GUILDERLAND — In an era when students largely read from screens, not books, and write with keyboards, not pens, the Guilderland School Board this month heard an overview of the high school English program.

Barry Alex Finsel portrayed a department that is geared to help the most vulnerable students, that has a curriculum representing a diverse body of students, and that focuses on individual students developing their own voices.

Finsel is the district’s instructional administrator for social studies, English, the library, and reading.

Responding to questions from the school board, Finsel spoke about challenges teachers face in developing student stamina and in teaching students to use artificial intelligence responsibly.

Currently, all students need to have four credits in English to graduate and they take a Regents exam in 11th grade. “It represents the total cumulative effort — kindergarten all the way up to 11th grade,” said Finsel. “Because students, when they’re young and they’re reading a Doctor Seuss book and they’re talking about what’s the moral of the story, that doesn’t really change; it just gets more complicated, more nuanced.”

The current next-generation English Language Arts standards, Finsel said, are “very similar to the Common Core learning standards and along the way, we’ve had the introduction of culturally responsive instruction,” he said, in which “our students see themselves in the work.”

Finsel noted, “Guilderland is a pretty diverse district.” Projecting a map of the district, he described Westmere as urban and Altamont as rural with suburbia between.

“Our population is becoming increasingly diverse over time,” said Finsel as he launched into a comparison with neighboring districts.

He displayed graphs showing that economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities did better at Guilderland than their peers in other districts.

“I think the measure of a society is how well it best serves its most vulnerable populations,” said Finsel.

He also said “It’s important to know that we are doing a lot of good work to support all of our students and the students who really need it the most.”

He highlighted Guilderland’s co-teaching model in which English and special-education teachers work collaboratively together. He also highlighted “the interdisciplinary focus” that pairs English with social studies, for example.

“DEI has been another important aspect of the English program,” said Finsel, referencing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“It’s important for kids to feel represented in the curriculum,” he said. “That’s where we work to make sure we have books that students can see themselves in … that engages our students with hard things that are important.”

He went on, “We work with trying to help kids have voice …. It’s really important where kids have a safe space to be able to be heard, to ask questions while they’re in a caring, supportive environment.”

Later, towards the end of his presentation, Finsel spoke of the importance of “social, emotional learning” and said, “Kids are grappling with a lot of mental-health issues. And so another thing that is so useful for English is processing reflection and expression …. We put the emphasis on creation of meaning, whether written, typed, spoken, or even acted out.”

The department offers “great electives” Finsel said — he named those on civil conversation, picture books, acting and directing, journalism, and digital broadcasting — and would like to offer more.

Stamina

“Student stamina is huge,” said Finsel. “Students struggle to spend enough time reading and writing.”

That is partly because of the effects of the pandemic, he said, and partly because of “the technology and social media where everyone just wants instant gratification.”

Board member Rebecca Butterfield, a pediatrician, referenced a November 2024 article in The Atlantic, “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books,” in which Rose Horowitch posited that students at top universities struggle to read complex books because high school curricula favor short excerpts over complete texts along with social-media habits and shifting academic priorities.

“What are your thoughts on that?” asked Butterfield. “And how can we build stamina while also emphasizing reading the entire text?”

“Well, I think my teachers would concur with that sentiment …,” responded Finsel. “When you’re trying to adapt to meet students where they are, you are accurate, like they are looking for shorter segments, smaller pieces, short stories, and that is to capitalize on their endurance and stamina.”

He suggested the solution is to “just provide the time to practice” and also to “expose students to a wide array of texts so that they find something that they really enjoy.”

Finsel went on, “I’d even say even reading blog posts online because that requires the eyes to go over the words and sentences to process that … We can kind of hook student attention authentically — that is the best chance to help them carry on.”
 

AI and plagiarism

Handling artificial intelligence is also part of instruction.

“The arrival of AI and the prevalence of Chromebooks is changing how we are trying to help both teach English and help our students engage with reading and writing and expression,” said Finsel.

Finsel said he is often asked, “Where’s the grammar? Or what about the semicolon or the spelling or the syntax?”

He answered those questions, “It’s important, but I firmly believe that the department feels it is more important to emphasize meaning over form.”

He went on, “If a perfectly written sentence means nothing, then what does that get the student, right?”

Students are encouraged to take advantage of AI to polish their writing — for example, using tools like Grammarly to review spelling and grammar.

“We’re trying to help students to understand when to and when not to use these tools,” said Finsel. “So when it’s for learning, we want their raw, naked work so we can provide feedback. But, at the same time, we don’t want to keep the technology at arm’s length because it will be used.”

Board member Nina Kaplan, a social studies teacher, asked Finsel of AI, “How do we make it not problematic and be realistic about it, and also not let it become a crutch that a lot of our students are grabbing towards?”

Finsel responded that it would be irresponsible to “go back to pen and paper” to avoid dealing with AI.

He went on, "Plagiarism is a real problem right now.”

The best solution to that, he said, is having teachers who know their students so well that they recognize “their voice, their quirks, their styles, what they typically express.”

Then, if a student’s writing style deviates from the norm, he said, “That opens up the conversation to look into it further.”

Finsel went on, “Our teachers are struggling to catch students because we need really effective, efficient tools to assist with that process.”

It has become department policy that all digital work is done in a Google document, which allows for the review of revision history.

“It also allows us to see what we call, like, the big copy-paste,” said Finsel, where large chunks of text are copied from another document or from an AI prompt.

But, he said, students have found a way around this by, say, asking ChatGPT a question on their phone, and then transcribing the response by typing it onto their Chromebook.

“So our teachers are using AI detection tools … and they’re not always 100-percent accurate,” said Finsel.

He went on, “We’re trying to intervene. We’re trying to make this a teachable moment.”

Finsel concluded, “We’re trying to get kids to understand that, for learning, this has got to be you. But, in the real world, it’s an enhancement that you should feel free to use and to empower their own learning.”

Board member Meredith Brière asked if students were responsive when told they need to build their skills in order to be able to use AI tools effectively.

“When a student commits plagiarism, and they come my way, 99 percent of the time, it’s never because ‘I really want to cheat,’” said Finsel. “It’s always because they ran out of time,” he said, and took the easy way out.

He went on, “On the other end, we have some of our brightest students in AP,” he said, referring to Advanced Placement or college-level courses, “who are so grade-point minded that they’re leaning heavily into AI because they’re looking for the perfect paper.”

He said, “One of my English teachers yesterday said, ‘I’m getting tired of reading doctoral dissertations,’ noting that kids are really using AI when they shouldn’t be and missing the point that the most important thing is their voice, their writing — not the right answer, the best answer.”

He concluded, “It’s a struggle.”