2%)

Paul Beckermann  0:01  

Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I'm your host, Paul Beckermann. 

Transition Music  0:06  

Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What's in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what's in the toolkit? Check it out. 

Paul Beckermann  0:16  

The topic of today's episode is WICOR and AI: Writing. WICOR stands for Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading. It's a framework developed by AVID and used throughout the AVID program to help educators construct strong lessons to develop academically well-rounded students, greater ownership of learning, and higher order thinking. It works in any academic area, and actively places students at the center of their learning. In the next five episodes, I'm going to zoom in on one of the five components of the framework each week—Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading, and explore ways that educators can have students use AI to foster and amplify that particular skill area. Even for those of you not familiar with WICOR, or the AVID program, I think using this framework will help you make sense of how I'm organizing my thoughts around these core skills. Today, I'll start with writing. 

As a former English teacher, I am passionate about writing. Writing is a core life and communication skill. And it's one of the most cognitively challenging tasks that we can ask students to complete. It's critical that we teach students to write well, and students must not only learn to write, they should also be utilizing writing as a learning tool. They should both learn to write and write to learn. When students write, they're cognitively challenged to organize and make sense of their learning in order to form new ideas, and then communicate those ideas to someone else. Through the writing process, they must reflect and think at the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, and their retention of learning is increased. It can be both a challenging and powerful learning experience. And now AI has entered and potentially disrupted this process. In past episodes, I've addressed ways to mitigate the concerns of teachers who fear that students will simply use AI to do all the work for them, resulting in not only a loss of writing skills, but also a bypassing of the cognitive processes that result in increased learning and retention. If you're interested in that topic, be sure to go back and listen to episode 255 of Tech Talk for Teachers, "Writing with Integrity in the Age of AI." In this episode, I'm going to focus on sharing ideas for how you can positively and productively leverage artificial intelligence, or AI, during the writing process. I really believe that if we can help students learn to use AI in a positive and productive way while they're with us, we'll be empowering them to be even better writers and communicators once they leave our classrooms and our guiding eyes. We need to help them effectively use the tools that they'll have available as adults. Of course, we don't want students to have chat bots do all the writing for them. Instead, we should help them use AI tools as a writing assistant, a learning partner. With that in mind, here are five ways you can have students use artificial intelligence as a writing assistant, or co-writer.

Transition Music  3:31  

Here are your five, here are your five, here are your five tips. 

Paul Beckermann  3:37  

Number one, brainstorming. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot are really good at generating lists of ideas. Personally, I found this to be very helpful with my own writing and content creation. It can help me get started, broaden my thinking, help me find things I've missed, and help me formulate my initial ideas. Because it's a brainstorm list, I still need to do my own critical thinking. Go through any list generated by AI, and determine which, if any of these ideas, might help me get started with my writing task. Here's some things students might choose to have AI help them brainstorm: a list of potential topics, a list of ways to break down a larger topic into something more manageable, a list of interview questions, a list of sub-topics to research, or a list of potential titles. Using a chatbot in this way is collaborative, like brainstorming with a writing partner. Number two, organizing. It can be really hard for students to sift through their ideas and determine how to organize them in a meaningful and understandable way. This is not to say that struggling through this is a bad thing. However, generative AI chatbots can again serve as a co-writer to give students options and help them get started processing their initial ideas. Here are a couple of ways the students could do this. They could paste their thesis statement and notes into a generative AI chatbot and ask the AI for suggestions for how this content might be organized. Students can then consider the suggestions and determine if any of these options or a combination of these options might be fitting. Another thing students could ask the chatbot is for five ways to organize a paper on a given topic. Again, students will be given options to choose from. It's essentially another form of brainstorming. Students can also paste in a list of key points they've come up with, and then ask the AI to generate a potential outline that organizes those points. As with any assignment, it's up to you to determine the degree to which you want students to use AI with their writing. And these are some of the options you might consider. 

