Back to School: Using AI to Create Writing Assignments Students Actually Want to Do

Getting students excited about the work you’ll have to grade later can be one of the most frustrating parts of teaching. But when an assignment hits the right note, it can inspire and influence not just the class, but the entire school and beyond.

Aligning curriculum and assignments with standards and learning goals that are sometimes set outside a teacher’s control can seriously undermine the creative side of your brain.

Here’s how AI can broaden your horizons as you create assignments that leave a lasting impression and keep students excited to learn. (For more AI tips for the start of the school year, check out CNET’s guides on how to use AI to stay on top of important dates and how to use Microsoft Copilot to take notes on just about anything.)

Since there’s quite a bit of customization required to create an assignment that’s both fun for students to complete and fun for teachers to review and grade, I turned to ChatGPT, the AI ​​chatbot that uses machine learning and large language models to generate conversational responses to search queries so I could brainstorm ideas.

Maintaining the mental health of teachers and students

My field of expertise is media and communications, so for this example I put together an assignment on media literacy, or the ability to think critically and interact with everything from TikTok content to front-page news.

The goal is to create an assignment that is fun, educational, and impactful for students who interact heavily with digital media but may not question what exactly they are consuming.

The second goal was to create an assignment that I wouldn’t hate myself for having to grade.

On my first attempt, ChatGPT gave me a fully developed assignment based on specific learning objectives around media literacy for university-level students. However, it was about as fun as you might think: writing a 500-word essay on media literacy – not fun at all.

Refine for fun, collaboration and focus

Because this assignment is partly aimed at getting students to actually engage with online media in a way that has more impact than just looking around or admiring the digital world, I refined the assignment by involving the students in some way. I also asked for less emphasis on written analyses, which are ultimately only seen and assessed by the teacher.

This is what came back:

I was impressed. ChatGPT not only allowed students to interact with and analyze media, but also provided a multi-layered assignment that allowed students to see firsthand the impact media literacy can have on a community and an individual.

This assignment would also be a lot more fun to grade than 30-50 500-word analytical essays about whether the source of a Brat Summer post on TikTok is trustworthy.

Finally, ChatGPT provided submission requirements (such as a link to the social media content used to complete the assignment and screenshots of the online interactions) and assessment criteria for the assignment. It also provided some examples of how the assignment could be completed.

In particular, the example of analyzing the role of political memes was timely and felt like a fresh perspective on the changing reality of campaign media.

I would personally like to see videos of students discussing their perceptions of Kamala Headquarters‘s content and the presence of former President Donald Trump via social media.

And who knows, maybe the students will like it too.