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Joanne Jacobs
Jan 10, 20231 min read
NYC schools ban ChatGPT
Is it real or is it artificial intelligence? ChatGPT, the new AI chatbot that"generates stunningly cogent and lifelike writing" has been ...
2 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Jan 2, 20232 min read
Back to handwriting?
I don't write much by hand these days, and when I do it's a chore. Even writing a few lines on Christmas cards seems like hard work....
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Joanne Jacobs
Dec 12, 20221 min read
The kids can't write
Students are encouraged to express themselves, writes Elizabeth Grace Matthew, who's taught writing at several universities, on The Hill....
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Joanne Jacobs
Dec 11, 20222 min read
ChatGPT writes better than most students: What next?
Is writing over? The ability to write clearly and cogently has been seen as "a gatekeeper, a metric for intelligence, a teachable skill,"...
5 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Sep 9, 20223 min read
Colleges drop remedial classes -- but many students are unprepared
California's community colleges will be ordered to stop offering no-credit remedial classes in nearly all cases, if Gov. Gavin Newsom...
8 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Aug 23, 20222 min read
AI doesn't write well, but it's better than some students
Shakespeare it's not. However, a new artificial-intelligence technology called GPT-3, which understands and generates text, could help...
2 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Aug 21, 20222 min read
Thank you, Ms. Lung
Born in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, Jamil Jan Kochai started second grade in Sacramento speaking Pashto and Farsi, but very...
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Joanne Jacobs
Aug 7, 20222 min read
Ask a quirky question ...
Test scores are optional or ignored, grades are inflated -- and essay questions are more important than ever for students applying to...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 20, 20222 min read
Trying is not the same as achieving
Grading students based on effort rather than achievement is spreading from P.E. class to academic classes in high schools, but...
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Joanne Jacobs
Oct 9, 20182 min read
Dear Sir . . . LMK about WRK
“Professional writing” has vanished from the curriculum, writes Ed Week‘s Sarah D. Sparks. Employers and educators are pushing for...
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Joanne Jacobs
Oct 8, 20182 min read
Write to think, think to write
Students can do everything asked of them in school, yet fail to meet grade-level standards, charges TNTP’s new Opportunity Myth report....
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Joanne Jacobs
Oct 4, 20181 min read
Arguing from ignorance
Argumentation — make a claim and support it with evidence and reasoning — is at the core of Common Core English. Kate Ehrenfeld Gardoqui...
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Joanne Jacobs
Sep 21, 20182 min read
Why college writing fails
Political indoctrination is destroying the value of college writing courses, argues Stephen Combs, who teaches composition at Florida’s...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jul 25, 20182 min read
How Core kids learn reading, writing
Fordham’s Reading and Writing Instruction in America’s Schools looks at how teaching has changed in the Common Core era. Middle and high...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jul 19, 20182 min read
Elite colleges drop SAT, ACT essay test
The ability to write cogently, quickly and under pressure, helped me get into and through college. However, a growing list of selective...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jul 11, 20182 min read
More states rely on robo-graders for essay tests
Pearson’s “automated scoring program graded some 34 million student essays on state and national high-stakes tests last year,” she...
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Joanne Jacobs
May 9, 20181 min read
McEwan gets C+ on his own book
When novelist Ian McEwan’s son had to write a school essay on one of his father’s books, Enduring Love, McEwan “gave him a tutorial” on...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 7, 20171 min read
‘Vigilante’ fixes badly punctuated shop signs
A self-styled “grammar vigilante” in Bristol, England is correcting shop signs in the dead of night, reports the Telegraph. “Wielding an...
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Joanne Jacobs
Mar 3, 20171 min read
Dewey, Edison and ‘library hand’
In September 1885, a group of librarians — including Melvil Dewey, the decimal man — met to discuss how to expand their card catalogs...
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Joanne Jacobs
Mar 2, 20171 min read
No case for cursive
“Cursive handwriting instruction is returning to elementary school classrooms in New York City,” reports NBC News. Penmanship remains...
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