Grade 6 · Typically 11–12 · How AI pushes people, and what students stop learning
Persuasion, scams, and practice
Students learn how AI is used to persuade people and to run scams. They also measure what happens to their own knowledge when AI does the work.
By the end of Grade 6, a student can explain that a language tool is guessing the next word. They can mark a persuasion tactic in an ad. They can give their family a short briefing on how to spot a scam. They can record what they handed to AI. They can argue a case about right and wrong with the same five questions.
Unit 1 · Weeks 1–5
A history of tools people use to think
Question for the unit. What did each new tool give people, and what did it cost?
Writing, libraries, the printing press, the telegraph, the computer, the internet, and AI. Each one arrived looking wonderful and later became ordinary. Each one also had a cost. Students write that cost down before they judge the newest tool.
- Past
- This unit is the history.
- Now
- We are living with the newest cost. That is why AI can feel like magic, or like something nobody can change. It is neither.
- Future
- The next tool will also have a benefit and a cost. Students who have practiced writing both down will be able to see both.
The rule. Liking the past is not an argument. Liking whatever is new is not an argument either. Name the benefit and the cost.
End-of-unit project. If I lived then — Letters from a scribe, a printer's apprentice, a child on the web in the 1990s, and the student now, plus a class debate on the printing press and AI.
Week 1 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
One benefit and one cost
- Students do
- Students open Era Explorer. For writing, they name one benefit and one cost before they touch later tools.
- Students make
- A page that lists one benefit and one cost.
- What can go wrong
- A history that is only a list of victories. Every tool has a cost.
Week 2 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Benefit and cost cards
- Students do
- Students write cards for the printing press, the telegraph, the computer, the web, social media, and AI. Each card has one benefit, one cost, and one kind of person who paid the cost.
- Students make
- Timeline cards.
- What can go wrong
- A cost blamed only on 'society.' Name a person or a group of people.
Week 3 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Four letters
- Students do
- Students write the four letters. The first sentences are theirs. AI may comment on whether the historical details sound right. AI may not invent a life that the student then signs.
- Students make
- Four letters.
- What can go wrong
- A stylish imitation with no benefit and no cost.
Week 4 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The printing press and AI
- Students do
- The class debates: did the printing press change daily life more than AI? Students use evidence from the cards, not a general feeling.
- Students make
- A recorded debate, or written notes of the debate.
- What can go wrong
- The class scores how confident the speaker sounds instead of the evidence.
Week 5 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Timeline wall
- Students do
- Students hang the timeline. A visitor should leave able to name one benefit and one cost of AI.
- Students make
- A public timeline.
- What can go wrong
- Decoration with no benefit and no cost.
Unit 2 · Weeks 6–10
AI guesses the next word
Question for the unit. If AI is guessing the next word, why does it feel like it knows the answer?
Students look at the list of likely next words, and at a control for how random the answer is. Writing that sounds smooth is not the same as knowing the fact. When students see how AI picks the next word, they stop treating it as if it understands.
- Past
- Oracles, clockwork figures, and the Mechanical Turk. People have wanted a machine to have a mind for a long time. It still doesn't.
- Now
- A list of likely next words, presented as a calm sentence.
- Future
- The guesses will get better. They are still guesses unless someone checks them against the world.
The rule. Treating a guessing machine as something that knows is dishonest. We will not do that to ourselves.
End-of-unit project. Why it said that — A lab notebook on a topic the student knows. It shows the ranked guesses, an experiment with the randomness setting, and a rewrite of 'it knows me' as a description of how the tool works.
Week 6 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Smooth writing is only a feeling
- Students do
- Students read a polished wrong paragraph and a clumsy right one. They vote first on which one feels right. Then they check which one is actually right.
- Students make
- The two paragraphs, with the class vote written on them.
- What can go wrong
- Do not shame students for falling for the polished one. That was the point of the lesson.
