Summer Session 2025: Teaching Writing in the Age of AI
Join us this summer for our Summer Session: Teaching Writing in the Age of AI on June 23-26 from 10:00am-2:30pm! The first 25 teachers who sign up and attend will receive $100 stipends for their participation. In addition, all attendees will receive a complimentary copy of John Warner’s recent book, More Than Words, which pushes us to think carefully about our craft as writing teachers while emphasizing the humanity of our work.
AI is everywhere. As teachers, it may be difficult to assess where we stand. Some of us are quick to integrate technology into our practice, while others remain skeptical or prefer to avoid it. AI can leave us feeling conflicted. It can also raise fundamental questions about our practice and our role as teachers. Is it conducive to student learning, or does it substitute for the real work? Can it help students build their writing skills, or can it undermine their development? Is it a valuable teacher tool that can increase effectiveness and reduce burnout, or can it take away from the human dimension of planning or responding to students’ ideas? Or, is it all of these things at once?
What ethical dilemmas does AI raise for us, and how can we integrate it responsibly without compromising our values? Our Summer Session aims to invite and address these essential questions:
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How do we maintain our humanity as writers and teachers in the age of AI?
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What does writing, and the teaching of writing, look like in an AI world?
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What would it mean to integrate AI ethically into a classroom?
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How might educators and students benefit from AI as a classroom tool?
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How might we encourage critical perspectives in teachers and students as they consider using these technologies?
Our morning sessions will feature different speakers and perspectives, and our afternoon sessions will be led by teachers and offer pedagogical strategies and ideas for implementation.
With Special Guest John Warner
An award-winning editor & leading expert on the teaching of writing.
“As a public speaker and educator, John Warner is charming, astute and genuine. During his ‘What Do You Have to Say?’workshop, he kept attendees rapt as he offered a mix of practical and encouraging advice. The attendees all left his workshop invigorated to write their way into the world and I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
—Roxane Gay, Ph.D., Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture, & Feminist Studies, Rutgers University
John Warner is a national voice on the teaching of writing, faculty labor, and institutional values, both as a frequent speaker, and a longtime contributor to Inside Higher Ed where his “Just Visiting” column has run weekly over ten years. He is also the author of Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities (Johns Hopkins UP), The Writer’s Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing (Penguin), and Sustainable. Resilient. Free.: The Future of Public Higher Education (Belt).
A former college instructor with 20 years of experience across multiple institutions (University of Illinois, Virginia Tech, Clemson, College of Charleston), Warner now works as a writer, editor, speaker and consultant. In addition to his work in education, for over a decade he’s been a weekly columnist for the Chicago Tribune, writing about books and the habits of reading as his alter ego, “The Biblioracle.” In 2021 he started an associated Substack newsletter, The Biblioracle Recommends, which was a Substack Featured Publication for 2021.
RESET: WRITING FOR SELF
The goal of the Invitational Summer Institute is to support teachers in developing their personal identities as writers so that they can best support students in their classroom with developing their own unique writing identities. We will spend a significant amount of time writing for ourselves in the ISI.
REJUVENATE: WRITING FOR JOY
We believe that writing should be a joyful experience. Many students (and teachers) are intimidated by writing and view it as a chore. We aim to explore approaches to writing that are fun, creative, and more fulfilling. Ultimately, writing should engage the reader and we want to support teachers in crafting writing experiences for students in which they produce meaningful work that we are excited to read.
REIMAGINE: DIVERSE APPROACHES TO WRITING
Much focus has been put on diversifying texts that students consume in the classroom and ultimately we would like to also emphasize diversifying writing forms that students compose. SJAWP has invited authors of diverse texts to offer writing classes throughout ISI and engage in conversation with our educators regarding diversifying texts and writing forms in the classroom. Author visits will be announced at a later date.
Registration is open!
Who: Secondary Teachers (Grades 7-12.)
