What should homework look like in 2026?

Surveys show students increasingly turning to AI as a tool for their school work. Teachers who want to limit AI usage during instructional time still have many options on table—but what should they do about homework and other assigned out-of-class essays and projects?

Given that the topic of homework already has been quite controversial before bringing AI into the conversation, this felt like a good time to exchange ideas about what it can and should mean to assign work outside of the classroom right now. Joining this conversation is Brett Vogelsinger, another high school English teacher who sees things around this topic quite a bit differently than Marcus—which hopefully is the makings of a meaningful discussion.

Brett is the author of two books, Poetry Pauses and Artful AI in Writing Instruction, and is also starting a new Substack newsletter: Declarative, Imperative, Interrogative, Explanatory. (If you follow The Broken Copier, this is definitely something you should consider subscribing to!)

Thanks, as always, to Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for writing and recording original intro music; and Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden.

* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.

You can email us here with feedback or any other questions as well: thebrokencopier@substack.com.

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