Holes is a well-known book with countless summaries and study guides online, which makes it an easy target for AI-generated essays. A student can type in a prompt and receive five polished paragraphs in seconds. Teachers are understandably concerned about what that means for assessment.

Many educators turn to AI detectors, but these tools have a poor track record. They produce false positives, especially for students who write in a formal style or who are learning English. Accusing a student based on a detector score can do real harm.

A more reliable approach is to change what you look for and how you assign. Instead of policing the final product, focus on evidence of the student's own thinking. That shift makes it harder to outsource the work and easier to notice when it has happened.

Holes offers specific advantages here. The book is full of small details, such as particular scenes, names, and moments, that generic summaries often miss or get slightly wrong. An essay that stays vague may deserve a second look.

Signs Worth Noticing

No single sign proves anything, but a pattern can prompt a conversation. Look for essays that are polished but generic, or that include claims the student could not explain when asked. Treat these as questions to explore, not conclusions.

• Evidence that is accurate in general but never tied to a specific chapter or scene
• A sudden change in voice or vocabulary compared with earlier in-class writing
• Confident claims about the book that the student cannot discuss aloud
• Small factual errors about characters or events that sound plausible
• Uniform paragraph structure with little personal reaction or original phrasing

Design Assignments That Show Process

Ask for planning notes, outlines, or drafts along the way, and grade them. When students have to show their process, the final essay becomes part of a longer trail. It is much harder to fake a whole trail than one document.

Build in short in-class writing tasks tied to the same skills. These give you a baseline for each student's voice and level. When a take-home essay looks very different, you have something concrete to compare.

Have a Fair Conversation First

If you suspect an essay was not the student's own work, start with a conversation. Ask them to talk through their argument and choose a passage to explain. Many students will show that they understand their work, and those who do not will often say so honestly.

Avoid framing it as an accusation. A calm, curious tone keeps the door open and protects students who wrote their essays honestly. Follow your school's academic integrity policy for any further steps.

Use Feedback Systems That Reward Specificity

Rubrics that reward specific evidence and personal analysis naturally reduce the appeal of generic essays. Tools like GraideMind can apply those criteria consistently and point out where an essay stays vague. That helps you see which papers lack the detail a real reader of Holes would include.

Talk with students about why authentic writing matters. Many use AI because they feel overwhelmed, not because they want to cheat. Addressing the underlying pressure often does more than any detection method.