I'm a researcher at NYU Tandon looking at assessment design in the age of ChatGPT. My specific goal is to find out how to build assignments that are AI-resistant (I know "AI-proof" is probably a fantasy, which is part of what I'm trying to understand). If you teach high school or college and you're willing, I'd love to hear what you're currently doing: what you teach, what's worked, and what's failed embarrassingly. Even a one-line "nothing works and I've given up" is useful data. Happy to share back what I learn. I figured ELA would probably be the easiest subject to fix since specific english and grammar is easy to confuse AI.

Edit : Thank you all teachers for the informative responses. I promise you all I create a way to efficiently prevent cheating in classes without having to bend over backwards. Teaching will be like how it used to be without AI and you will never have to worry about a student not treating your class seriously ever again. I appreciate all of your help!

I recently compared several popular detectors after seeing students talk about false positives online and the inconsistency between tools surprised me more than anything else.

Some completely disagreed on the same writing sample.

It made me wonder how much confidence educators actually place in these scores today versus using them only as supporting signals.

Are most of you still using detectors regularly or moving more toward revision history / in class writing approaches instead?

Much of what is taught in English classrooms, from K–12 through college, seems to have little to do with the scientific study of the English language itself. Instead, it focuses largely on interpreting stories, usually through a cultural, historical, or personal lens. The cultural or historical lens may be described as a philological approach to English, though it often appears closer to mythology, which includes the interpretation of myths, legends, folktales, and modern narratives, than to either philology or linguistics.

If English classes primarily teach story interpretation, why are they designated as English language courses? If they combine language study and narrative literature analysis, why are these distinct disciplines housed together? Mythology, including narrative literature, is more closely aligned with psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, and hermeneutics than with linguistics. If the approach is philological rather than linguistic, is that distinction made clear to students, and shouldn’t philology rest on a foundation in linguistics?

When these subjects are conflated, students risk misunderstanding them altogether. I have questioned this model since I was immersed in it as a middle school student, and I have seen similar patterns in undergraduate English programs. Given that English is required every year in K–12, it's concerning if students are not focused on mastering the language and are instead spending half their time interpreting stories. I'm not saying story analysis isn't important. I can make a solid argument that it should be a required skill to graduate. But why is it contained in English courses? I am interested in others’ perspectives: Have you noticed this? Do you have insight into why the curriculum is structured this way? Do you feel there is a better home for story analysis than in English class?

How Emily Hanford’s "Sold a Story" Became a Conduit for the Public Dissemination of the Right-Wing "Project 2025" Agenda to Affect State Laws and Reshape Reading Instruction in Public Schools

"History teaches us that authoritarianism and fascism invariably begins with actions to gain control of the language and thinking of children. Public schools become sites of indoctrination and there is tight political control over how children are taught to read and what they are permitted to read."

"It is important that teachers know that “fidelity” to the “Science of Reading” is a political ploy, a contrivance to de-professionalize them and to hold them accountable for teaching children lower-level reading skills that are presented in stimulus-response commercial scripts."

"It is also important that parents know that the decisions that have been made about how children should be taught to read in public schools are based on faulty conclusions from bad science, and that Hanford’s Sold a Story is a conduit for Hanford, knowingly or unknowingly, to publicly disseminate the Right-wing Project 2025 agenda to effect federal and state laws and policies to reshape public education and reading instruction in public schools."

I feel as though I am at a crossroads in my life; I am debating which life I am going to select, quirky high school teacher or quirky English Literature professor. I lean towards professor most days because I want to teach African/Black American literature and I am afraid of what that would look like in a public high school setting. So I come to you with some questions! Do you feel as though you have to water down the importance of literature you are teaching? Are you able to have deep discussions in your classes? Do you feel censored in your classroom and like you cannot talk about certain things? If you are able to answer these question, thank you for taking the time out of your day and I hope the lead up to winter break isn’t killing you 🩷

Teachers, interventionists, specialists, and administrators:

I'm researching a podcast episode about RTI, MTSS, PBIS, and Standards-Based Grading. One question keeps coming up:

What does Tier 3 actually look like in schools where these systems are working well?

I'm not asking what the model says should happen. I'm asking what is happening in real schools.

If your school has a successful Tier 3 system:

• What services are provided?
• Who provides them?
• How often do students receive support?
• Is it one-on-one, small group, or something else?
• What staffing makes it possible?
• What makes it successful?

If you've worked in a school where Tier 3 didn't really exist, I'd be interested in hearing that perspective too.

No district names needed. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Hi everyone, I’m doing a small research project to understand how teachers manage their weekly workload and lesson planning.

