This story was published by A Voices of Change Fellow. Learn more about the scholarship here.
It is my ninth year English class, and we are at the end of our unit on “A raisin in the sun. “We were writing an essay on the American dream and the experienced marginalized barriers while they strive to reach it.
This process of selecting evidence and connection to real world experiences offers the possibility of pushing yourself and digging more deeply in the physical text to surface relevant equipment, but because we read a piece – which is difficult to sail because of the instructions on the scene and the actors – most of my students were trying to find a way to get out of the search process once they have had textual evidence to support their ideas.
During our writing of tests, one of my students approached me with enthusiasm with the introduction of their test. I read it, and immediately, I could say that something was turned off. This student and I had worked all year round on their spelling and grammar, and suddenly, the two were perfect. The structure of each sentence took place gently, using a language that I did not know this student to use in their writing in class. I asked him to tell me what the words of his writing meant, and he couldn’t. I asked him to summarize his writing, but he couldn’t.
Then, I took a deep inspiration and asked the dreaded question: “Did you use AI?” I watched him shrink in front of me.
I didn’t feel angry but worried and honestly, sad. I explained to him that I prefer his most fragmented and inconsistent writing than that. I want his voice and his efforts, no matter what it looks like. I could say that he was frustrated by me because, at the end of the day, I asked him to overcome the discomfort to return to the text. I wanted him to be resilled and that the challenge of familiarizing himself with the plot as an opportunity to fortify his memory, in particular because his IEP explicitly declared that he needed support with this competence.
Academic resilience It is when a student considers challenges as growth opportunities; Emotions such as frustration, impatience and doubt are replaced by self -confidence, determination and confidence. A student who has academic resilience will see any task provided, with the support of teachers, as an opportunity to grow in a certain title. While I was working with this student, I admitted that resilience was not there. As he realized that he did not remember the plot, he did not want to turn to the book, ask a classmate or ask me. Each of these actions is a skill in itself – turning to the book would require patience and determination because it examines the material and asks a classmate or me requires skills of bravery and listening. All these skills are useful in the real world, but artificial intelligence did not allow any of these skills.
When students receive a myriad in digital ways to avoid opportunities to strengthen their academic resilience, it becomes our responsibility to teach them the power and the importance of their complete capacities.
Reading and writing offer academic resilience possibilities through the challenges they present. Turning a page, placing a post-it note or highlighting important evidence allows the development of motor skills. The stop at the end of the page to summarize allows a student to strengthen their Short -term memory reminder.
In addition to these more granular development skills, the process of researching evidence itself can be frustrating because it means connecting and, sometimes, relearn how to create the necessary connections to support its argument. Building frustration tolerance is the key to all aspects of life: whether it is to carry out tasks, drive or navigate conflicts, many aspects of life can be frustrating. With the opportunity of AI, Low frustration tolerance is activated, because any task perceived as difficult has an easy outing. This has serious implications as young people, and in particular those from horizons deprived of their rights, do not receive the skills of critical thinking to carefully analyze the world around them.
A tolerance for high frustration is essential in the fields outside the drafting of writing: Read a lease or a contract and identify what raises concerns about its rights. Understanding local legislation during voting seasons requires the same research skills and asking questions about how their lives will be allocated. These skills allow students to continue to be active agents in their lives and communities. Without tolerance to strong frustration, we outsource our power, our insight and our ability to establish links.
When we talk about technology, we talk about it as a digital experience exclusively. However, books such as the Charles Dickens serials were first popularized in the 1800s following the Industrial revolution. The omnipresent printing house has enabled texts of all kinds to print more quickly and expanively.
Helping students to engage with physical texts to develop their motor skills and academic resilience is also a technological tool that can support students’ learning. Reading physical books, keeping a pencil and writing on paper is not an aberration of technology but an equally legitimate participation. Although AI can have its advantages, our task as a teacher is not to provide it as an ordinary tool, but rather to teach discernment: when it supports my brain development, and when it will not?
Our brains are so useful to us, but they can only continue to be so if we are committed with our thoughts by building discipline and discernment. AI is inevitable, but instead of denying its presence and applying the consequences when students use it, I believe that we should teach students the power of their innate skills as human beings and why these skills are relevant to their lives.
