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We Read to Grow in Head and Heart
Who We Are and What We Value
The Clayton High School English Department values student voice and authentic thinking. We believe reading and writing are human endeavors and necessary learning processes to help students grow in head and heart.
We read to provide students access to a variety of stories from diverse writers and genres in order for students to shape, refine, and strengthen their own perspectives. The deliberate, worthwhile work of reading and writing is necessary for building critical thinking skills and for developing empathy to understand the human condition.
We write to discover what we believe, to cultivate creativity and authenticity. We engage in the necessary process with students to practice different modes of writing, to hone our voices through reflection and revision, to process our shared reading and discussion. Ultimately, our conferenced writing program allows us to tap into each student’s individual needs and experiences in our classroom communities.
AI’s Impact on English
AI can be a valuable tool. In English, however, AI hinders the productive struggle that is necessary for student growth. Both reading and writing are cognitive processes. Sometimes the process is slow and methodical; it often requires heavy lifting. AI can limit our capacity for making meaning and can lead to cognitive atrophy and complacency. When AI influences a reader’s thinking and a writer’s choices, it enables them to skip the thoughtful, valuable work of building critical thinking skills and compositional practices. Writing is not about perfection. It is about the process. It is about developing our voice. It is about engaging in thinking and putting thought to paper until it conveys our perspective. We don’t want students to pass the writing process off to an algorithm that hasn’t had a lived experience.
In the English Department
AI is evolving faster than our capacity to respond to it in well-informed, intellectual, academically useful ways. As a result, we don't want to engage in haste simply because the rest of the world seems to embrace AI. Instead, we want to be intentional with our students about AI’s place in our discipline. We believe that:
- Each student’s voice, thoughts, and products will always be more authentic and valuable than anything created by AI.
- AI does not always generate correct information.
- Students need clear and consistent guidance about AI and its place in our discipline.
- Under the strict guidance of the classroom teacher, however, AI can be a tool in keeping with academic integrity.
Bottom line: Student-initiated use of AI for English products/assignments/etc. is plagiarism.
Academic Integrity
According to Harvard’s Guide to Using Sources, plagiarism is categorized as follows:
- Verbatim: Copying language from a source word for word is considered plagiarism.
- Mosaic: Copying language from a source is considered plagiarism even if you change some of the language.
- Inadequate quote and/or paraphrase citation: paraphrasing a source too closely to the original is considered plagiarism. If choosing to use the original language, it must be cited.
- Using another student’s work as your own: It’s great that your friend is willing to share their thinking with you, but if you didn’t create it, and you don’t attribute it to your friend, it’s plagiarism.
- Self-plagiarism: It’s also plagiarism if you submit an assignment sophomore year and use it again junior year.
- Use of AI: Student-directed use of AI is considered plagiarism unless given specific guidance from the classroom teacher.
- This includes predictive and/or generative language features of AI tools (i.e. GrammarlyPro, Gemini, etc).
Consequences for Academic Integrity Violations
Academic consequences: In a case of deliberate plagiarism (as determined by the teacher and department chair), the student will earn a grade of INS (0%) on the plagiarized composition. Less severe consequences may be applied by teachers of underclassmen who determine that the plagiarism occurred as a result of a student’s deficit in research or citation skills. In some cases of plagiarism, students will be expected to complete a new composition in order to practice the requisite skills.
Disciplinary consequences: Disciplinary consequences (including detention and suspension) will be imposed upon students who plagiarize or participate in other academic integrity infractions during their studies at CHS.
Notification: For all academic integrity violations, the teacher will notify the student, guardian(s), department chair, grade-level principal, and counselor by phone, email, letter, or other means. In addition, the notification will be placed in the student's permanent file.
