Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Reflect on how you are going to use AI in the classroom
I intend to do lessons on AI or coding next year with my 5th class. The children in my class will be using a lot more technology when they finish school and graduate into the workplace, so I think starting to build those skills now is essential for them. The world is changing at a very fast pace. I will start with a fun critical thinking programme like Scratch and introduce them to the idea of coding. They can work on these skills in collaboration. I think the tool ‘immersive reader’ will be very useful for my children with dyslexia. I also intend to use ‘Reading coach’ next year as I loved that the text can be differentiated across the various levels. I will also use this with my children who have additional literacy learning needs.
The video that showed how to make a quiz on Copilot and then upload it into Quizzizz was brilliant. I think I will be using this idea a lot next year with 5th. It’s also a great way of assessing in a more fun way!
Lesson Plan
Target Group: 5th Class (Primary)
Curriculum Area: STEM – Digital Technology / Coding
Duration: 60 minutes
Theme: Introduction to Scratch – Create a Simple Animation🎯 Learning Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
Understand the purpose of Scratch and how to access it
Navigate the Scratch interface
Create a simple project using sprites, backdrops, and basic blocks
Sequence a set of instructions to animate a sprite
Develop problem-solving and logical thinking skills🧰 Resources Needed
Computers/laptops with internet access
Scratch website: https://scratch.mit.edu
Projector for demonstration
Printable handouts or digital guides (optional)
Headphones (optional, for sound blocks)🕒 Lesson Structure
1. Introduction (10 minutes)
Greet students and introduce the topic: “Today we’ll be learning how to code using a tool called Scratch!”
Ask: “What do you think coding is?” → Discuss real-world examples (e.g. games, apps)
Show a brief Scratch demo/project on the projector (fun animation or game)2. Exploring Scratch (15 minutes)
Guide students to open https://scratch.mit.edu
Walk through the interface:
Stage – Where the action happens
Sprites – Characters or objects
Blocks – Code commands (Motion, Looks, Sound, Events, Control, etc.)
Scripts area – Where you drag and snap blocks
✅ Activity:
Students choose a sprite and backdrop from the Scratch library3. Guided Activity – Make a Sprite Move (25 minutes)
Goal: Make a sprite move and say something
Step-by-step demo with students:
Select a sprite (e.g. cat or choose new one)
Add a code:
Add more movement:
Optional extension:Add a sound block
Add a second sprite and script a conversation4. Wrap-Up and Reflection (10 minutes)
Discuss: “What did you create today?”
Volunteers can show their projects on the board
Ask reflective questions:
What was fun?
What was tricky?
What would you like to make next time?📚 Curriculum Links (Irish Primary Curriculum)
Mathematics – Logical reasoning, sequencing, patterns
English – Communication, storytelling
SPHE – Working collaboratively, confidence with technology
Digital Learning Framework – Using digital technology to create and communicate🧩 Differentiation
For advanced learners: Introduce “if” statements or sound effects
For students needing support: Pair with a buddy, use pre-made templatesLesson Plan
Target Group: 5th Class (Primary)
Curriculum Area: STEM – Digital Technology / Coding
Duration: 60 minutes
Theme: Introduction to Scratch – Create a Simple Animation
🎯 Learning Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
• Understand the purpose of Scratch and how to access it
• Navigate the Scratch interface
• Create a simple project using sprites, backdrops, and basic blocks
• Sequence a set of instructions to animate a sprite
• Develop problem-solving and logical thinking skills
________________________________________
🧰 Resources Needed
• Computers/laptops with internet access
• Scratch website: https://scratch.mit.edu
• Projector for demonstration
• Printable handouts or digital guides (optional)
• Headphones (optional, for sound blocks)
________________________________________
🕒 Lesson Structure
1. Introduction (10 minutes)
• Greet students and introduce the topic: “Today we’ll be learning how to code using a tool called Scratch!”
• Ask: “What do you think coding is?” → Discuss real-world examples (e.g. games, apps)
• Show a brief Scratch demo/project on the projector (fun animation or game)
________________________________________
2. Exploring Scratch (15 minutes)
• Guide students to open https://scratch.mit.edu
• Walk through the interface:
o Stage – Where the action happens
o Sprites – Characters or objects
o Blocks – Code commands (Motion, Looks, Sound, Events, Control, etc.)
o Scripts area – Where you drag and snap blocks
✅ Activity:
Students choose a sprite and backdrop from the Scratch library
________________________________________
3. Guided Activity – Make a Sprite Move (25 minutes)
Goal: Make a sprite move and say something
Step-by-step demo with students:
1. Select a sprite (e.g. cat or choose new one)
2. Add a code:
3. Add more movement:
Optional extension:
• Add a sound block
• Add a second sprite and script a conversation
________________________________________
4. Wrap-Up and Reflection (10 minutes)
• Discuss: “What did you create today?”
• Volunteers can show their projects on the board
• Ask reflective questions:
o What was fun?
o What was tricky?
o What would you like to make next time?
