Rewriting the Script: Teaching High School Writing in the Age of AI

Outline

I. The Problem We're Already Living
➡️The scenario most teachers recognize: a polished essay lands in your inbox and something feels off — but you can't prove it.
➡️Why the old integrity framework leaves us without good answers, and what we need instead.

II. What Is Postplagiarism?
➡️An introduction to Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton's framework for academic integrity in the AI era.
➡️The six tenets of postplagiarism, and the core reframe: if AI can complete the task easily, the task — not the student — is the problem.

III. The AI Risk Audit
➡️A five-part tool for evaluating any writing assignment:

1. Task Design & Cognitive Demand — does this task require thinking, or just retrieval?
2. Student Voice & Agency — where is this student actually visible in the work?
3. Process Visibility — can you see how the writing came to be?
4. AI Use Transparency — is AI acknowledged and guided, or simply banned?
5. Assessment Alignment — are you grading thinking, or just the product?

➡️Each dimension includes a high-risk example and a targeted fix.

IV. Assignment Redesign in Practice
➡️Two side-by-side comparisons showing what high-risk and low-risk look like for real assignments:

1. A literary analysis essay
2. A personal narrative

➡️Both redesigns walk through process checkpoints, transparent AI use, and assessment criteria that reward decision-making over polish.

V. Takeaways and Next Steps
➡️Three things to take home, tied to student agency, integrity, and creativity. Plus one concrete starting point that doesn't require overhauling your entire curriculum.

Outcomes

At the end of this session, participants will be able to analyze a writing assignment using the AI Risk Audit Protocol to identify risks related to AI misuse and opportunities to strengthen process-focused instruction.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to apply redesign strategies to transform a traditional writing prompt into an assignment that authentically integrates AI, fosters student voice, and emphasizes writing as a thinking process.

Supporting research

Eaton, S. E. (2023). Postplagiarism: Transdisciplinary ethics and integrity in the age of artificial intelligence and neurotechnology. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 19(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-023-00144-1

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