Caught Red-Handed

Monday. Period four. We had finished up chapter six of The Great Gatsby in the last class period, so on this day they had an assignment analyzing quotes from the novel (chapters four through six). 

They had a similar assignment for chapters one through three. I was saddened as I read through their work. Their analyses were too good. Great word choice. Some insightful takes on the scenes. 

Yeah, that wasn't their work. 

Too many of them said the same thing. I didn't go back and check, but if I did, I know I would find that some papers were exactly the same. They talked of the themes in the novel. They hinted at things that were to come (that they hadn't read yet). I know they pulled answers from elsewhere. 

(Not everyone. Some clearly had done their own work.)

So, I pointed this out to period four as they began. 

I took a couple strolls around the room. Some of them were working. Some were not. 

Virgil was sucked into his phone. I sidled up behind him and glanced at what was on his phone. 

ChatGPT. 

Me: "You need to do your own work. Get off the ChatGPT." 

Virgil visibly startled. I don't think he heard me come up behind him. 

I remember reading Virgil's chapter one through three assignment. Him being on ChatGPT did not surprise me at all. 

He put the phone away. And then proceeded to do no work for the rest of the period. Deep sigh. 

The Wrong Johnson

Eighth grade US history. Fifth period. 

It's the end of the year, so the eighth graders are on the Civil War and Reconstruction. (Eleventh grade US history starts studying after Reconstruction.) 

As Mr. C was going to be out for a week, he had left them a lot of bookwork to do. They had questions that went along with their textbooks. And many of them were using their textbooks to find the answers.

But nowadays, many students use Google rather than their textbooks. (We've explained to them that Google is way harder as the questions are constructed to go with the text. And Google can go way off topic.) Although, that was before.

Axel had his questions out. And his phone. And he decided that he was going to use ChatGPT instead of his textbook. 

Of course, I told him this was a bad idea.

He input the question. It had something to do with President Johnson and his conflicts with the Congress. 

He read out the answer: "Congress and Lyndon B. Johnson..."

At which point I stopped him. "Wrong Johnson."

As most US history teachers do, Mr. C had the presidents' portraits running along the top of the walls of his classroom. George Washington was at the front on the right wall. Joe Biden was at the front on the left wall. 

I found Lincoln on the wall. I pointed to him. I reminded Axel that they had just studied Lincoln's assassination, and the president following him was right next to him. Then I pointed to LBJ, who was on the opposite wall. 

"Different centuries."

Did that send Axel back to his book? Nah. He refined his question to ChatGPT. 

Sigh.

I made sure that Mr. C knew about how Axel found his answers. If nothing else, at least Axel learned that we had two different President Johnsons. I hope he remembers that.