Our Summer Session is for secondary teachers in grades 7 - 12. It is free for everyone, and we are excited to offer $100 stipends to the first 25 teachers who register and attend. You can purchase (up to) 3 units from San José State University for university credits that will fulfill expectations towards progress along teachers’ salary schedules.
Where: San José State University
Summer Session 2025 will take place on San José State University's campus in the Sweeney Hall building. Please consult the Campus Map to find our location and suitable parking. We recommend that you enter the campus from the South Entrance (7th Street and San Salvador Street), and turn into the parking garage on your left.
When: Monday - Thursday, June 23-26
10:00 AM - 2:30 PM with 1-hour lunch break each day
Days at a Glance
Day 1: June 23
Morning: Keynote Address, Professor Tom Moriarty, San José State University
Afternoon: Why Humans Write – Comparing AI and Human-Written Texts
Bronwyn LaMay will lead a session in which we explore human-generated and AI-generated writing to consider and compare their similarities and fundamental differences. How might we lead this same exploration with our students, asking them to consider elements of voice, emotion, and personal association in their own work – in short, the elements of writing that engage our humanity and form the foundation of our identities as writers? How might a side-by-side comparison of human- and AI-generated texts help our students identify their unique analytical perspectives and the qualities they value in their own writing? We will explore AI’s capacities and identify its limitations while highlighting the aspects of thinking and writing that only humans can do.
We will end the day with structured writing and reflection.
Day 2: June 24
Morning: Speaker John Warner, Author of More Than Words, The Writer’s Practice, and Why Can’t They Write
Afternoon: Exploring Ethical AI Use in Curriculum & Instruction
Andy Robinson will lead us in discussion and exploration of different uses for AI in curriculum design, instructional planning, differentiation, assessment, and feedback. Where can AI be ethically used as a powerful tool to increase equitable access to education and reduce teacher burnout without sacrificing the essential humanity of teaching and learning? In what ways can AI be used to allow teachers to function more efficiently, equitably, and effectively without crossing ethical boundaries? We will explore these questions through the presentation of different use cases for AI gathered from Bay Area public school teachers, followed by discussion among participants.
We will end the day with structured writing and reflection.
Day 3: June 25
Morning: Professor Roxana Marachi, "The Ethics of AI," San José State University
Afternoon: We will devote the afternoon to implementation and planning time before ending the day with structured writing and reflection.
Day 4: June 26
Morning: Teaching Ethical Imagination with Speculative Fiction
Scott Jarvie will lead us in a guided activity, including creative writing, to explore the potential of speculative fiction to help students in English classrooms consider humanity’s relationship to technology. Teachers will be invited to participate in a guided discussion of classic sci-fi texts like Frankenstein and 1984, with an eye for how they ask readers to consider the futures that technological inventions move us towards. Together, teachers will have the chance to write their own speculative fiction short stories, guided by Allied Media’s A People’s Guide to AI, and think about how they might develop the ethical imaginaries of students through creative writing.
Afternoon: We will devote the afternoon to teacher implementation and planning time before ending the day with structured writing and reflection.
FAQ
How does a teacher apply for the program?
Teachers can access the online application at the link below.
What is the time commitment of the Summer Session?
Our program runs for four days in June from 10:00 AM - 2:30 PM with 1-hour lunch break each day.
I just found out about this program. Can I still apply?
We will accept applications through May. If a teacher is interested in participating after the application deadline passes, they should reach out to the directors listed below. Please note that only the first 25 participants are eligible for the stipend.
Who should I contact with additional questions about the program?
Please refer any inquiries to Jane Gilmore or Bronwyn LaMay, Associate Directors of SJAWP in charge of the Invitational Summer Institute. Jane’s email is jane.gilmore@sjsu.edu and Bronwyn's is bronwyn.lamay@sjsu.edu.
