Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI

Green Pen Framework™

What if a student’s most promising thinking does not fit the rubric? Green Pen Framework helps educators recognize emerging insight, keep difficult questions open, and decide when the assignment itself needs to change.

Developed by Roger Ochse through writing instruction and scholarship, GPF asks what evidence warrants a judgment about learning—and whether faculty have the authority to cultivate what they discover. Independent use by other instructors is the next test of the practical method.

Try the working aids See a classroom case Explore the scholarship

A Judgment Taking Shape

An unclear position—or a better question?

Illustrative example; no actual student work reproduced. The task, rubric, sources, and exchange are invented.

Task: Argue for or against flexible deadlines. Rubric: “Defend one clear position.”

“I began in favor. Now I’m asking: flexible for whom?”

Signal · the initial reading: The position looks unsettled. But the student’s question may expose a distinction the assignment’s either-or choice conceals.
Principle: A defensible argument can become more conditional as the inquiry deepens. Uncertainty needs investigation.
Show me: In your next scheduled draft, show what in your sources unsettled your position. What can you defend now, and what remains unresolved?
The student’s response: “One source describes caregivers needing extra time; another shows teammates waiting on shared work. I can defend flexibility for individual tasks. I still need to examine who bears the cost in group work.”
The instructor’s judgment: I first saw indecision. Now I see a distinction to examine in the scheduled revision. A conditional position may satisfy this rubric. I will assess its support; if the criteria exclude a defensible argument, I will identify that conflict for course review.

The next step fits within an existing revision cycle. Credit rests on the quality of the inquiry and reasoning. Source interpretations and assistance still need examination; this illustration does not establish time savings.

Use It in Your Own Work

One decision. Something to try.

Choose an assignment you already teach. Use the card to focus a response, then examine what the student does. Bring the result to a colleague: did it support your interpretation, change it, or leave the question open?

The Five Steps card

One printable page: the steps, a worked example, and a stopping rule.

Download the card · PDF, 1 page ↓

The Green Pen response template

Fill in Signal / Principle / Show me. Three examples show how to interpret what follows.

Download the fillable template · PDF, 2 pages ↓

Working aids and demonstration · September 6, 2026

Start Here

Clear standards. An open intellectual destination.

A rubric can clarify expectations. It can also teach students to produce the expected answer and avoid a question that might cost them points. Evidence and careful reasoning remain essential. The conclusion should remain open to what the student discovers. Three questions guide the inquiry.

Read the research behind these questions

What is the student discovering?

An unsettled claim may signal confusion or a discovery worth pursuing. Ask what disturbed the student’s first answer, then examine the evidence together. The teacher’s interpretation must remain open to revision too.

Can the teacher act on the evidence?

Responsibility requires authority. Faculty need time to examine learning, room to explain and reconsider a judgment, and a route to change assignments or policies that repeatedly obstruct it.

Can the student use the learning elsewhere?

If a college claims that learning carries beyond a course, it needs evidence beyond success on one task. A different context, purpose, or level of assistance can test how far the claim holds.

A Classroom Example

The same omission. A larger question.

Several students leave out the same part of a final project. What should happen next?

A missing component calls for a response. Repeated omissions call for an investigation. Did students overlook the requirement, struggle with the task, or encounter a flaw in its design? GPF connects the immediate teaching decision to evidence that course leaders can examine and act on.

A real case · Identities protected

When Half the Final Project Is Missing

Students get a clear opportunity to supply missing work. The teacher also examines why the same omission keeps happening.

Read the case

Why use a framework?

What does GPF add?

An experienced teacher can make these moves. GPF makes the reasoning available for others to challenge and use: why this response, what did it establish, and who can address the problem that remains?

Read the answer

The practical method

Make the next action count.

Choose a problem worth addressing. Ask the student to make a meaningful move. Examine the response and explain what it tells you. If the problem belongs in the assignment or course policy, make that clear too.

The five steps draw on established teaching practices. They guide the conversation and can change course when the student’s response reveals something unexpected.

See how the five steps work

Support for teachers

Teachers cannot keep repairing the same course problem alone. Their experience should help colleges improve assignments, provide time for thoughtful assessment, and decide who can make needed changes.

Beyond One Classroom

When the workaround becomes the job.

Teaching: Which decision requires the teacher’s judgment, and which intellectual work must remain the student’s?
Assignments: Does the task invite a defensible discovery, or prescribe the answer students must reach?
Courses: Where can students practice using what they learned in a new setting?
Assessment: What evidence justifies what the college says its graduates can do?
AI policy: What help may students and teachers use, and which decisions remain theirs?

Writing and Research

What entitles a college to say learning occurred?

Roger’s articles examine what student work tells us, what support teachers need to judge it fairly, and when learning carries beyond one assignment. The research page explains the arguments, their foundations, and what still needs to be tested.

Explore the writing and research

Accepted articleWhat teachers need to make, explain, and review decisions about learning.

In editorial reviewWhat supports a college’s claim that students can use their learning in other settings.

In developmentWhat a piece of work gives us reason to conclude about the student who submitted it.

Roger Ochse, founder of Green Pen Framework

The Origin of the Green Pen

It began with an actual green pen.

Beside my computer lay a green pen. It reminded me to look for what was promising in a student’s writing, especially when the submission was difficult to read or the student seemed resistant to advice.

In September 2022, I wrote about it for SNHU’s Composition Newsletter. The question was one I had wrestled with throughout my teaching: how could I respond as both coach and judge? Students needed confidence to attempt the work, and they deserved honesty about how to improve it. The pen was a small reminder of the responsibility I carried into each response.

I ended the piece with a regret: “I wish I had used the Green Pen earlier in my teaching career.”

The questions continued to grow. What did a finished paper actually show that a student understood? What should I ask next? What happened when a recurring difficulty pointed toward an assignment or policy I could not change? Generative AI gave those questions new urgency.

The Green Pen Framework and the scholarship behind it developed through that continuing inquiry. The original commitment remains: find something worth developing, tell the truth about the work, and leave the student with a meaningful next move.

Roger Ochse · Professor and Honors Director Emeritus, Black Hills State University · Currently teaches writing at CTU and SNHU

Author and scholar profile

Start a Conversation

Bring the problem another reminder won’t solve.

A shared assignment keeps producing the same failure. A polished project leaves a learning claim uncertain. Faculty see the problem but cannot change its source. Bring one concrete case to a conversation about assessment, course design, or policy. Talks, workshops, and research collaborations can grow from that work.

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