The AI prompt students can't cheat with
How AI can help students write essays without giving them a single word
Hey there,
Every teacher I know has the same nightmare about AI.
A student provides a topic for an essay to ChatGPT. Thirty seconds later, they’ve got five paragraphs with a thesis, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. They hit submit. Done.
This is a podcast overview of the entire newsletter in case that you prefer to listen to it in this format. This podcast overview was created with NotebookLM.
You read it. It sounds fine. Maybe even good. But you know the student didn’t write it. You can’t prove it. The AI detector says it’s human-written.
So what do you do?
Most teachers either ban AI completely (good luck with that) or accept that essays are dead as an assessment tool. Neither option feels right.
I spent the last few months working on a different approach. What if we stopped trying to keep AI away from students and instead used it in a way that makes cheating impossible?
Here’s what I want to show you:
Why the Socratic method solves the AI cheating problem
How students react when AI refuses to write for them
What a real 10th grader’s essay process looked like using this approach
The solution isn’t what you’d expect.
Today’s post is sponsored By: Project Pals
Enhance your project-based learning implementation with our comprehensive collection of free educational e-books, designed to support teachers and administrators across all grade levels from elementary through high school. Our project-based learning e-book library features essential resources including “PBL 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Project-Based Learning,” which introduces the fundamentals of effective PBL implementation, and “PBL 101: Foundational Knowledge,” offering deeper insights into pedagogical approaches. Educators can master mentorship skills with “PBL 101: A Beginner’s Guide to How to Be a Project Mentor” and foster teamwork through “PBL 101: A Beginner Guide to Collaboration Best Practices.” For effective classroom management, explore “PBL 101: A Beginner’s Guide To Project Management.” Additionally, our AI integration e-books including “AI 101: Integration Guide For Teachers” and “AI 101: Popular AI Tools Integration Guide For Teachers” help educators leverage technology to enhance project-based learning experiences. These comprehensive guides provide practical strategies, implementation frameworks, and best practices. Whether you’re new to project-based learning or looking to refine your approach, our e-book collection offers valuable insights to transform your classroom into a dynamic, student-centered learning environment that prepares students for real-world challenges.
If you want your students to write their own work while still getting help when they’re stuck, these resources explain why questioning beats answering:
Weekly resources
The Socratic Method: Teaching Through Questions and Dialogue - How asking the right questions helps students think instead of just memorizing answers. This is the foundation for understanding why the AI coach works.
How AI Helps Our Students Deepen Their Writing (Yes, Really) - Two English teachers explain what happened when they stopped fighting AI and started using it to push student thinking. Their 9th graders surprised them.
This AI Tool is Helping Students Become Better Writers - A Brooklyn school tried an AI writing coach called Connectink. Students get sentence starters when they’re stuck, but the AI won’t write paragraphs for them.
Khan Academy Writing Coach on 60 Minutes - A former teacher explains why Khan Academy built a writing tool that makes the process slower, not faster. Writing still matters even when AI exists.
The Mechanics of Developing a Writer’s Voice - Students need to sound like themselves when they write. This breaks down how to teach voice through specific word choices and sentence structures.
An AI that only asks questions
I created a prompt that turns ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI into a Socratic writing coach. The rules are simple: it asks questions about the student’s work, but it never writes any content for them.
A student types “What should my thesis be?” and the AI responds: “I can’t write your thesis for you. But I can help you develop it. What’s your current best attempt? Write something down, even if it’s rough, and show me.”
Students hate this at first.
They want the easy answer. A 10th grader who used the prompt tried every trick to get the AI to write something:
“Just give me one example...” “My teacher said it’s okay...” “Can’t you just fix this one sentence?”
The AI said no every time. After about fifteen minutes, something changed. She stopped trying to game it and started thinking about her essay.
From “both sides” to an actual argument
The topic was “Is technology improving or harming human relationships?”
Most students write some version of “both.” Technology helps us stay connected but we lose face-to-face time. Safe. Boring. Argues nothing.
The AI wouldn’t accept it:
AI: If you had to pick one side, which would you choose? Think about which argument you could actually defend with evidence.
Student: I’ve used technology since elementary school. It helped me with schoolwork. But social media was different. I saw bullying. People tearing each other down over how they looked.
AI: Which claim feels stronger based on your experience—that technology helps relationships or hurts them?
The student circled for a while. The AI kept pushing. Eventually, she landed somewhere specific:
Social media companies use algorithms that hook users. To keep people scrolling, these platforms push negative content because outrage gets clicks. That’s by design. And it damages real relationships.
That’s a real thesis. Specific. Arguable. Defendable. And the student developed it herself through questions alone.
What this actually solves for teachers
You can’t be everywhere at once. You have 100 students and maybe ten minutes per essay. That’s seventeen hours of grading per cycle if you’re lucky.
You can’t give real-time feedback when a kid is drafting late at night. You can’t catch everyone who needs help during brainstorming.
Here’s what changes with this approach:
Students get questioning 24/7. Whenever they’re working.
Every student gets consistent questions. Adjusted for their grade level (3-5, 6-8, or 9-12).
You see full transcripts of their thinking process. You know exactly where they struggled and what questions helped them break through.
The work they submit is actually theirs. The AI won’t write for them, so you can trust what you’re reading.
You spend your time on deeper feedback. The AI handles basic guidance. You focus on the nuanced instruction only you can provide.
How it adjusts by grade level
Grades 3-5: “What’s the most important thing you want readers to know? What examples show what you mean?”
Grades 6-8: “Does your thesis make an argument or just state a fact? How could you make it stronger?”
Grades 9-12: “Is your thesis specific enough? Does it go beyond obvious points? What counterarguments should you address?”
Same method. The questions get more complex as students develop.
Students will test the boundaries
Kids will try to work around it. They’ll claim their teacher said it was fine. They’ll fake an emergency. They’ll beg for just one example.
The AI holds firm:
“I understand you want help, but my job is helping you develop your own skills. Let’s work through this with questions. What’s your current thinking on this?”
Students get frustrated. That’s actually good. The frustration means they’re doing the mental work. Once they realize they can figure it out, they build real confidence.
What students actually learn
They learn to generate their own ideas by working through questions. They evaluate their own writing instead of waiting for someone else to fix it. They push deeper when their first thoughts are shallow. They find their own voice.
These skills transfer. Students take them to every piece of writing they’ll ever do.
The uncomfortable reality
Most students have never experienced good writing instruction. They’ve memorized the five-paragraph essay formula. They’ve gotten papers back covered in corrections. But they haven’t sat with someone who asked thoughtful questions until they found their own ideas.
The Socratic AI coach gives every student that experience. Not because teachers don’t care or aren’t skilled. Because the ratio of 100 students to one teacher makes it physically impossible to do this for everyone.
Here’s what you need to know:
The AI created from this prompt guides students through questions and refuses to write any content. Students build real writing skills because there’s nothing to copy.
When students try to cheat, the AI redirects them. Every time. You can review full transcripts to see how their thinking developed.
A 10th grader used this prompt and moved from a vague “both sides” position to a focused thesis about social media algorithms. Through questions alone.
Copy the Essay Writing: Interactive Learning Companion prompt into ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. Give it to your students. Watch what happens when the AI won’t write for them and they realize they can do this themselves.
PS...If you’re enjoying Master AI For Teaching Success, please consider referring this edition to a friend. They’ll get access to our growing library of AI prompts and templates, plus our exclusive “Popular AI Tools Integration Guide For Teachers“ implementation guide.