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English Language Arts

|

9th, 10th

Therapy session with AI Winston from 1984

Let students talk to AI Winston about living under a totalitarian regime and his views on freedom and individuality.

Screenshot of student session next to book cover of Orwell's '1984'.
Screenshot of student session next to book cover of Orwell's '1984'.
Screenshot of student session next to book cover of Orwell's '1984'.

Teaching goals

1984 is essential reading for many high school students, but simply reading the book and writing reflections might not be enough to understand the complex relationship between truth and ideology that the book covers.

With Flint, the AI can play the role of a character from any text, which can give students an entirely new way of engaging.

Here, we’ll explore the use case of a teacher designing an AI tutor to play the role of Winston from 1984, where students will both demonstrate their social-emotional skills and further develop their understanding of the book.

Learning objective:

Students should develop a better understanding of Winston (from ‘1984’). Specifically, they should understand Winston’s key motivations and why he betrayed Julia.

LitCharts | Themes in 1984

Extra customization

As the next step of designing this AI tutor, Flint provided the teacher with three options to choose from. These ideas are generated automatically by the AI, based on the learning objective that the teacher provided. Because the learning objective was rather open-ended, Flint was able to generate some pretty creative tutor options.

Three tutor types generated by Flint including a Diary Analysis, Interrogation Room simulation, and the one the teacher chose: a Therapy session.

Once the teacher selects the desired “tutor type”, Flint automatically generated the underlying prompts that the AI will follow as it plays the role of Winston from 1984. As you can see, AI Winston will answer student questions about Winston’s feelings and the context of society within the book, including his thoughts on living under a totalitarian regime, Party surveillance, and views on freedom and individuality.

Screenshot of the rules this tutor will follow when interacting with the student and pretending to be Winston.

To ensure that AI Winston discusses the themes in the book that are most important, we can use the “revise” feature to tweak his behavior.

Revision request of having Winston focus specifically on the contrasts between individualism and collectivis, as well as the role of Newspeak.

Student experience

Throughout the session, students will have the opportunity to interview AI Winston. The student can click the microphone button to verbally ask questions to the AI, and the AI will speak back to them as well — all in a timed session.

Screenshot of student session showing how they can listen to responses and reply verbally during this timed activity.

To help students develop their understanding of the character as well as the larger themes at play in “1984”, the AI will provide in-depth explanations as it plays the role of Winston, and will even explain his decision to betray Julia.

Extra customization

As the next step of designing this AI tutor, Flint provided the teacher with three options to choose from. These ideas are generated automatically by the AI, based on the learning objective that the teacher provided. Because the learning objective was rather open-ended, Flint was able to generate some pretty creative tutor options.

Three tutor types generated by Flint including a Diary Analysis, Interrogation Room simulation, and the one the teacher chose: a Therapy session.

Once the teacher selects the desired “tutor type”, Flint automatically generated the underlying prompts that the AI will follow as it plays the role of Winston from 1984. As you can see, AI Winston will answer student questions about Winston’s feelings and the context of society within the book, including his thoughts on living under a totalitarian regime, Party surveillance, and views on freedom and individuality.

Screenshot of the rules this tutor will follow when interacting with the student and pretending to be Winston.

To ensure that AI Winston discusses the themes in the book that are most important, we can use the “revise” feature to tweak his behavior.

Revision request of having Winston focus specifically on the contrasts between individualism and collectivis, as well as the role of Newspeak.

Table of Contents

Teaching goals

Teaching goals

Teaching goals

Extra customization

Extra customization

Extra customization

Student experience

Student experience

Student experience

Features highlighted

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English Language Arts

|

9th, 10th

Therapy session with AI Winston from 1984

Screenshot of student session next to book cover of Orwell's '1984'.

Teaching goals

1984 is essential reading for many high school students, but simply reading the book and writing reflections might not be enough to understand the complex relationship between truth and ideology that the book covers.

With Flint, the AI can play the role of a character from any text, which can give students an entirely new way of engaging.

Here, we’ll explore the use case of a teacher designing an AI tutor to play the role of Winston from 1984, where students will both demonstrate their social-emotional skills and further develop their understanding of the book.

Learning objective:

Students should develop a better understanding of Winston (from ‘1984’). Specifically, they should understand Winston’s key motivations and why he betrayed Julia.

LitCharts | Themes in 1984

Extra customization

As the next step of designing this AI tutor, Flint provided the teacher with three options to choose from. These ideas are generated automatically by the AI, based on the learning objective that the teacher provided. Because the learning objective was rather open-ended, Flint was able to generate some pretty creative tutor options.

Three tutor types generated by Flint including a Diary Analysis, Interrogation Room simulation, and the one the teacher chose: a Therapy session.

Once the teacher selects the desired “tutor type”, Flint automatically generated the underlying prompts that the AI will follow as it plays the role of Winston from 1984. As you can see, AI Winston will answer student questions about Winston’s feelings and the context of society within the book, including his thoughts on living under a totalitarian regime, Party surveillance, and views on freedom and individuality.

Screenshot of the rules this tutor will follow when interacting with the student and pretending to be Winston.

To ensure that AI Winston discusses the themes in the book that are most important, we can use the “revise” feature to tweak his behavior.

Revision request of having Winston focus specifically on the contrasts between individualism and collectivis, as well as the role of Newspeak.

Student experience

Throughout the session, students will have the opportunity to interview AI Winston. The student can click the microphone button to verbally ask questions to the AI, and the AI will speak back to them as well — all in a timed session.

Screenshot of student session showing how they can listen to responses and reply verbally during this timed activity.

To help students develop their understanding of the character as well as the larger themes at play in “1984”, the AI will provide in-depth explanations as it plays the role of Winston, and will even explain his decision to betray Julia.

Other English Language Arts teacher testimonials:

"After finishing our narrative writing unit, I uploaded my editing checklist into Flint. The students loved showing the AI their piece, and talking with it about the strengths and areas of growth in their writing. I have never seen my students so engaged in editing. I had initially put a 30 minute time-limit on the assignment, but my students begged me to extend it. Wow!"

Kerri Clifford headshot

Keri Clifford

English teacher at Harker

"Flint has given my students a conversation partner with whom they can discuss ideas, receive feedback, and refine their thinking. After a recent essay, one of my students said that the essay drafting tool in Flint was like having me there throughout the writing process. Flint is providing a framework where AI functions as an assistant for, rather than a replacement of, students' writing."

Stephen Addcox headshot

Stephen Addcox

English teacher at Westminster

“Flint did a great job at editing my students' pieces and helping them find specific areas of their writing they can work to improve. It freed me up to meet with students one on one and talk about their writing, knowing the rest of my students were doing the same and getting constructive feedback on their work from Flint.”

Andi Bo headshot

Andi Bo

3rd grade English teacher at Harker

Spark AI-powered learning at your school.

Sign up to start using Flint, free for up to 80 users.

Start for free

Watch the video

Spark AI-powered learning at your school.

Sign up to start using Flint, free for up to 80 users.

Start for free

Watch the video

Spark AI-powered learning at your school.

Sign up to start using Flint, free for up to 80 users.

Start for free

Watch the video