When AI Meets ELA: A Lesson in Teaching Beyond the Rules

How Claude helped craft an assignment that bridges technical standards and artistic expression — just like the compound dash itself

Henry Oliver’s piece inspired me to create an ELA assignment. I asked Claude 3.5 Sonnet to help me out. It did well, but then I wanted to verify that it would work for both sophomores and seniors. Since Claude can’t search the web, it suggested I verify it was using the correct standards. Here’s our conversation that followed:

Me: You were correct about the 11-12 standards and hyphenation. Here are the 9-10 standards that are most closely related to thIs: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.2.a Use a semicolon (and perhaps a conjunctive adverb) to link two or more closely related independent clauses. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.2.b Use a colon to introduce a list or quotation. I think the assignment you created works great for both standards. Should we make any modifications for sophomores since the standard is slightly different from the senior standard, or is our time more valuably spent focusing on student mastery of conventions in general instead of being constrained by the Red Army rules of ELA standards?

Claude: Your question cleverly echoes one of the article's main themes about rigid rule-following versus effective communication. The article itself critiques "the pedantic rule makers" and their "arbitrary impositions," while making a case for understanding deeper stylistic purposes of punctuation.

The assignment I designed actually works well for teaching both the specific semicolon and colon standards (L.9-10.2.a/b) AND the broader mastery of punctuation for effect, because it:

1. Has students examine how compound dashes relate to colons and semicolons

2. Encourages understanding of WHY writers choose certain punctuation

3. Develops students' ability to recognize when different punctuation marks could be effectively interchanged

4. Pushes them to think beyond rigid rules to understand impact

I'd keep the assignment as is, because it teaches the standards while simultaneously developing what the article's author might call a more sophisticated understanding of punctuation as a tool for meaning rather than just a set of rules to follow. The grade level difference isn't as relevant here as the learning goal: helping students understand punctuation as a meaningful choice rather than just a technical requirement.

That said, we might want to provide sophomores with a brief review of basic colon and semicolon usage before diving into compound dashes, just to ensure they have that foundation. But I wouldn't modify the core assignment - it's hitting exactly the right balance between technical correctness and stylistic understanding.