Test Driving ChatGPT on a Personal Narrative and Text Analysis: A Teacher's Perspective
Recent advancements in AI have caused concerns among educators about the potential for students to use AI tools like ChatGPT to complete their assignments. As an English teacher, I decided to test the capabilities of ChatGPT by feeding it my own essay prompts.
Generating Personal Narratives using ChatGPT
The first essay prompt that I fed ChatGPT was to write a 700-word personal narrative. In less than two minutes, ChatGPT generated a first-person narrative about someone who overcame serious injuries after being hit by a car as a child. While the essay ended with an incomplete sentence, it still demonstrated the tool's ability to create a coherent personal narrative with an overarching message. I repeated the same prompt two more times, and each time ChatGPT produced unique responses with different themes.
When I prompted ChatGPT with more specific topics and themes, it was able to deliver content that was more appropriate for the user's needs. For instance, ChatGPT created an age-appropriate essay about a student who learns to love themselves through taking AP Biology.
Challenges of Generating Text Analysis using ChatGPT
My next essay prompt was a text analysis using the rhetorical situation as outlined in The Norton Field Guide to Writing. I had a hard time figuring out how to prompt ChatGPT to fulfill my expectations as an instructor. While ChatGPT was able to generate a text analysis of a specific video ad, it did not incorporate any direct quotes from the textbook or class discussions. Moreover, it often pulled information on rhetorical analysis that had not been part of the instruction at all.
Despite these limitations, ChatGPT continues to evolve and develop daily. As an instructor, I realized that my focus should be on designing assignments that are engaging enough to encourage student participation. I also began to look for ways to use ChatGPT as part of my instruction.
Conclusion
The use of AI tools like ChatGPT raises significant questions for educators. However, as I discovered, these tools can be powerful aids to instruction when used appropriately. Instead of trying to catch students who use AI to complete their assignments, educators should encourage them to explore the capabilities of these tools. With the right guidance, AI tools like ChatGPT can become valuable resources for English language arts education.