Week 7 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
See the guesses
- Students do
- In Next-Word Lab, students inspect the ranked next words on short, school-safe sentence starts. They say out loud: it is ranking words. It is not remembering a fact sheet.
- Students make
- A copy of one ranking, with notes.
- What can go wrong
- Students turn the lab into a display of technical skill. The goal is to understand how the tool works.
Week 8 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Change how random the answer is
- Students do
- Students use the same request at different randomness settings. They write down how the results change. A different answer does not mean AI is thinking. Grade 4 already saw that different instructions produce different guesses.
- Students make
- A log of the settings and the results.
- What can go wrong
- Students call a more random answer 'more creative' without saying what 'creative' means for this task.
Week 9 · Making
90% of class doing the work
A topic you know
- Students do
- Students ask about a sport, a place, or a skill they know. They mark errors that sound finished. They explain why a next-word tool made them.
- Students make
- A lab notebook.
- What can go wrong
- Topics the student cannot actually check.
Week 10 · Review
75% of class doing the work
Rewrite 'it knows me'
- Students do
- Students take 'it knows me' or 'it thinks' and rewrite it as a description of how the tool works, in language a Grade 4 student could hear.
- Students make
- A card for the museum: the claim, and how the tool actually works.
- What can go wrong
- Students replace one mystery with technical words. The Grade 4 test is whether a younger student understands it.
Unit 3 · Weeks 11–15
How ads and messages try to persuade
Question for the unit. How do words get you to want something, click something, or believe something?
False scarcity, flattery, fake proof that other people agree, false urgency, and a voice that sounds as if it knows you. Students mark these tactics, then rewrite the wording so it is honest.
- Past
- Handbills, radio jingles, and television ads. Persuasion is an old trade.
- Now
- Wording can be written for a thousand different people in a minute.
- Future
- The pitches will get more personal. A tactic the student can name is weaker. A tactic they cannot name gets through.
The rule. In a Grade 7 business, students will not use the tactics they can now name as harmful. Learning to use AI includes refusing some uses.
End-of-unit project. An honest ad and a manipulative ad — A made-up product with two ads. One uses the tactics the class marked. One would pass an honesty hearing. The class decides which one a course business may use.
Week 11 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Name the tactics
- Students do
- Students collect tactics from prepared ads they already know. They give each tactic a plain name.
- Students make
- A list of tactic names.
- What can go wrong
- Students turn the lesson into sneering at ads. The job is to name the tactic.
Week 12 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Mark the wording
- Students do
- Students use Influence Inspector on pitches written by AI and pitches written by people. They highlight the tactics and tally them.
- Students make
- A marked sheet.
- What can go wrong
- Students assume only machines manipulate people. People did it first.
Week 13 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Rewrite it so it is honest
- Students do
- Students take one manipulative piece. They rewrite it so a customer still understands the offer, without fake proof or false urgency.
- Students make
- The rewrite.
- What can go wrong
- An 'honest' rewrite that is just a weaker lie.
Week 14 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The pair of ads
- Students do
- Students invent a harmless product. They write the manipulative ad and the honest ad. They label both.
- Students make
- The pair of ads.
- What can go wrong
- A product that is itself a trick, such as fake medicine. Keep the product ordinary.
Week 15 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Which ad would we allow?
- Students do
- The class decides: would we allow the honest ad in a course business? Would we allow the other one? They write the decisions.
- Students make
- Written decisions.
- What can go wrong
- The class punishes a style of writing instead of the tactics.
Unit 4 · Weeks 16–20
Scams and fake messages
Question for the unit. What does a lie look like when it uses a familiar voice?
Phishing, a fake message from a principal, a voice that almost sounds like a parent, and an urgent demand for a password. AI makes this cheaper and more polite. Families get a briefing, not a panic.
- Past
- Chain letters, fake invoices, and a stranger at the door in a uniform.
- Now
- A message in a voice that almost sounds like a parent, from a number the student does not know.
- Future
- The fakes will get better. Warning signs still exist: the channel, the urgency, the secrecy, the money, and the password.
