No, no. I am far too much a sucker for pop culture for this to be about artificial intelligence. I am, however, going to post an actual teaching strategy on here; finally. I must preface this with a copyright disclaimer that it is not mine. I got it from my roommate, who teaches Math in NWA.
I gave the kids a District Common Assessment, which basically translates to a practice Benchmark writing prompt where they actually write on the answer sheets and observe all the rules of testing and then the data are reported to the district office where something (useful, helpful, anything at all? I have no idea.) is done with it.
After I spent three nights grading the essays, I knew I needed to do some going-over with them and really wanted to get these students used to the Bloom's level of "evaluating" (which is VERY difficult for 6th graders who are still on the brink of abstract thinking). I had envisioned standing at the overhead with a copy of a couple good and bad essays and pointing out good and bad qualities of each and describing how I would have evaluated them according to the rubric that we all know and love. Then I woke up and realized that was a nightmare.
Instead, we played American Idol. I setup a judges' table with four seats, each with a name tag and a rubric with one criterion highlighted. When the kids got there, we went back over the prompt, analyzing what the question wanted us to do. Then I drew numbers for who got to be on the judges' panel and played some Top 40 music to get us all in the mood, all the while putting on my best Ryan Seacrest impersonation. I quickly briefed each of the judges on what the personality was of their character for those who didn't know. Then I displayed a "bad" example of an essay (from someone in another class or "another school" if you're talking to the kids) and I read it aloud to the kids. The judges had a few minutes to formulate their opinion on the criterion they had been assigned and then deliver their verdict in character.
To keep the audience engaged, I told them from the beginning that I would be taking "audience comments" frequently throughout the program and when I did, they needed to be able to give me a score for the essay and a reason from the text to justify.
Overall, this worked out really well. It is kind of cheesy, but I put a sign on the door outside that said "Welcome to American Idol (Writing Style)" and 6th graders really got into it and were literally squirming in their seats as I drew numbers to be judges. We did at least 2 rounds in each class so that 8 or 10 people got to be judges. It was a fun way to turn something mundane and seemingly thinking-less (going over a writing assessment) into something exciting and engaging for the kids.
I doubt that they came away being fully qualified essay evaluators, but I think they learned significantly more than they would have by listening and watching!
