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Using AI to Assess Child Labor and the Industrial Revolution

Andrea Wong

Just like , I have been having some issues with increased student cheating this year, specifically with the use of AI. I decided to try embracing AI in the classroom and came up with an activity on Child Labor and the Industrial Revolution. 

 After stealing  's version of Contextualizing the Industrial Revolution, I am going to have students choose an image of child labor, such as from Lewis Hine's collection. They will copy and paste the image and ask AI to write a short story, poem, etc. about the image using several different search criteria (rhyming, short, long, similar to their favorite poet, song lyrics, etc.). After reading through different examples from AI, they have to choose which one they think best represents the meaning of the photograph and write an explanation of why they choose that particular writing as well as how it relates to the overall themes of industrialization and child labor.

While I know this will be outside some students' comfort zones, I hope it will get them to analyze sources and critically evaluate the information they are getting from AI. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can modify the assignment to be better?

This is an example of a poem written by ChatGPT about Lewis Hine's Little Spinner:

The Little Spinner

She stands where the looms hum low,
A child of thread, a girl of toil,
Fingers dancing, swift in woe,
Among the spindles, dust, and coil.

The morning light through glass panes dim
Falls soft upon her weary face,
Too young to know the factory grim
Has stolen childhood’s fleeting grace.

The overseer calls her name,
A nod, a glance—she dares not rest.
For pennies earned, a life reclaimed,
Yet youth still aches within her chest.

Her hands are small, but strong they weave,
Her feet are quick upon the floor.
No time to dream, no time to leave,
Just endless hours—and then some more.

The shutter clicks, the moment stays,
A frozen truth, a silent plea.
Through Hine’s lens, across the days,
She gazes still—for you to see.

  • Andrea Wong this sounds like an excellent activity.  I would make a rubric for them so they read the AI generated material carefully for the criteria you set out for them.  Every time I am tempted to wade into the AI waters, I get nervous about exposing my students who may not know about AI...

  •  I love this so much!! I admire how you're modeling the appropriate use of AI. 

  • Though my Luddite slip is showing when I admit that "embracing AI" makes me itch,  , you did this really well!  Thank you for a push in the direction that the world is going and we need to find a way to follow! I'm stealing this too. 

  • in reply to Rachel Reinhart

    I feel so much of this post.  

  •  , this is a great example of a "seamless" way to bring AI into a critically thinking classroom.

    You followed industry suggestions perfectly:

    Start with a human--- use the AI--- end with a human. 

    Designing a good prompt to ask AI takes a lot of engagement. If you have students work in partners where they each have to write down what parts of the prompt they each contributed, it makes the activity more collaborative and it provides more "proof" of thinking for the teacher to assess.

    I really like your idea of having the AI create a few examples of the same prompt for students to compare and analyze next to the message of the picture.

    Another thing I've seen teachers do is have students get the first AI output, have students write down and explain how and what they decided to change in their prompt, and have AI deliver another example. Students compare the first and the second output to see how their tuned-up prompt delivered a better representation of what they were going for (in your example--was the second output better at getting the message of the picture to come out?). Why?

  • in reply to Donnetta Elsasser

     , these are great ideas to incorporate into the classroom! I like having students write down what they contributed as "proof" of thinking. 

    I also had a teachable moment the other day. I was designing an escape room on the Harlem Renaissance for my AP African American Studies class but I used AI for some inspiration and to make the clues more enjoyable. The first few clues were absolutely terrible so I showed my other history class and modeled how I changed the prompt to get the results I wanted. Students need to learn that AI is a great tool but it still requires critical thinking!

  • Love this idea! Do you have an assignment sheet and/or rubric that you could share? Thanks so much for pushing our thinking!