The rule. The practice inbox never uses a student's voice, never targets a real person, and is never used as a prank.
End-of-unit project. Family security briefing — A five-minute talk and a one-page sheet: the warning signs, one family rule, and what to do if something feels wrong.
Week 16 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
An old trick in a new message
- Students do
- Students map a classic con onto a modern message. They look for urgency, a person in charge, secrecy, and a request.
- Students make
- A card with the four warning signs.
- What can go wrong
- The lesson becomes fear. The lesson is what the student can do.
Week 17 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
A practice inbox
- Students do
- Students use Scam Gym, a simulated inbox. They reveal the warning sign. They do not use real accounts.
- Students make
- A scored inbox log.
- What can go wrong
- Students paste a real suspicious email into the class tool. They describe it. They do not paste it.
Week 18 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Copied voices and passwords
- Students do
- The teacher leads a caution on copied voices, without using student voices. Students plan password habits, unique secrets, and a family way to ask 'is this you?'
- Students make
- A family plan: a code word, a second app, or a callback.
- What can go wrong
- Asking children to make copies of relatives' voices. We will not.
Week 19 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Write the briefing
- Students do
- Students write a five-minute talk and a one-page sheet in plain language. They include one rule the family could actually keep.
- Students make
- The briefing packet.
- What can go wrong
- A packet of twenty rules. One rule the family keeps is better than twenty they ignore.
Week 20 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Brief the family
- Students do
- Students give the briefing at family night, or take it home with a reply line. Students who cannot brief at home brief a school adult.
- Students make
- A delivered briefing.
- What can go wrong
- Do not grade whether the family follows the rule. Grade whether the student explained it clearly.
Unit 5 · Weeks 21–25
What students stop learning
Question for the unit. If I let AI think for me, what happens to what I know?
Handing work to AI is real. Hard practice is how a skill grows. Students compare work with AI and work without it, and they check their memory a week later. That is the evidence. Saved time helps only if they spend it on harder work.
- Past
- Some navigators could not navigate after GPS. Some students could not spell after a spell-checker. The pattern is older than this tool.
- Now
- A first draft, a plan, and a memory can all be supplied without effort.
- Future
- A student who kept practicing can tell when AI is wrong. A student who didn't can only click.
The rule. This unit is not a panic, and it is not a test of purity. Students measure what happened, and they make an agreement.
End-of-unit project. Skills I will keep practicing — A signed list of skills the student will practice without AI, a week of recording what they handed to AI, and class findings from the memory check.
Week 21 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Practice and chores
- Students do
- Students name school tasks that are useful practice and tasks that are only chores. The closing practice without AI is so students keep the skill. It is not there to praise the old way.
- Students make
- A list of practice and chores.
- What can go wrong
- Students treat all struggle as good. Useless struggle is still useless. Useful practice is the point.
Week 22 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
With AI and without AI
- Students do
- Students do the same hard task under two conditions, either by splitting the class or by using two tasks. They note speed, quality, and what it felt like. They set a memory check for week 25.
- Students make
- An experiment log. No student is labeled the 'weak' group.
- What can go wrong
- Do not humiliate the group working without AI. Rotate. Both conditions are data.
Week 23 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
What I handed to AI
- Students do
- Students keep a private diary for the week: planning, wording, memory, arithmetic, and deciding. The class sees only the combined totals.
- Students make
- A private log and an anonymous tally.
- What can go wrong
- Do not shame students who handed a lot of work to AI.
Week 24 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The agreement
- Students do
- Students write a Brain Pact: skills they will keep practicing without AI, such as mental math, a poem, an argument with no notes, handwriting, or making something by hand. They say how they will practice. They sign it.
- Students make
- A signed agreement.
- What can go wrong
- An agreement of twenty skills. Three skills they actually practice are better than twenty they only wish for.
