Lisa Parry, a 12th-grade teacher in South Dakota, noticed her students’ essays were becoming repetitive. To spark creativity, she turned to an unconventional tool: ChatGPT, an AI chatbot.
Parry’s students were tasked with writing a book report on Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Instead of letting them choose familiar topics, like the health effects of fast food, Parry asked them to use ChatGPT to generate fresh ideas. One student received a suggestion from the chatbot to explore how McDonald’s uses sugar in its products—a topic Parry found unique and engaging. She encouraged the student to pursue it.
Parry is among the 40% of English teachers nationwide who have incorporated artificial intelligence into their classrooms, according to a recent survey by the RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank. The survey, conducted during the 2023-2024 school year, gathered responses from over 12,000 teachers and principals.
However, this shift comes amid concerning trends in literacy. Recent federal data reveals that reading skills among fourth and eighth graders have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels and have even declined further, as measured by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, linked part of this decline to changes in how literacy is taught in the digital age. She also cited pandemic-related learning setbacks and a loss of enthusiasm for reading among children.
“This is not just a pandemic story,” Carr said. “Teachers are assigning fewer essay responses, and students are reading more on devices. The content they’re engaging with on screens is different from what we grew up with.”
The rise of AI and technology in classrooms has forced English teachers to rethink their approaches to reading and writing instruction. While some AI tools can help students improve their skills, they are not yet a substitute for human teachers, according to Ying Xu, an assistant professor of artificial intelligence in learning and education at Harvard University.
“Interacting with AI is very matter-of-fact, almost like taking a quiz,” Xu explained. “When children talk to AI, they produce less language and are less socially engaged compared to interactions with a teacher.”
As AI continues to shape education, teachers like Parry are finding innovative ways to use it to inspire students. But experts caution that technology should complement, not replace, the human touch in teaching.