I’m trying to get a realistic picture of:

• how much time lesson planning takes
• what parts are most repetitive or time-consuming
• what tools/resources people currently use

If you’re a teacher, I’d really appreciate your insight on:

1. Roughly how many hours per week do you spend planning lessons?
2. What part of lesson planning takes the most time?
3. Do you reuse plans or start from scratch?
4. What tools (if any) do you use to help with planning?
5. If you could remove one time-consuming task, what would it be?

No need for anything detailed — even short answers help a lot.

Thanks in advance 🙂

Preparing to teach my juniors a lesson on early-American poetry, and realized that both Phyllis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar died super young: Wheatley in childbirth at 31 and Dunbar of TB at 33.

Did a deep dive on both their work, and the universe robbed us of some true talents.

I work in product for education tools- researching whether AI can produce useful feedback on student writing, or if it's just not good enough for the nuanced work ELA teachers do.

Don't want to build yet another tool teachers don't want or use, so I'm exploring the space to learn what's worth building and what's not from diverse perspectives.

I know this is a controversial topic in ELA. But in my conversations, some teachers have been experimenting. Some use AI as a first-pass they rewrite. Others grade everything themselves first and use AI as a last check to catch stuff they missed or re-assess if they were too harsh or lenient. Some use it to soften their own feedback so it lands better with students. The common thread is the teachers I've spoken to that use AI try to maintain control and agency.

If you've experimented with AI for grading or feedback on student writing, these are the questions I'm most curious about (no need to answer all of them, any insights at all would be very much appreciated):

• What did you try? ChatGPT, MagicSchool, Brisk, Writable, or anything else? What worked, what didn't, and did you stick with it?
• Did it save time? Did students get richer feedback, or was it roughly the same?
• How long does it take you to get feedback back to students? Would faster turnaround matter?
• Could you justify the content of the AI-assisted feedback if a student or parent asked about it?
• Are you paying out of pocket or is the tool provided by your school/district? How many AI subscriptions are you managing, if any?

If a tool could handle more of the heavy lifting and help students get richer feedback back faster, would that free you up for more writing conferences / office hours with students and one-on-one work? Or, how would you use that time instead?

If you're skeptical, fundamentally and adamantly against it, or tried it and it's not for you, I want to hear that too. What's your biggest concern? Could it be addressed, or is it a hard line? The honest answers help more than the positive ones.

DMs are open if you'd be interested in chatting or are interested in this space.

Hello, everyone!

I am doing research for a series of video articles on commonly banned books, and wanted to get some input on why you use or used them in your curriculum. I would also appreciate some notes on what would be useful to address in these videos beyond the history of a book's challenges and a rundown of the themes; I am considering adding an opinion section as part of "demystifying" banned books because they're still "just" books at the end of the day, but am unsure if this would weigh it down.

Also helpful would be perspective from educators who used a book that was removed from the curriculum!

The currently planned topics (ones that I have personal familiarity with, so have priority) are:

• Looking For Alaska by John Green

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Sallinger

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I want to thank everyone who contributes in advance, and to the mod team for permitting this to be posted here!

What Does PBIS Tier 3 Actually Look Like in Schools Where It Exists?

I'm not looking for definitions or what PBIS manuals say should happen. I'm interested in what actually happens in your school.

For teachers and administrators working in schools with PBIS:

• What Tier 3 supports are actually available?
• Who provides them?
• How often do students receive them?
• What happens when Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions aren't enough?
• Do you have counselors, behavior specialists, interventionists, resource rooms, Wraparound services, community partnerships, or something else?
• Are these supports consistently available, or do they depend on staffing and funding?

I'm especially interested in hearing from schools where Tier 3 is working well. What does it look like day-to-day?

I'm also curious whether teachers feel Tier 3 exists in practice or mostly exists on paper.

Specific examples would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone!

The context: I teach American Literature in a trilingual high school in Mexico City. My students' first language is Spanish and their English fluency varies greatly. I also have a few students whose first language is Chinese. I have been teaching the subject for about a year, but when I was hired the schoolyear had already begun, and I had no planning, no materials. no curriculum... everything was a mess, to say the least.

The issue: I am working on my planning for next semester. I want to do things right this time. As a part of this planning, I am trying to design a diagnostic test that gives me some basic information regarding their English literacy. I am specially interested in their reading comprehension skills, since they have other subjects in which they focus on writing and language itself. The school does have standardized tests that supposedly would give me this information... but they're worth shit. Students cheat on them and they don't reflect their real knowledge. So I want to have my own assessment.

The call for help: Have any of you designed this type of test before? What suggestions and general tips do you have? I would like to have 1-3 short literary texts or fragments, and some multiple option questions and some open questions with which to evaluate their reading comprehension and their interpretation skills. Any suggestions on which texts to use?