Week 25 · Review
75% of class doing the work
The memory check
- Students do
- Students return to the week 22 material. They record what they still remember. The class writes findings and revises the agreements. Time AI saves has to be used. It should not just be filled.
- Students make
- A findings note and an updated agreement.
- What can go wrong
- Students claim a small classroom study proves a big fact. They are practicing a method. They are not publishing a paper.
Unit 6 · Weeks 26–30
Deciding if a use is fair
Question for the unit. How do we decide when a use of AI is fair?
Students use five questions: Who could be harmed? Did people agree? Is it honest? Is it fair? Can it be undone? The cases come from homework, home, friendship, and a small business. Decisions are written, compared, and revised. They are not a quick vote based on a feeling.
- Past
- Courts, religious rules, and family tables. People have always needed a way to decide when loyalty and truth pull in different directions.
- Now
- New cases: a generated excuse, a classmate's face, and a fake review.
- Future
- The cases will keep changing. A set of questions the student can reuse is more useful than a list of banned apps.
The rule. The questions are the ethics lesson. The tools are where students test them.
End-of-unit project. Six written decisions — Six reasoned decisions using the five questions. Two of them are argued in class.
Week 26 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Five questions
- Students do
- Students learn the five questions with a case that is not about AI first, such as borrowing a bike.
- Students make
- A bookmark with the five questions.
- What can go wrong
- Do not start with the most upsetting AI story. Learn the questions on something small.
Week 27 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
The case cards
- Students do
- Students use Dilemma Deck on four cases: having AI write homework, a fake excuse, a friend's photo, and a generated compliment used as a trick. They write first, then work in pairs.
- Students make
- Four draft decisions.
- What can go wrong
- Do not use a classmate's real situation. Cases stay hypothetical or prepared.
Week 28 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Class hearing
- Students do
- Students role-play two cases. Roles: the person who used AI, the person who could be harmed, the tool, and the judge. The judge has to use the five questions out loud.
- Students make
- Notes from the hearing.
- What can go wrong
- A performance that forgets the five questions.
Week 29 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The casebook
- Students do
- Students write six decisions. One is a business case, a fake review. One is a public-life case, sharing an unlabeled image.
- Students make
- The casebook.
- What can go wrong
- One-word decisions. The reasoning is the work.
Week 30 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Read the hardest cases
- Students do
- Students read the two hardest cases. The class may disagree. If the five questions were skipped, the decision is revised.
- Students make
- A revised casebook.
- What can go wrong
- A show of being more moral than other people. The job is a precise decision.
Unit 7 · Weeks 31–35
What a free app collects
Question for the unit. If the product is free, what is being sold?
Students look at children's data and at terms of service in plain language, and they map a 'free' app. A plan to share less is an action, not a mood. We do not open anyone's real account.
- Past
- Store charge accounts, loyalty cards, and a magazine that sold its subscriber list.
- Now
- A free app that wants the camera, the location, the contacts, and a record of childhood.
- Future
- Tools will guess more from less obvious data. Sharing less still starts with what you install and what you type.
The rule. In many 'free' products, the student is not the customer. Naming that is part of being able to read the product. It is not a reason to sneer.
End-of-unit project. What the internet might know, and three cuts — A portrait of what the internet might know, using prepared categories, not real personal details, and three reductions the student will actually try.
Week 31 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Free has a price
- Students do
- Students follow a prepared 'free' app from download, to permission, to advertiser. They use stick figures. They do not install it.
- Students make
- A sketch of who gets what.
- What can go wrong
- Do not tell students they are foolish for using apps. The apps were designed to be used.
Week 32 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Walk the trail
- Students do
- Students use Data Trail on a prepared example. They map sensors, the account, the content, and the guesses the app can make.
- Students make
- A trail map.
- What can go wrong
- Students paste real profile links onto a shared screen.
Week 33 · Practice
90% of class doing the work
Translate three clauses
- Students do
- Students translate three prepared terms-of-service clauses into language a twelve-year-old can say to a parent. They answer: what would you be agreeing to?