________________________________________
📚 Curriculum Links (Irish Primary Curriculum)
• Mathematics – Logical reasoning, sequencing, patterns
• English – Communication, storytelling
• SPHE – Working collaboratively, confidence with technology
• Digital Learning Framework – Using digital technology to create and communicate
________________________________________
🧩 Differentiation
• For advanced learners: Introduce “if” statements or sound effects
• For students needing support: Pair with a buddy, use pre-made templatesReflection ON AI
I intend to do lessons on AI or coding next year with my 5th class. The children in my class will be using a lot more technology when they finish school and graduate into the workplace, so I think starting to build those skills now is essential for them. The world is changing at a very fast pace. I will start with a fun critical thinking programme like Scratch and introduce them to the idea of coding. They can work on these skills in collaboration. I think the tool ‘immersive reader’ will be very useful for my children with dyslexia. I also intend to use ‘Reading coach’ next year as I loved that the text can be differentiated across the various levels. I will also use this with my children who have additional literacy learning needs.
The video that showed how to make a quiz on Copilot and then upload it into Quizzizz was brilliant. I think I will be using this idea a lot next year with 5th. It’s also a great way of assessing in a more fun way!I thought the video on NotebookLM was so informative. To me it appears to be particularly useful to the teacher or principal themselves. The idea of putting in circulars or long documents into this application and asking it to summarise the most important facts is a game changer! This could really help reduce teacher workload.
I think Scratch would be a lovely application to try and use with my 5th class next year. I have heard of it before but always been too afraid of it to try it. I have spent time exploring it now and think as a class we could learn how to use it together. There are some lovely helpful videos also on the Scratch website that show you how to do each thing step by step. I think starting off by showing the children some of these short videos will help peak their interest and confidence before giving them a blank page. Teacher modelling will be very important at the beginning but then I think there needs to be a gradual release of responsibility where the children need to brainstorm and solve issues for themselves.
Scratch is great as an introduction for children in becoming greater digital learners. It helps develop problem solving skills and encourages creativity. I also think it would be a super opportunity to get children to work in pairs or groups and develop their collaboration skills.
I am similar next year Vicky with 32 5th class students so I think I will be using Diffit as much as possible. It will be so useful to create worksheets across various abilities.
I think Gamma will also be a gamechanger for the SESE topics in the senior side of the school in particular.
The idea of using CoPilot Image Creator was very interesting in this module. I loved the way the child was encouraged by the teacher to improve on the image by adding more descriptive words and adjectives to the prompt given. This would be an excellent lesson on introducing adjectives in a fun and more engaging way for the children rather than the traditional workbooks. I also think this image generator tool would be excellent for working on descriptions of characters in fictional writing. The children could write their own descriptions of the characters and see what image is produced. This would encourage editing also and a great way of extending the writing process in a more modern way. It is also a great idea to flip this idea and give the children the image first and they then need to write the prompt to match it.
I thought that Reading Coach was an excellent tool for using in the classroom. We don’t have kids Microsoft accounts unfortunately but I feel using this tool in SET would be fantastic on a one to one with some kids. It’s tailored to their levels and I love that you can pull out the practise words after. They would love the novelty of reading aloud too and the computer recording them for accuracy.
Speaker coach is a great tool when working on oral language skills. If the children were giving presentation orally they would love if speaker coach was turned on and gave them feedback. It is especially useful that you can use it with Powerpoint slides.
Twee is a brilliant resource for creating questions to text and videos and Gamma also seems to be very useful at making presentations.
I agree Clare that the immersive reader seems like a super tool. I am planning on looking into this further to see how I can use it practically in the classroom. It would be such a great help to children with dyslexia.
Also using minecraft education sounds so much fun! I think the minute the children hear the word minecraft you would have them hooked!
Programmes like Mathia and Century sounded great- to create an individualised differentiated programme for each individual child, help develop critical thinking, personal practice. I love that the teacher in Century for example can assign specific tasks to specific students. It can also help inform teacher’s on progress made.
AI can produce a personalised programme for each child. Reading at their own learning pace as the programmes adapt. Can help teachers monitor student’s performance and see where the gaps in learning may be.
Immersive reader is an excellent tool on Microsoft Word. I would love some more information on how to use it in the classroom. As in would all books and text have to be copied into Word first or is there any way of using this tool to read websites for example?
AI can also be a great help for the administrative tasks of teaching, even from helping generate emails to send to parents about certain topics.
Dream space TV sounds like an excellent resource to use in the classroom next year. I think students will be very engaged by it and more stimulated in the classroom. Similarly I have tried Minecraft education before in the classroom to try and encourage and motivate a student with additional needs.
Careful consideration needed of output, need to remember it is a computer. And read it through yourself first. Data protection policies and GDPR guidelines must be followed to ensure privacy of student’s data. The video on AI in China I found quite alarming. The idea of monitoring how many times a child yawns or sending data to parents on whether they are engaged or ‘offline’ seems very restrictive.
Hi David,
That is a really good point about AI being useful to help with differentiation in the classroom and to suggest different activities to help support those that need greater support in specific areas.
This module has shown how using AI in the classroom can really enhance my teaching, by helping me to create more engaging and interactive lessons. It has huge potential I feel to stimulate and motivate learners. It would be so useful and time efficient for me also to use AI to help research and create interesting slides, videos and images based on SESE topics in the senior end of the school. I find this can take so much teacher time but using AI will greatly speed up this process. It can also help with assessments such as creating questions or quizzes based on topics we’ve covered.
I found this year I used it quite a lot to help me come up with some fun and engaging maths games, as more aligned with the new Maths curriculum. It was great for suggesting dice and card games etc linked to particular topics.
It was interesting to see AI prompts being used to create images to use in the classroom. This tool would be very helpful in particular for lessons for junior children, SESE topics, when teaching new English vocabulary and also when covering specific topics and vocab with EAL learners.
