Building Student AI Agency and Literacy at ISB

ISB is emerging as a leader in addressing the impacts of AI in education. From conversations to classes to conferences, teachers are working to prepare students to leverage evolving tools, while protecting and cultivating our students’ critical thinking, intellectual independence, ingenuity, ethical decision-making, collaboration, and human creativity.

Students at ISB are already living in an AI-shaped world. They encounter generative AI when they study, search, compose, and create; their interactions outside of class are conducted sometimes openly, often quietly, and not always with a clear framework for making good decisions. As a Middle School teacher I very rarely use AI in my classes (and then, only in specific, supervised cases). However, I believe in equipping students to use AI safely, ethically, and effectively. This belief shaped the AI Literacy-building initiative I recently undertook with ISB students through Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving (CDT).

The IMAGINE AI Educator Advisory Council

This winter, selected to serve on the Center for Digital Thriving’s IMAGINE Educator Advisory Council (EAC), I had the privilege of bringing the center’s IMAGINE AI curriculum to our campus. The CDT, based at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, creates research-based resources to help youth thrive in a digital world. Their IMAGINE AI portfolio treats AI as a human experience, full of emotions and tensions, and provides Classroom Practice materials designed to build student agency, helping students become more informed and intentional in their approach to AI.

Through this initiative, I led 9IB (International Baccalaureate) students through a sequence of four, prototype AI Literacy-building activities. A vital part of this process was the additional training of a small group of 11th-grade student leaders to co-facilitate these discussions. The leaders have begun guiding small-group conversations, encouraging their younger peers to share insights more freely than they might with a teacher alone. Participating students have benefitted from early access to the curriculum, and as a school, we have gained valuable insights that help us shape both our policies and our practice.

The Classroom Practices: Descriptions & Takeaways

Here is a look at the four Classroom Practices we did and some of what we learned along the way:

1. Making AI Pressures Visible

This activity prompts open conversations about why students feel pressure to hide their AI use, aiming to destigmatize it by bringing it into the open. We used Miro boards to map these "secret cyborg" feelings.

Our experience revealed that ISB students deeply value their intellectual independence; they don't want AI to "smother" their original ideas. Students also prioritize learning course content and skills. They worry that their use of AI could interfere with that learning. In another insight, students reported feeling a “stigma” of laziness or cheating even when using AI appropriately, which can lead to a cycle of guilt and secrecy. This work highlighted the need for techniques and tools to cite and acknowledge AI use, supporting transparency and decreasing stigma.

2. Align on the Line

Here, students navigate ethically "gray areas" by mapping specific AI use cases for an assignment—like a speech on The Catcher in the Rye—as "totally fine" or "crossing a line."

Our experience revealed that “appropriate use” opinions vary widely. The students were often surprised by the diversity of their peers' views, even on AI use for the same task. Crucially, students realized that they often don't know where their teachers’ “acceptable use” lines are drawn; students’ perception of acceptable use shifted markedly with insight into the learning goals for a given assignment. This underscores the need for more assignment-specific, learning-goals-linked, AI-use guidance from faculty.

3. Values Bridge

This practice connects personal values, like "Authenticity" or "Hard Work," to the ethical questions we ask when choosing to use AI.

The discussions in this practice revealed that choices are always based on values, even if we don't realize it. To examine the interplay between values and choices broadens our choices. ISB students noted that to achieve different outcomes or better empathize with others' actions, we can learn, through practices like this, to look through the lenses of different values.

4. Map a Moment

In this final reflection, students examine a specific moment of AI use to express not just how AI was used, but how it felt and what was learned.

Here, ISB students concluded that AI use is not just about efficiency or output; it is also about identity, judgment, and responsibility. Because AI adds a layer of anonymity, students need practices like these which help them make informed and intentional choices.

Looking Ahead

This winter, our IMAGINE AI experiences were both rewarding and revealing. They underscored that AI literacy is not just about using new tools, but about developing the judgment to navigate complex, largely uncharted terrain. Our students need support in making AI choices that are consistent with both their values and their learning goals. IMAGINE AI’s curriculum offers a strong foundation for that effort. It is my hope that we will now extend and build on this foundation.

About the Author: Ginger Love Garcia is a career educator in her 35th year of teaching. A 2026 recipient of the Dr. Mehdi Lazar Distinguished Educator Award, this is Ginger’s 5th year at ISB, where she teaches Grades 6 and 7 English Language Arts, advises Grade-6 students, runs a Speech and Debate Student Exploration Program, and advises the Middle School Student Newspaper. In February, 2025, Ginger was selected for a Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences J-Term Mini Course in AI Tools for Learning Design. This led to her participation in a Harvard Graduate School of Education and MIT co-sponsored AI EdHack, which inspired her to design her own AI-powered Socratic Writing Tutor tool. Ginger was a panelist and presenter at ISB’s AI in K-12 Education Conference in October, 2025, and a 2026 member of Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving’s IMAGINE AI Educator Advisory Council.