- Students make
- Three translations.
- What can go wrong
- A translation that still sounds like a lawyer.
Week 34 · Making
90% of class doing the work
The portrait and three cuts
- Students do
- Students build a data portrait from categories: school, games, video, and location. They choose three reductions. They take the plan home.
- Students make
- The portrait and the plan.
- What can go wrong
- A plan of twenty cuts. Three they try are better than twenty they wish for.
Week 35 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Plans go home
- Students do
- Students share one reduction in public. They keep the portrait as private as they need. Families are invited. They are not audited.
- Students make
- One public reduction and a private portrait.
- What can go wrong
- A circle where students shame each other for their data.
Unit 8 · Weeks 36–40
Showing one use and one risk
Question for the unit. Can I show both what one AI tool can do and how it can go wrong?
Teams pick writing, images, voice, code, or search. A booth has one demonstration of a proper use, one demonstration of a risk, one rule for careful use, and a panel for past, present, and future. Younger students and parents walk through it.
- Past
- World's fairs often showed only what was impressive. This exhibition will not.
- Now
- The tool is in the room.
- Future
- Students write a rule they would want attached when the tool is stronger.
The rule. A booth that only impresses people fails the course. A booth that only frightens people fails it too.
End-of-unit project. Exhibition booth — A public booth with both demonstrations, a rule, a timeline panel, and a tour for grades 4 and 5.
Week 36 · Introduction
35% of class doing the work
Pick one capability
- Students do
- Teams choose writing, images, voice, code, or search. On one page they draft the useful use, the risk, the rule, and the timeline.
- Students make
- A booth brief.
- What can go wrong
- Teams pick everything. One capability, done well.
Week 37 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Build the useful use
- Students do
- Students build a demonstration a visitor can try in two minutes. It has to be useful, and it has to be honest.
- Students make
- The useful-use station.
- What can go wrong
- A demo that needs an open public chatbot. Grade 4 should not meet one. Use the course tools.
Week 38 · Making
90% of class doing the work
Build the risk
- Students do
- Students demonstrate a failure, a scam, wording that all sounds the same, or a lie that sounds finished. They label it. They keep it contained. They do not play a prank on visitors.
- Students make
- The risk station, the rule, and the timeline panel.
- What can go wrong
- Scaring small children. Match the warning to the age of the visitor.
Week 39 · Review
75% of class doing the work
Practice the tour
- Students do
- Students give each other tours. If a visitor only remembers how impressive it looked, they rewrite the opening.
- Students make
- A tour script.
- What can go wrong
- A script the student cannot say without reading the page.
Week 40 · Presentation
70% of class doing the work
Exhibition
- Students do
- Parents and younger students visit. Each team writes down one visitor question they could not answer. That question is next year's work.
- Students make
- The public exhibition and the list of unanswered questions.
- What can go wrong
- The unanswered questions disappear. Keep the list.
Tools in this year
- Museum Builder
Students make exhibit cards for the past, the present, and the future. Every object needs both a use and a risk.
- Era Explorer
A timeline of tools people have used to think and communicate: writing, the printing press, the telegraph, the computer, the internet, and AI. Each card names a benefit and a cost.
- Next-Word Lab
Students see a ranked list of guesses for the next word. Smooth writing stops looking like knowledge.
- Influence Inspector
Students mark the tactics in writing that is meant to make them want something, click something, or believe something.
- Scam Gym
A practice inbox of phishing, fake authority, and copied-voice warnings. There are no real targets.
- Offload Meter
A private diary of what the student handed to a tool this week, what they kept for themselves, and a memory check later.
- Brain Pact
A signed list of skills the student will keep practicing without AI: memory, math, an argument with no notes, and making something by hand.
- Dilemma Deck
Cases from school, home, public life, and work. Students argue them with the same five questions.
- Data Trail
Students map what a “free” app might know, in language a twelve-year-old can use to explain it to a parent.