The Great Gatsby AI-Resistant Unit | High School English Essay Assignments, Rubrics & AI Policy | Printable Teacher PDF | Grades 10-12

Stop playing AI detective. This 4-week Great Gatsby unit gives you five writing assignments built around things that only happen in your classroom, so students who read and take part meet every requirement easily, and pasted chatbot answers tend to stand out. No AI detectors. No hidden-text tricks.

TESTED AGAINST CHATGPT, GEMINI, GROK AND CLAUDE
We ran every assignment through ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok and Claude, then built a teacher-only canary guide from what the chatbots got wrong: invented class details, film-only scenes, Chapter 6 spoilers, misquoted lines and more.

WHAT'S INSIDE (17-page printable PDF)
• Teacher quick-start and 4-week pacing calendar (Chapters 1–9)
• 4 in-class anchor activities: Reinvention vote, Rumor Board, Plaza Hotel showdown, Socratic seminar "Is Gatsby great?"
• 5 student-ready assignments:
A. Reinvention Scene (creative writing + reflection)
B. The Green Light (stop-point essay, Chapters 1–5 only)
C. The American Dream Today (thematic essay with a 3-minute conference)
D. Is Gatsby Great? (argument essay)
E. Gatsby's Party, Our Town (group pitch + individual reflection)
• Canary guide (teacher only): 15 signs of AI-written work and where to look
• 5 rubrics, 100 points each, with process points built in
• Unit AI policy (student handout; grammar checks allowed, with your final say)
• Transparency slips to staple to each submission
• Conference script: the calm 2-minute conversation, so you can talk instead of accuse

WHY IT WORKS
Every requirement is visible to every student, so it's fair (including for students using screen readers). Students cite page numbers from your class edition, reference class activities, and complete handwritten in-class steps. A canary is a reason for a conversation, never proof.

DETAILS
• Grades 10–12 • 4 weeks • 17 pages, US Letter
• Clear banners show which pages are student printouts and which are teacher-only
• The Great Gatsby (1925) is in the US public domain; all activities, prompts and rubrics are original to HelloCanary

LICENSE
One license per teacher, for use with your own students (including on a password-protected class site). Please don't post, share, or resell the files.

Get the free AI Essay Canary Checklist at sayhellocanary.com.