Just like Rachel Reinhart, 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 Anne Koschmider '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.
