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AI can help students improve their writing, without doing it for them, says researcher
AI can critique students' writing and get them to improve without doing the thinking for them, says the designer of "Level Up."

Joanne Jacobs
May 162 min read
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The college admissions essay is absurd, unfair and cringe
The college essay favors students who know how to exaggerate their adversity and fake humility.

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 62 min read
11 comments


Writing by hand builds reading, writing and thinking skills
Handwriting is part of literacy, but many students never learn to write in cursive.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 301 min read
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Who's to blame for the reading crisis?
"Balanced literacy" guru Lucy Calkins has become the " scapegoat for America's reading crisis ," suggests Helen Lewis in The Atlantic. ...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 20, 20243 min read
5 comments


Studying Swift (Taylor, not Jonathan) in school
Studying pop-song lyrics in English class doesn't prepare students for college reading or writing.

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 5, 20241 min read
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AI is winning the war on cheating
A majority of students use AI to help write papers, and AI detection tools remain unreliable.

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 2, 20242 min read
3 comments


The trauma of the non-traumatized student
It's the start of the college application season, and 12th-graders are searching their lives for subject matter for essays, writes Robert...

Joanne Jacobs
Aug 18, 20242 min read
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The college pitch: How students write personal essays
Minority students are only slightly less likely to write about their racial or ethnic identity in college admissions essays, according to...

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 5, 20242 min read
1 comment


Training (and restraining) an AI writing coach
A new AI writing coach will work from a student's notes, turning ideas into sentences.

Joanne Jacobs
May 26, 20241 min read
4 comments


If teachers ban AI for students, can they use it for grading?
Can teachers ban AI for students' writing but use it for grading?

Joanne Jacobs
May 26, 20242 min read
3 comments


Drop the admissions essay, and bring back the SAT
It's time to dump college admissions essays, writes Matthew Levey on The 74. Test scores and good grades in challenging courses are...

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 19, 20242 min read
11 comments


Sympathy for the devil: What's the bad guy's point of view?
Novelist Rachel Kadish tells her creative-writing students to write a first-person monologue by a character with "abhorrent" views that...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 20, 20242 min read
5 comments


More than ever, college applicants are writing about race
Writing about race is more popular than ever for black, Hispanic and indigenous college applicants, writes Bernard Mokam in the New York...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 28, 20242 min read
4 comments


'A' is for 'awesome,' 'awful' and 'average'
"The most popular high school grade in America" is "A," writes Tim Donahue, who teaches high school English at Greenwich Country Day...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 25, 20232 min read
7 comments


AI will change testing: Can it grade essays?
Number 2 pencils and fill-in-the-bubble are out, writes Matteo Wong in The Atlantic. Standardized tests are going digital. In a few...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 23, 20232 min read
1 comment


Let AI do it: High schoolers don't need to write essays any more
"Good-bye and good riddance" to teaching students to write essays, writes Daniel Herman in The Atlantic. Herman, who teaches English at a...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 5, 20232 min read
20 comments


No tests, inflated grades and now AI is writing admissions essays (instead of Mom)
Colleges are trying to figure out whether to ban chatbots or see AI as a way to level the playing field for students who don't have Mom...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 5, 20232 min read
4 comments


AI can be a teaching and learning tool -- or a crutch
Bots powered by artificial intelligence are getting smarter and smarter. Will people get dumb and dumber? Rick Hess of the American...

Joanne Jacobs
Aug 11, 20233 min read
2 comments


What works in teaching English (discussion) may not work in teaching math
The most effective use of class time depends on the subject, concludes a study conducted in high-poverty English high schools, reports...

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 26, 20231 min read
4 comments


Red, green, yellow, blue: Write a thesis, show it's true
The 3-3-3 paragraph had a thesis sentence with a "subject and attitude," supported by three topic sentences, each of which was supported...

Joanne Jacobs
May 10, 20231 min read
2 comments
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