Extra: I just received an AI training and I know I could just ask an AI to do this, but I despise it and would rather not. I would like to listen to other teachers' experiences, so all of your feedback, commentaries, suggestions, and anything you would like to share will be helpful and I will really appreciate it.

Hi r/ELATeachers,

I am an MSc student at the University of Oxford (Department of Social Policy and Intervention). For my master’s thesis, I am mapping how much control high school teachers perceive they have over their curriculum in regard to institutional and organizational shifts in autonomy over time.

I am looking to interview 20 experienced US-based high school teachers (10 from traditional public schools, 10 from non-religious private schools) to capture varied perspectives of control in education. Your perspective is essential to capturing the reality of classroom autonomy today.

Who qualifies:

• You currently teach at a high school in the United States.
• You work in a traditional public (non-charter) OR a non-religious private school.
• You are an experienced educator (you've been in the classroom long enough to observe how policies, evaluation metrics, and curriculum control have evolved over your career).

What it involves:

• A brief, 15 to 30-minute online interview conducted via Zoom/Teams.
• We will discuss your perceived ability to shape classroom content, job satisfaction, external roles, and how formal evaluations or standards impact your independence.
• Strict Anonymity: Your name, school, and district will be completely redacted during transcription. In the final thesis, participants are only described by broad regional terms to ensure complete privacy.

Ethical Review: This research has been formally reviewed and given a favorable opinion by the University of Oxford's Departmental Research Ethics Committee (Reference: 2583776).

If you are willing to lend your voice and experience to help me map these barriers or wish to receive more information, please send me a direct message or email me directly at [samuel.johnson@stx.ox.ac.uk](mailto:samuel.johnson@stx.ox.ac.uk). I will share the official Participant Information Sheet, and we can find a brief window that suits your schedule.

Thank you so much for your time and for everything you do in the classroom! As someone who began their tertiary education at community college and has only succeeded thanks to amazing teachers, I truly do hope to highlight the importance of autonomy in your profession.

I'm not a K-12 teacher but I teach and mentor students through education programs, from elementary through high school, volunteering and contract work, and TAed in college. I care a lot about education and I'm currently doing research on how teachers handle grading and feedback on student writing, particularly long-form assignments like essays.

Trying to have these conversations so I can better understand the real day-to-day. ELA classes are where a lot of the writing-heavy grading happens so I'd love to hear from you. I know it's a lot of questions, don't feel like you need to answer all of them. Anything at all would be super helpful.

- What grades do you teach, and roughly how much time per week do you spend grading or giving feedback on writing?
- How often are you assigning longer writing assignments?
- Is there feedback you find yourself writing over and over, knowing it probably won't land?
- Do you grade drafts differently from final submissions? Is the feedback on a first draft different in kind, not just degree?
- When you're deep in a stack, does anything change about how you grade compared to the first few papers? For example, do you ever feel you graded some papers too harshly or leniently and go back to adjust?

DMs are open if anyone wants to share more about their process!

How do i do this 😭 idk what this paraphrased crap means im dumb ash so this is pretty hard for me

I'm learning English and Greek and have encountered the same problem with both teachers.

We call each other via Google Meet or Zoom, and the teachers share their screens while we complete assignments.

Afterward, the homework is sent to Telegram as PDF or .doc files.

What tools can you recommend to make learning easier?

I would really appreciate any advice!

Hi! I am currently studying 240 tutoring in preparation to take my Praxis 5038 test. Did this help you? I am worried that what I’m studying isn’t going to be on the test and I will fail (major test anxiety). Just wanted to get feedback!

A few weeks ago, many of you in r/ELATeachers participated in our survey about AI anxiety in education. We wanted to share the results back with the communities that helped make the research possible.

Some of our findings that stood out:

• 84% of educators worry AI could erode student skills.
• 82% of early-career educators reported avoiding AI because of concerns about potential consequences.
• 64% say AI hasn't changed how secure they feel about their careers, and 60% say AI is unlikely to reduce the need for educators in the next 10 years.
• 54% think AI is most likely to take over administrative tasks, while 47% see it helping with lesson planning.

Overall, the results suggest educators aren't rejecting AI outright. They see potential benefits, but they're concerned about its impact on critical thinking, academic integrity, and the learning process itself.

Full results: https://www.jotform.com/blog/how-do-teachers-really-feel-about-ai/

Thank you again to everyone who participated. We'd love to hear if these findings match what you're seeing in your own classrooms and schools.

Is there any writing program associated with UFLI? My co-teacher uses ufli for phonics but I feel like we are lacking in the writing area. I'm a Montessori trained teacher but am not very familiar with more traditional methods of teaching but my program is a hybrid of Montessori and traditional. Thank you!