Giving students meaningful writing feedback while they can still use it is one of the toughest parts of teaching English. A teacher with 100 students has 100 essays to read for a single assignment, and by the time papers come back, the class has often moved on.

What if students could receive feedback while they were still writing? What if teachers could identify common misconceptions before the class period ended? And what if that information helped students revise their work rather than simply understand why they received a particular grade?

In Louisiana’s Richland Parish Schools, educators have been exploring whether AI-supported writing tools can change that. In this episode of the Southern Regional Education Board’s “Making Schools Work” podcast, Skye Reynolds, a literacy master teacher with the district, and Nancy Johnson, a professional learning coach with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, share what they have seen so far.

They discuss how the timing of feedback can affect student revision, why they believe AI should prompt student thinking rather than supply answers, and what the district learned when some teachers relied on automated feedback without reviewing it first. They also talk about how teachers are using student data to plan instruction and how professional learning can help educators decide when to use the technology and when to leave it out.

Listen to the full episode now to hear their perspectives in this dynamic interview.

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