AI-Integrated High School ELA Class Assignment #2 of 5

This assignment is an adaptation of the College Board's Individual Student Project (ISP) used in AP African American Studies. In the official College Board version, the ISP makes up 10% of a student's overall AP African American Studies exam score.

In that model, students select a topic, conduct authentic historical research, develop a defensible claim, write up their findings, and complete a short oral defense. Students are permitted to use AI up to a point, with the limits clearly established by the College Board.

Teachers guide the process and are responsible for policing whether students stay within those AI-use boundaries. Teachers score 8.5% of the ISP, while the remaining 1.5% is scored externally by the College Board.

In this classroom adaptation, the student experience remains the same — research, analysis, claim, written argument, and oral defense — and students are still permitted to use AI up to the CB-prescribed acceptable limit.

The one major change: the teacher now oversees the entire process and scores all components of the project.

To better understand how this might actually work, imagine a non-AP 11th-grade ELA teacher saying the following to her students:

Alright everyone — we're going to start something that will not only take us several days but will also give you the chance to complete an assignment adapted from the Individual Student Project (ISP) used in AP African American Studies.

With this assignment, you'll be doing the same kind of work: choosing a focused question, gathering credible sources, writing a defensible explanation, presenting your argument, and answering oral-defense questions so I can verify your understanding. And yes — up to a point, you'll be allowed to use AI.

Here's how it goes, step by step.

Step 1 — Choosing a Topic First, you're going to choose a topic from a curated list. Every topic must connect to literature, rhetoric, or writing studies. Nothing broad, nothing plot-based — something analytical.

Here are some examples related to literature:

• Narrative techniques in The Things They Carried Gender and power in Macbeth
• The role of silence in Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Coming-of-age symbolism in The House on Mango Street
• How setting acts almost like a character in Of Mice and Men
• Doubling and identity in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• The unreliable narrator in The Catcher in the Rye
• Gothic elements shaping tone in Frankenstein

And here are some rhetoric / nonfiction options:

• How Martin Luther King Jr. uses parallelism to shift audience emotion
• How credibility is constructed in contemporary op-eds
• How TED speakers use narrative to activate empathy
• Comparing rhetorical strategies in civil rights speeches
• How sentence structure shapes tone in modern journalism

If you don't like any of these, you can propose your own — but you need my approval.

Step 2 — Turning Your Topic Into a Real Question Your next move is to turn your topic into an actual analytical question. And no, not something like, 'What happens in Macbeth?'.

Think instead: 'How does Lady Macbeth use language to manipulate Macbeth's sense of masculinity in Act I — and how does that strategy collapse later in the play?'

Or instead of, 'What rhetorical devices does MLK use?' think: 'Why does MLK rely so heavily on Biblical allusion in Letter from Birmingham Jail, and how does that shape his intended audience?'

Every question needs to be approved by me before you move on.

Step 3 — Gathering Four Credible Sources You will then gather four credible sources. Depending on your topic, these might include:

• The main literary text
• Scholarly articles
• Author interviews
• Literary criticism
• Museum or library archives
• Historical context documents
• Annotated speeches

No AI summaries. No random websites. And every source must be approved.

Step 4 — How You May and May NOT Use AI Next up: the when you can and when you cannot use AI rules.

You may use AI when you're…

• Brainstorming ideas
• Asking AI to clarify a difficult passage
• Cleaning up grammar or diction (with my oversight)

You may not use AI when you're…

• Developing your thesis
• Interpreting literature or rhetorical texts
• Writing summaries
• Creating slides
• Writing your script
• Explaining your evidence

The bottom line is AI can support your learning — but it cannot do the thinking for you.

Step 5 — Writing Your Thesis + Evidence Summary Then you'll write two things:

• A one-sentence defensible thesis — specific, arguable, and tied to your texts.
• A one-page Evidence Summary — where you explain how each of your four sources supports your claim.

We'll likely draft this in class so I can verify authenticity.

Step 6 — Five-Minute Presentation After that, you'll give a five-minute presentation where you explain:

• Your analytical question
• Your thesis
• Your strongest evidence
• And most importantly — why your argument actually matters in the study of literature or rhetoric

Slides are optional — but AI cannot write your script.

Step 7 — Three-Minute Oral Defense Then I'll ask you three unscripted questions. Think of these as your oral defense.

Sample questions:

• Which passage most changed your interpretation — and why
• Where is your argument weakest?
• What's a legitimate counterclaim?
• Why did you structure your argument the way you did?
• This is where I verify real understanding.

Step 8 — Scoring Finally, I score the entire project based on:

• The quality of your question
• The strength of your sources
• Thesis clarity
• Use of textual or rhetorical evidence
• Reasoning and coherence
• Quality of your presentation
• Your performance in the oral defense

This mirrors the spirit of the AP ISP — but adapted for ELA and scored directly by me.

Closing Remarks to Students Here's why I think this project matters. By the time you're done, you will have…

• Practiced real literary and rhetorical inquiry
• Built a defensible interpretation using legitimate evidence
• Used AI responsibly without letting it think for you
• Learned to communicate your ideas clearly
• Demonstrated mastery through an oral defense
• Strengthened your ability to write, revise, and argue

Bottom line: this is a high-rigor, high-agency assignment that fits beautifully in a modern, AI-enabled AP English classroom. And honestly, it's the kind of work more and more scholars — and eventually, more and more students — will be doing.

Sidenote #1:

If you're a high school ELA school teacher and would like to share your thoughts or experiences with this approach, feel free to email me at peter.paccone@gmail.com. I'd be happy to include your perspective in an updated version of this post.

If you prefer to remain anonymous — no name, no school, no years of experience mentioned — that's completely fine. I can include your comment without any identifying information. If you do want your name or school included, I'd be glad to feature it.