About the
Instructors
Tom Moriarty
Tom Moriarty is a professor of writing and rhetoric and director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program at San Jose State University. He teaches writing courses for both majors and non-majors, and pedagogy classes and workshops for graduate students and fellow faculty members on the theory and practice of teaching writing. He is the author or editor of two academic books -- Finding The Words: A Rhetorical History of South Africa's Transition From Apartheid to Democracy and What We Are Becoming: Developments in Undergraduate Writing Majors -- and has published over 50 op/ed and opinion pieces in various venues over the years, including the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and KQED Bay Area NPR station.
John Warner
John Warner is a teacher, writer, speaker, researcher, and consultant, with over twenty years experience of teaching writing at institutions of higher education (University of Illinois, Virginia Tech, Clemson, College of Charleston). Warner believes writing is both thinking—discovering your ideas while trying to capture them on a page—and feeling—grappling with what it fundamentally means to be human. He is the author of the books Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities and The Writer’s Practice:Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing. His new book, More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI, calls for us to use generative AI applications like ChatGPT as an opportunity to reckon with how we work with words, breaking students out of the slumber of “schooling” and instead empowering them to develop enduring writing “practices.”
Andy Robinson
For the past 17 years, Andy Joseph “A.J.” Robinson has been a teacher at Title I public high schools in the Bay Area, creating and implementing primarily English/Language Arts & Performing Arts curricula, but also developing courses in Restorative Justice (as featured on the PBS Nova Documentary “School of the Future”), Ethnic Studies, Advisory, Film, and Media Arts. He has directed, produced, and co-written seven full-length hip-hop and poetry-based plays with high school students and has been a guest teacher in courses at Stanford, San José State, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and San Francisco State. The chapter of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World which includes research and analysis of the impact of Robinson’s work argues that in an educational environment that consistently alienates low-income youth of color, his classroom is “giving students a place to engage and belong.” (Alim & Paris, 2017, p. 130) More recently, his writing, curricula, and extracurricular programs were featured in the book Freedom Moves: Hip Hop Knowledges, Pedagogies, and Futures with his chapter “Hip Hop, Whiteness, & Critical Pedagogies in the Context of Black Lives Matter” (Alim, Chang, & Wong, 2023, p. 322). Currently both a classroom teacher and mentor coaching other teachers, the focus of his current work is to impact schools, teacher development, and community arts spaces so more young people can experience the healing, communal, metamorphic power of culturally sustaining, trauma-informed writing and arts education.
Roxana Marachi, PhD
Roxana Marachi is a Professor of Education at San José State University where she teaches courses in Educational Psychology for the Department of Teacher Education and Educational Policy for the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Dr. Marachi’s early publications have focused on school climate, learning environments, and the evaluation of school violence prevention programs. Her more recent and current research interests are on the intersections of privatization and technology, strategies for the prevention of data harms, and the bridging of research-to-practice gaps in the integration of emerging technologies in education.
Scott Jarvie
Scott is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State, where he teaches courses in English Education for graduate students pursuing a teaching credential. A former director of the San Jose Area Writing Project, Scott joined the faculty at SJSU after receiving his Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education at Michigan State University, where he helped with the Red Cedar Writing Project. He is the author of Affect, Learning, and Teacher Education: Getting Stuck in Social Justice, written with Erica Colmenares. Prior to graduate study, Scott taught high school literature and creative writing courses in the Rio Grande Valley and in the city of Chicago.
Bronwyn LaMay
Bronwyn has been a teacher, instructional coach, and administrator for over 20 years in the Bay area. She has taught middle and high school English in Oakland, Hayward, East Side Union, and Santa Clara. She has her Phd from Stanford in English and Literacy Curriculum, her MA from Mills College in Educational Leadership, and her BA in English from UCLA. A few years ago, she published what began as a literacy curriculum that she co-created with her students; it revolved around their self-narratives on the topic of love. The book, Personal Narrative, Revised: Writing Love and Agency in the High School Classroom, was awarded NCTE’s David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English for 2017. Bronwyn currently lectures in the Departments of English and Teacher Education at San José State, and has worked with the Writing Project as a teacher consultant and participant for many years prior to becoming a director.
