In this episode of Ink Over AI, Terry steps outside the usual solo format to welcome educator and author Patty McGee, whose book Not Your Granny's Grammar connects directly to a theory he's been developing: that teaching students to find and own their individual writing voice is one of the most powerful tools teachers have against AI in the classroom, both as a goal and as a form of inoculation.

Patty opens by reframing grammar entirely. Rather than a rulebook to memorize, she thinks of it the way a painter thinks of a paintbrush, a tool for making meaning with intention. Her book is built around four sentence types and a pedagogical model that moves through curiosity, explicit instruction, hands-on play with physical word cards, and reflection. The identification-first approach most of us experienced growing up, she argues, doesn't just fail to teach grammar, it actively gets in the way. Terry connects this to his classroom immediately: students know the rules when standardized tests ask them to identify correct answers.

The AI angle comes into focus when Terry describes something he's been noticing in student papers: some read like AI output, but contain small telltale quirks, a phrasing too weird to be generated. The deeper problem is that some students have started to genuinely write like AI, because AI is the writing they consume most. They've absorbed its rhythms and diction, and because they've never been explicitly taught what their own voice sounds like, they don't know the difference. Patty adds an important layer: writing is one of the most vulnerable things students do in school, and a culture still built on a factory model of accuracy pushes students toward the safest possible output. AI feels safe. It produces something that looks complete and correct — even on a two-sentence assignment. Her practical response is elegant: require specific sentence structures as part of the assignment parameters. Ask for one simple sentence and one compound or complex sentence.

The conversation broadens into the harder question of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Students have learned to ask not "what do I think?" but "what does this teacher want?" Patty admits she told her own kids the same thing when grades were suffering.

Topics Covered:

• [0:00] Intro — Terry explains the Ink Over AI format and introduces Patty McGee
• [1:03] Patty's framework: grammar as paintbrush, not rulebook
• [1:53] The four sentence types and the Not Your Granny's Grammar approach
• [3:24] Terry on grammar in the high school classroom — what students know vs. what they apply
• [4:45] Why engagement matters: creative writing and the limits of essay-only instruction
• [8:11] Voice as the antidote to AI in the classroom
• [10:37] How students have started writing like AI — and why they don't know it
• [12:00] Patty's college writing story and what it means to be a "strong high school writer"
• [13:24] The three research-backed methods for learning grammar: sentence creation, combining, and expansion
• [16:53] The vulnerability of writing and the pull toward "correct"
• [20:45] School as completion activity: the factory model and extrinsic motivation
• [27:44] Screen time, paper and pencil, and designing novel end products
• [32:40] Starting on paper to build ownership before turning to AI
• [33:24] Social media as a parallel: from banned to essential
• [36:08] Not outsourcing your thinking: Terry's core framework for productive AI use
• [37:58] How Patty and her co-author documented AI use for their publisher
• [39:30] Where to find Patty online

Guest Bio:Patty McGee is an educator, literacy consultant, and author of Not Your Granny's Grammar, a practical guide to teaching grammar through curiosity, play, and intentional sentence-building. She works with teachers and schools on connecting grammar instruction to student voice and engagement. You can find her at pattymcgee.org (that's Patty with a Y).