Supercharge Your Teaching: 25 Ways AI Can Take Your Secondary ELA Classroom to the Next Level
The Future of Education?: The Secondary ELA Teacher’s New Virtual Assistant
Teachers have been asking for help for years all the while doing the work of multiple professionals in one work week. Between lesson planning, grading, communication to home, activities, and the actual working with kids during the school day, teachers have long been burning out. The newfound trends with AI (Artificial Intelligence) have taken the world of business by storm, with many saying that “you are behind if you aren’t using AI.” Yet, as a former classroom teacher, I was hesitant to check it out. It felt like plagiarism. It reeked of cheating. But, then I adopted a new approach:
What if AI can help teachers do the tasks that take up so much time so that teachers can actually focus on the work of teaching kids?
This post explores the transformative potential of AI in the secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. AI has rapidly evolved, paving the way for innovative educational tools and resources that can empower educators to create dynamic and personalized learning environments. In the realm of secondary ELA, AI can serve as a virtual assistant, offering a plethora of benefits ranging from lesson planning and differentiation to supporting English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Language Learners (ELL) students. With AI by your side, you can unleash your creativity, efficiency, and effectiveness as an ELA educator. Specifically, let’s look at how AI can help out with the everyday tasks of teaching including lesson planning, activity preparation, and differentiation to be inclusive of all types of learners.
A New Virtual Assistant
Virtual Assistant: In any field, VAs can assist with a wide range of activities such as managing schedules, answering questions, performing internet searches, providing reminders, sending emails, and even controlling smart home devices. VAs can be real humans working remotely or with AI. Some common virtual assistant jobs that I come across often are Pinterest or social media virtual assistants, people who do graphic design or logos, or even things like data entry.
A really great exercise is to take a journal or notepad and write down every part of your job as a classroom teacher.
Mine looked like this when I was teaching:
If you look at my brainstorm, you can see that a huge part of teaching is actually the clerical side of teaching and the planning that goes into the job. One of the most important sayings about teaching goes as follows:
“It is one of the only professions where you can’t do your job at your job.”
While working with kids IS the job, the job also includes the planning, communication, and reflection that goes into the day-to-day tasks of teaching.
What if AI can help us with some of these clerical tasks? While ChatGPT and other AI tools can provide valuable assistance, it's important for teachers to exercise their professional judgment and adapt the suggestions provided by AI to best meet the unique needs of their students and educational contexts.
Let’s take a look at some examples in different areas of teaching.
Lesson Planning Examples:
Provide topic suggestions and brainstorm ideas for ELA lesson plans.
Offer prompts and writing exercises to stimulate creative and analytical thinking.
Generate discussion questions to encourage critical thinking and class participation.
Suggest relevant literature selections or text sets for specific themes or topics.
Assist in creating engaging activities and projects that align with curriculum goals.
Create sub-plans on the fly that have step-by-step directions.
Differentiation of Classroom Materials Examples:
Generate leveled reading passages and comprehension questions for students at different proficiency levels.
Create modified worksheets or assignments for students with special needs.
Provide alternative writing prompts or graphic organizers to support diverse learners.
Adapt content to meet the needs of advanced students, including extension activities and enrichment resources.
Generate visual aids or infographics to enhance understanding and accessibility of complex concepts.
Work with ESL/ELL Students:
Offer vocabulary explanations and examples to support language acquisition.
Provide sentence frames or sentence starters to assist with oral and written expression.
Offer pronunciation guidance and practice for ESL/ELL students.
Generate grammar explanations and exercises tailored to specific language challenges.
Act as a conversation partner for ESL/ELL students to practice speaking and listening skills.
Translate common classroom communication and communication home to families.
Professional Development:
Provide access to educational research articles and publications in the field of ELA.
Offer strategies for classroom management and student engagement.
Share best practices for teaching specific literary genres or writing styles.
Assist with curriculum alignment to state or national ELA standards.
Generate writing prompts for professional reflection or journaling.
Suggest websites, apps, and online resources for ELA instruction and student practice.
Offer guidance on incorporating technology tools and digital literacy skills into ELA lessons.
Provide information on assessment strategies and rubric development for ELA assignments.
Offer guidance on integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive practices into ELA instruction.
Act as a professional development resource for exploring new teaching methodologies and instructional approaches.
Helpful AI Prompts to Try:
When asking AI to help you with tasks, it is important to be specific:
ROLE-state the role of the person answering
AUDIENCE-state who the information is for in the prompt
TASK-give as many details about the task as possible (Example: don’t just say short story, state the name and author of the short story).
Some example prompts to try:
“I am a sixth-grade English Language Arts teacher. Write me a lesson script about [topic]”
“I am a classroom teacher. I want to improve my skills in [topic.] List the best-rated online courses, tutorials, and resources for learning this skill.”
“[Paste email to family member, administrator, or newsletter] Proofread my writing above. Fix grammar and spelling mistakes. Make suggestions that will improve the clarity of my writing.”
“Create a 30-day learning plan for a sixth-grade student in English Language Arts who is behind in reading skills.”
“You are a grant writer. Summarize the text below into 500 words or less. Create sections for each important point with a brief summary for that point [INSERT TEXT].”
“Create a step-by-step sub-plan for a sixth-grade English Language Arts class discussing theme using the short story “Thank you M’am” by Langston Hughes.”
“Create a list of 10 narrative nonfiction writing prompts for middle schoolers.”
“Create a list of the most popular opening types to fictional stories.”
“Create a paragraph of directions explaining how to introduce, cite, and explain the evidence in a body paragraph in an argumentative essay.”