Number three, drafting. Okay, this is probably the most controversial use of AI in writing. And I'm definitely not advocating having students simply type in a prompt asking the AI to write their entire paper for them. I think that bypasses too many of the key critical thinking skills necessary in writing. However, we also need to acknowledge that many bloggers and professional writers are starting to have AI co-draft content with them. And this is not going away. As a way to introduce this to your students, you could have them begin with a smaller sample of writing, like a single paragraph or one section of a longer paper. With this approach, I'd suggest having the student provide the content and ideas for the writing. This might include research notes, or key points and examples they brainstormed. Students could then paste those ideas into a chatbot and ask it to draft the paragraph or section from those notes. In this scenario, the students are providing the ideas and the AI is helping with the structure, the organization, and communication of those ideas. Personally, I probably only do this once I felt like students had a basic mastery of the drafting process, but once they have a good foundation, it can be a nice way for them to see both solid models and get help forming their ideas into fully fleshed out writing. Again, it's like an assistant or a guide. As a side note, there are more and more premium products being released all the time that will eventually guide students through this drafting process rather than simply drafting it for them. Products like Packback prompt students through the writing process and provide students with real-time feedback and coaching throughout that process. Students then rewrite their ideas based on the feedback to improve their scores. It's student driven, and pretty motivating. Khanmigo is another one that co-writes with the student rather than writing for them. One of the modules in Khanmigo has the student taking turns writing sentences to the story with the AI. The student co-writes the story with the AI. I think these products offer a nice peek into the future of writing instruction and AI coaching. And I'm really curious to see how they continue to evolve. 

Number four, editing. Whether we are aware of it or not, we've all been using AI to help with the editing process for quite a few years now. This primarily includes tools like spell checkers, and grammar checkers. These were hugely controversial when they first came out, but now, I feel like they've become largely accepted as a normal way of doing the business of writing. Even professional writers use them all the time. It's like having an editor standing over our shoulders and providing instant feedback and suggestions as we write. This is extremely powerful. As educators, we know that the more immediate and targeted our feedback is, the more it can shape and improve our learning. And let's face it, we can't possibly sit beside every student throughout the writing process to provide this type of feedback. But these AI tools can. Tools like Grammarly instantly highlight passages that could benefit from a rewrite. They might flag a grammatical error, awkward usage, or a punctuation problem. They typically offer suggestions rather than an automatic correction. This requires students to actively engage in the practice of choosing to make a change or improve something. This engagement and feedback loop can help students improve their skills in real time. Even seasoned writers can benefit from the watchful eye of an AI editor. 

And number five, revision. AI can be a helpful co-writer when it comes to fine-tuning your writing. For instance, you might paste in a draft of an essay and then ask the chatbot to offer suggestions for improving things like fluency, transitions, or support and evidence. Rather than having students simply ask the AI to rewrite something for them. I'd encourage you to have students ask for revision suggestions. Suggestions keep the student engaged in the process and require critical thinking and active decision-making. This is how students will continue to learn and grow as writers. I'd also suggest having students ask for feedback on one aspect of the writing at a time. A generic "How can I improve this writing sample?" is too broad and it will give mixed results. Targeted queries result in better replies and they're also more digestible for students. Students might paste in a long, complicated sentence and ask the AI for suggestions to simplify that one sentence. Students could also paste in a sample of their writing and then ask the AI questions like "What arguments am I overlooking?" Or "Are any of my arguments biased?" Or maybe, "What arguments need stronger support or better evidence?" These types of questions utilize the AI as a writing partner and, again, can help students develop a critical eye for revision by prompting them to improve their own existing draft. 

There are undoubtedly many other ways to use AI to enhance the writing process. But these are five ways that you might choose to get started. In general, artificial intelligence is best viewed as a writing collaborator, or co-writer, rather than a tool to do the writing for you. Just like students should not blindly accept every suggestion they get from a classmate or peer editor, they should review AI suggestions with a discerning eye, as well. And this is something that we can help them learn. I'd also encourage you, as educators, to experiment with AI in your writing. You can learn a lot by actually engaging in this process and experiencing it firsthand. As we continue to learn to use AI as a writing coach and partner, it has the potential to help us all become better, more empowered writers. 

To learn more about today's topic and explore other free resources, visit AvidOpenAccess.org. Specifically, I encourage you to check out our collection of articles about AI. You can find it by going to AvidOpenAccess.org and searching for "AI and the K-12 Classroom." And, of course, be sure to join Rena, Winston, and me every Wednesday for our full-length podcast, Unpacking Education, where we are joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you. Thanks for listening. Take care, and thanks for all you do. You make a difference.