[Marie Clare Phelan]

 

Martin,

Great lesson planning on the theme of Nelson Mandela.  I agree with you that AI is a great starting point with lesson plan writing and for giving us a range of ideas and resources.  As you said, it is great for creaking links for integration with other subjects.  We can then see what works and does not work on a practical level in the classroom.  I also plan to work on AI when generating quizzes.  It will be a great assessment tool.  Good luck with your Nelson Mandela plans.

[Marie Clare Phelan]

Sabrina, Your idea with using Scratch Junior in the infants class is great.  I have used scratch with fifth class and they really love it.  It is great for computational thinking, logical thinking and abstract problem solving.  The students always enjoyed working on it and after a few lessons, once they knew what they were doing, it was great to use as an incentive!  Good luck with your infant class.

[Marie Clare Phelan]

Leo, It’s great to read about the positive AI experience with the student in your classroom.  I agree with you that AI will never have the personal connection with the students and know their mood and what works for one child might not work for another.  You are right when you say that AI will not make a classroom feel safe and secure for the students.

[Marie Clare Phelan]

I agree with you Liam, the different chatbots will help with planning and preparation and will save time and help with focus when planning.  You are correct that AI will be a great tool to prepare differentiated work and resources for the students in the class that you don’t get the chance to get to everyday.

[Marie Clare Phelan]

Exploring World War I
Class: 5th Class
Subject: English
Learning Outcomes:
• Oral Language (Element: Communicating):
o LO 1 (Engagement, listening and attention): Engagement: Listen actively to multi-step instructions, historical context, and peers’ contributions, and respond by sharing ideas and asking clarifying questions.
• Writing (Element: Understanding):
o LO 4 (Vocabulary): Vocabulary and language tools: Acquire, extend, and deliberately select specialized subject vocabulary (WWI terms) to construct meaningful text and descriptive AI prompts.
Lesson Structure & Activities:
Introduction:
– Display a picture of a Remembrance Poppy on the whiteboard. Invite pupils to share prior knowledge.
– Display a powerpoint prepared by teacher (with help of twinkl AI) explaining the Western Front, Irish involvement, trench conditions, etc.
– Vocabulary Focus: Introduce the 10 relevant spelling words (prepared by teacher through help of gemini). Pupils practice active listening by identifying which words match descriptions given orally by the teacher.
Main:
– Prompt Engineering: Demonstrate how expanding vocabulary gives richer images in Microsoft Image Generator
– Pair Work: Pupils select 2–3 target vocabulary words and draft descriptive prompts in their copies before entering them into Microsoft Image Generator.
– We look at the images as a whole class
– Pupils choose their favourite generated image. Discussion – which is best and who good or not good etc.
– Pupils write a short summary paragraph (3–4 sentences) interpreting the image, including at least three words from their WWI spelling list in proper context.
– Pupils share their generated writing and read their accompanying sentences to a partner.
Assessment Methods
Peer Assessment: Peers verify if their partner correctly applied the target vocabulary words in their writing piece.
Teacher observation: Teacher observation during pair discussions to assess active listening review of written prompts and paragraphs for accurate vocabulary use
Friday dictation/spelling test using the WWI vocabulary list. Teacher to use Gemini to create dictation sentences with the targeted vocabulary. Teacher to use Gemini to provide differentiated sentences also.

[Marie Clare Phelan]

For infant classes, if we were focusing on a big picture book (eg Farmer Duck), I would read the book and discuss with the class etc. I could use google gemini and together as a class we could ask gemini to write a short story for 4-6 year olds about a farmer and a duck who does all the work…. (the students could be retelling the original story as I input the prompts). I could then read the AI story and then we could compare and contrast the two stories. The students could tell me what they like about the AI version and what they don’t like etc. If I was doing a similar lesson with older classes I would also focus on descriptive vocabulary in the prompts. I could divide the class into groups and each group write their prompts, we could input each set into gemini and then the class could vote on which group’s input gave the better story, and we can discuss why etc.

[Marie Clare Phelan]

I agree with you Ciara.  The speaker coach could be very beneficial in the older classes.  It looks user friendly.   It could also be used as a self assessment tool when the students can read their own feedback themselves on their presentation skills.

[Marie Clare Phelan]

I really enjoyed the copilot image creator. I used it now with my 11 year old daughter. She is currently reading the Skulduggery Pleasant book series. She used descriptive language to design a book cover for the book she is currently reading. She thought beforehand that she would not be able to design a cover that was any better than the one already on the front of the book. However she was delighted with her results. She then noted that the character was not dressed in the correct colour clothing as she had not given any description of the clothing. This would be a great lesson on adjectives and could be used in any classroom at most levels and good fun also.
I then used the co-pilot image creator to describe her bedroom and showed her the resulting image and she had to guess what the picture was of and then tell me what descriptive words I had used to generate that picture.
Again this kind of lesson could be done in the classroom for any topic… picture and adjectives for a farm scene, a restaurant scene, doctors etc. This tool would also be beneficial for building vocabulary. It is fun and engaging and it’s always great when the children are learning without realising they are!

[Marie Clare Phelan]

The potential classroom use of AI tools can impact on future teaching, learning and assessment in the classroom. In special classes, AI tools can transform teaching, learning and assessment by automating the creation of personalised visual schedules, social stories, and SMART targets for Student Support Plans, saving critical planning time. Adaptive AI-powered communication and real-time speech-to-text apps can offer individualised support to students and could increase multi-sensory engagement.

[Marie Clare Phelan]

I believe Artificial Intelligence can help with the teaching and learning experiences in my special class. My students often require highly individualised instruction. I can see how Artificial Intelligence tools could be used to tailor the lessons and resources. Artificial Intelligence would allow me to quickly differentiate lessons across multiple cognitive levels. It also would definitely reduce time with paperwork. I can see how it could generate specific personalised assessments also. Using AI to draft reading passages on a topic and using immersive reader option on word would be beneficial in my classroom.
Of course implementing AI tools does present challenges, such as student privacy and GDRP compliance. Inputting of prompts is very important. AI output is as good as the information you feed into it. While it is very beneficial and time saving, the teacher still needs to know their students, and widespread teacher training is needed.

[Author]

Posts