LeasonAITeaching Digital Citizenship in the Age of Generative AI
A 5-lesson mini-unit for grades 6-12 on using generative AI ethically: attribution, verification, bias, privacy, and voice.
Do not use AI is not a digital citizenship curriculum. Our students are going to graduate into a world where generative AI is as common as spellcheck. The question is not whether they will use it. The question is whether they will use it thoughtfully.
This mini-unit is designed for grades 6-12, five 40-minute lessons, no special tools required. It has been piloted in ELA, social studies, and CS classrooms.
Lesson 1 — Attribution: Who gets credit?
Goal
Students can name three attribution rules for AI-assisted work and defend one contested case.
Activity
Present 4 scenarios: (a) AI wrote the whole essay, (b) AI outlined and student drafted, (c) student drafted and AI polished grammar, (d) AI generated brainstorm ideas the student rejected. In small groups, students place each on a 0-100% "how much is the student work" scale and justify.
Discussion prompt
Is using AI to fix your grammar different from using AI to fix your ideas? Where is the line?
Exit ticket
Write one sentence you could ethically place at the top of a paper that used AI at some stage.
Lesson 2 — Verification: Does it check out?
Goal
Students can identify one AI-generated claim, verify it against two independent sources, and rate the AI accuracy.
Activity
Give students an AI-generated paragraph about a topic they can verify (a historical event, a scientific claim, a local geography fact). Their job: highlight every factual claim, then verify each against a library database and a primary source. Score the paragraph out of 10.
Discussion prompt
The paragraph sounded very confident. Did that confidence match its accuracy?
Exit ticket
One rule you will follow the next time you use an AI-generated fact.
Lesson 3 — Bias: Whose voice is missing?
Goal
Students can identify one form of bias in an AI response and propose a re-prompt that surfaces missing perspectives.
Activity
Ask the AI: "Name the 10 most important scientists of the 20th century." Analyze the list together. Whose names appear? Whose do not? What patterns show up in gender, geography, discipline? Re-prompt: "Name 10 important scientists of the 20th century from at least 5 continents and with at least 5 women." Compare.
Discussion prompt
The AI is trained on the internet. What does that tell you about whose voices it has learned from most?
Exit ticket
One question you could ask before trusting an AI list.
Lesson 4 — Privacy: What are you giving away?
Goal
Students can identify three types of information they should not share with a public AI tool.
Activity
Role-play. In pairs, one student is the user who wants help with a real problem. The other is the AI whose job is to gently point out what personal information the user is about to share. Rotate.
Discussion prompt
What is the difference between sharing something with a friend, a teacher, and an AI tool owned by a company?
Exit ticket
One piece of information you will not share with a public AI, and why.
Lesson 5 — Voice: What is yours?
Goal
Students can distinguish their own writing voice from AI-generated writing and defend the value of the difference.
Activity
Students write a 100-word paragraph on a topic they care about. Then they paste that paragraph into an AI and ask it to make this sound more professional. Compare side by side in pairs. What did the AI add? What did it take out? Which version sounds more like you?
Discussion prompt
If a college admissions officer reads a thousand essays, which one is memorable — yours or the polished AI version?
Exit ticket
One sentence describing your writing voice in your own words.
Final project
Students produce a short piece of writing using AI at any stage they choose. They submit three artifacts:
- The final piece
- An AI use statement — 100 words on how they used AI and why
- A short reflection on which of the 5 lessons most changed their approach
Rubric (4 points each)
- Voice: The final piece sounds like a person, not a template.
- Verification: Every factual claim is checkable and correct.
- Attribution: The AI-use statement is honest, specific, and reasoned.
- Perspective: The piece considers a viewpoint the AI did not surface on its own.
- Reflection: The reflection shows genuine thinking, not compliance.
Why this matters
We do not teach students to avoid tools. We teach them to use tools well. Digital citizenship in the age of AI is not a warning — it is a skill set. Build it deliberately.