How Teachers Are Using AI in ELA

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Streamline, Differentiate, and Deepen English Teaching

Artificial intelligence has swiftly moved from a distant concept to a daily reality in the classroom. Tools like ChatGPT and other large language models are reshaping how teachers approach lesson planning, assessment, and student engagement. In English Language Arts (ELA), where reading, writing, and critical thinking intersect, AI can be a powerful ally—if used thoughtfully.

High school ELA teachers are discovering that AI can lighten their workload while enriching student learning. But they are also navigating new ethical questions, concerns about plagiarism, and the need to preserve authentic student voice. Below, we’ll explore how teachers are using AI successfully in ELA—plus strategies to integrate it responsibly, and ready-made resources to support your journey.

Using AI in ELA for Streamlining Lesson Planning and Resource Creation

One of the most common ways teachers are using AI is to save time on planning and resource creation. AI tools can:

• Generate rough lesson outlines based on curriculum outcomes

• Suggest discussion questions for specific texts

• Draft sample writing prompts or rubrics

• Create tailored comprehension questions and exit tickets

Instead of spending hours building materials from scratch, teachers can feed AI a learning objective or text excerpt and instantly receive starting points to refine. This frees up time for higher-level planning, relationship-building, and feedback.

For example, if you’re preparing a novel study, you could use AI to draft initial discussion questions or vocabulary lists. Then, rather than polishing those alone, you could pair them with ready-made, high-quality resources like the The Book Thief Novel Study Unit, which provides structured activities, comprehension questions, and analytical tasks.

This combination lets you personalise content without reinventing the wheel.

Differentiating Reading Materials

Another growing use is differentiating texts by reading level. Many ELA classrooms are highly diverse, and AI can help make complex literature more accessible by:

• Summarising chapters for struggling readers

• Generating tiered reading questions for mixed-ability groups

• Creating alternative text sets or scaffolds around the same themes

Teachers might, for example, use AI to create simplified summaries of challenging short stories like The Pedestrian or Roman Fever while providing advanced discussion prompts for stronger readers.

You can then layer this differentiation with resources like the The Last Spin Short Story Unit for High School English, which includes pre-reading hooks, guided analysis, and extension tasks—making it easy to support all learners in the same classroom.

Generating Practice Activities and Quizzes

AI can also help teachers quickly create formative assessments. With a few prompts, it can produce:

• Multiple-choice comprehension quizzes

• Cloze passages for vocabulary

• Grammar or syntax practice from authentic texts

• Writing stems and sentence starters

Teachers are using this to give students low-stakes practice and immediate feedback without sacrificing precious planning time. This is especially useful for revision periods or when you need quick, targeted review tasks.

Pairing AI-generated quizzes with full units like the High School Moral Dilemma Creative Writing Unit can also be powerful—giving you structured instruction plus easy, customisable checks for understanding.

Promoting Critical Thinking About AI

Interestingly, some of the most meaningful uses of AI in ELA are not about using it as a tool, but as a topic of study. Teachers are asking students to:

• Analyse AI-generated writing for tone, bias, and accuracy

• Compare AI-created texts with human-written ones

• Debate ethical issues around authorship and originality

• Reflect on where human creativity still outshines algorithms

This builds students’ media literacy, critical thinking, and argumentation skills, while also helping them understand the risks of overreliance on AI. Students can discuss whether AI-generated essays lack authentic voice, or explore how algorithms reflect the biases of their training data.

This kind of meta-analysis fits beautifully alongside thematic literature studies and can be combined with resources like this The Pedestrian Short Story Unit, which explores themes of dehumanisation and technology’s impact on society—perfect for framing discussions about AI’s role in human creativity.

** If you'd like to do a deep dive on the host of cool AI Tools that teachers are currently using, check out this list of 50 AI Tools that are currently being used by High School Teachers!

Ethical Concerns and Detection Challenges

Of course, with new tools come new challenges. Teachers must navigate:

• Plagiarism and authenticity: How can we tell if students are submitting AI-generated work?

• Skill erosion: Are students relying on AI instead of developing writing skills?

• Data privacy: What happens to student data entered into AI tools?

• Equity: Do all students have equal access to these technologies at home?

Some schools are adopting AI-detection tools, but these are imperfect and can create false accusations. Instead, many ELA teachers are turning toward process-based assessment—observing brainstorming, drafting, and conferencing stages to verify authorship.

They are also re-emphasising handwritten work during in-class assessments, where students’ authentic voices shine through. Blending handwritten drafts with typed revisions can show growth while making AI misuse harder.

Balancing Innovation and Integrity

Ultimately, AI is neither a miracle solution nor a threat to be banned—it is a tool. When used intentionally, it can support teachers and enrich learning. When misused, it can erode skills and authenticity.

The key is balance. Use AI to remove tedious tasks, but not creative ones. Let it support planning and differentiation, while ensuring students still wrestle with complex texts and craft their own ideas.

Resources like the Creative Writing Unit Moral Dilemma Narrative and The Book Thief Novel Study Unit can anchor your curriculum in authentic, human storytelling—while AI lightens the background workload.

Check out the Engaging Writing Tasks for sale in the Tea4Teacher store!

Final Thoughts

AI is here to stay, and our students will live in a world shaped by it. As English teachers, we can model how to embrace new tools without losing sight of critical thinking, creativity, and ethics. By weaving AI into ELA with care and transparency, we prepare students not just to use technology, but to question it, challenge it, and rise above it.

Used wisely, AI won’t replace the heart of teaching—it will give us more time to focus on what matters most: helping young people find their voices.