Three Reasons to Use Exam Blue Books in High School ELA Classes

Pop quiz: What milestone did the world reach on August 26, 2025? If you answered that it was the 1,000^th day with ChatGPT, you’re correct. So, love it or hate it, the large language model is a force we all must reckon with. As a high school ELA teacher, one way I have changed my teaching to accommodate this reality is that I no longer assign essays to be written outside of class. Here are three reasons I use exam blue books* in my high school ELA classes:

Students can’t use ChatGPT

Armed with writing paper, a pen, and their own knowledge, students only have their wits to rely on as they write an essay. Their ability to develop, organize, and support ideas and get them down on paper in an acute amount of time is a skill they will use in higher education and the world of work.

Alexandra Garrett, a professor of history at St. Michael’s College, supports the use of exam blue books to confront the rise of ChatGPT. She says that persistent plagiarism and unauthorized use of ChatGPT in student essays, have deterred her from digital exams, and she doesn’t see herself moving away from blue books any time soon.

“I’ve never not done blue books for exams, and I have no incentive to change it,” said Garrett.

Clay Shirky, a vice provost at N.Y.U., wrote in The New York Times, “Learning is a change in long-term memory; that’s the biological correlate of what we do in the classroom. Now that most mental effort tied to writing is optional, we need new ways to require the work necessary for learning. That means moving away from take-home assignments and essays and toward in-class blue book essays, oral examinations, required office hours and other assessments that call on students to demonstrate knowledge in real time. The shift is already happening: The Wall Street Journal reported on booming sales of blue books last school year.

Working under pressure is a skill worth developing

I watch my students face stressful situations on the football field, performing solos at talent shows, and navigating the ins and outs of daily high school life; because of this, I know not to underestimate them. With proper instruction, practice, and support they are capable of incredible things. That’s why I’m not afraid to challenge them with hard assignments like writing essays in class.

When I was a graduate student working on my master’s degree in literature I took my fair share of blue book exams, which are essay exams written in ubiquitous blue covered notebooks. During one exam I was so engrossed in my own work filling up that blue book that I was oblivious to the drama playing out across the room as one of my fellow students was overtaken by the stress of the exam blue book that she had been reduced to tears and was being comforted by the professor. There’s no doubt about it, writing in-class essays are hard whether you’re a graduate student or high school student.

As teachers, we can scaffold our students’ instruction with in-class essay exams so that they build both the skills and confidence to serve them. It may take some students a full academic year to build up those skills. With my 9^th grade students I begin the year by having students write a topic sentence and two supporting examples to support an assigned prompt. From there we build to a full thesis statement to more topic sentences to more supporting examples. It works.

Meeting hard challenges is empowering

Remember the moment that you did the thing that you thought you couldn’t do? It was an empowering moment. That is the self confidence that I want to engender in my students. ChatGPT is here to stay, and the more I can show them that their thoughts, intellect, and innate creativity are as important as a large language model, the more I prepare them for life in the adult world after high school.

How are you handling the rise of ChatGPT in your classrooms? Share your tips in the comments below.

*A blue book exam is a handwritten, in-person test, typically for in-class essays and open-ended questions, where students write their answers in a special booklet with a blue cover and lined pages. 

Sources:

Jackson-Retondo, M. (2024, November 21). Taking exams in blue books? They’re back to help curb AI use and rampant cheating. KQED. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/64992/taking-exams-in-blue-books-its-back-to-help-curb-ai-use-and-rampant-cheating

Shirky, Clay. “Opinion | the Only Real Solution to the A.I. College Cheating Crisis.” The New York Times, 26 Aug. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/opinion/culture/ai-chatgpt-college-cheating-medieval.html?searchResultPosition=1.