Helping Students Use AI Ethically in ELA

Teaching Integrity, Critical Thinking, and Responsible Technology Use in the English Classroom

As AI tools like ChatGPT and other large language models become part of everyday life, high school English teachers face a new challenge: guiding students to use AI ethically.

In English Language Arts (ELA), where originality, interpretation, and voice are central, AI presents unique risks—and unique opportunities. Students need to learn how to use it as a support, not a shortcut, while still developing their own thinking, writing, and creativity.

This post explores practical strategies for helping students use AI ethically in ELA, including building awareness, modelling best practices, assessing process over product, and fostering a culture of integrity.

Start With Awareness: What AI Can (and Can’t) Do

Before asking students to use AI, it’s essential to help them understand what it actually does—and what it can’t. Many teens assume AI is always accurate or “smart,” when it’s really just predicting likely words based on patterns in training data.

Try opening with a class discussion:

• Ask students what they think AI is and where they’ve seen it used

• Show them examples of AI-generated text and have them highlight errors or odd phrasing

• Have them compare an AI-generated essay about a novel (e.g. The Book Thief) with one written by a peer, looking for tone, depth, and originality

This helps demystify AI and encourages students to see it as a tool to critique, not a source of truth. You can link this to media literacy skills, similar to how you’d approach bias in news sources.

Pairing this discussion with the The Book Thief Novel Study Unit is a powerful way to push deeper thinking: students can analyse how human writers use voice, symbolism, and structure in ways that AI struggles to replicate.

Set Clear Ethical Guidelines

Students need explicit boundaries around when and how AI is acceptable. Without guidance, they may assume using it to draft entire essays is fine.

Create an AI Use Policy together as a class or department. Include points like:

• AI can be used for brainstorming, not full drafts

• Any AI-generated content must be cited

• All submitted work must show evidence of the student’s own thinking (notes, drafts, outlines)

• Students must disclose how they used AI in an “author’s statement” section

Display this policy prominently and revisit it before major assessments. When students know expectations, they’re more likely to uphold them.

Model Ethical Use in Class

Show students how AI can support—not replace—thinking. For example:

• Use AI to generate five possible thesis statements for The Pedestrian, then have students critique and improve them.

• Ask AI to summarise a complex short story (like Roman Fever), then have students fact-check and expand it with textual evidence.

• Generate a list of creative writing prompts using AI, then discuss which are interesting and why.

This demonstrates that AI can spark ideas but not complete the work, reinforcing the need for students’ own voices and judgment.

You can combine these activities with structured resources like the High School Creative Writing Unit (Secondary Moral Dilemma Narrative), which guides students through idea development, drafting, and reflection—making it harder to simply copy-paste AI content.

Focus on Process-Based Assessment

One of the most effective ways to prevent misuse is to assess the process, not just the final product.

Build checkpoints into writing tasks:

• Proposal or pitch

• Outline

• Draft with teacher feedback

• Peer review

• Final draft with reflection

This lets you see the student’s thinking unfold and makes it obvious when something is out of character. If a student turns in a polished essay with no evidence of earlier drafts, you can investigate.

Short story units like the The Last Spin Short Story Unit for High School English are perfect for this approach. They include scaffolding activities that make the writing process visible, ensuring students show their growth step by step.

Teach Citation and Transparency

Just as we teach students to cite books and websites, they need to learn how to cite AI tools. Have them include statements like:

“I used ChatGPT to brainstorm character traits for my story. I selected and rephrased some ideas and wrote all final text myself.”

This transparency encourages honesty and gives you insight into how they’re using AI. It also models ethical habits they can carry into university and the workplace.

Rebuild the Value of Original Voice

Finally, remind students why originality matters. Many teens see writing as just a task to complete, not a personal expression of their thinking and identity. AI will never care about their stories—but we do.

Use mentor texts, personal narratives, and class discussions to show that their voices have power. Celebrate risk-taking and creativity. Let students share pieces aloud, publish class anthologies, or submit to contests.

Resources like the High School Creative Writing Unit (Secondary Moral Dilemma Narrative) are designed to help students grapple with ethical and emotional dilemmas, pushing them to think deeply and write authentically. These kinds of tasks make plagiarism far less tempting because the writing becomes personal.

Final Thoughts

Teaching AI ethics isn’t about banning technology—it’s about teaching students to use it responsibly, critically, and transparently.

By building awareness, setting clear expectations, modelling ethical use, and focusing on process, we can ensure AI becomes a tool for learning, not cheating.

In the end, the most powerful thing we can do is remind students that their own voices matter more than anything an algorithm can produce. When they believe that, integrity follows.