Amplifying AI: Emily D.

Can you recall studying Shakespeare in middle school? If you’re like me, you remember feeling completely lost. I thought the words sounded nice when spoken out loud, but I couldn’t tell you what anything meant. NWMS Seventh Grade ELA Teacher Emily Denny recognizes that interpreting Shakespeare is difficult for most 12 and 13-year-olds, and there was nothing unique about my experience. Her approach is to scaffold the learning and create opportunities for students to play with the language.

A district AI Ambassadors group member, Emily recently attended the Hoosier Educational Computer Coordinators annual conference. An "AI Detectives with Macbeth" session got her thinking about using artificial intelligence with her Bridges class. Her students have put Brutus from Julius Caesar on trial in previous years. This year, she plans to use MagicSchool’s character chatbot tool to have students interview different characters from the play. Students will determine whether they can charge the characters with Caesar’s death. (Std 7.RN.4.1)  

“I used to think about everything we would lose with AI–human creativity and critical thinking skills. I was extremely skeptical. Now I think it’s not much different from using the Internet.” 

Emily has identified other ways to give students practice with Shakespearean language. Here is one lesson plan she modeled for me.

• Have students prompt MagicSchool to write a short skit using its Create a Skit feature. When crafting their prompt, be sure they name characters, setting, and conflict. Consider having students include key vocabulary.
• Then, have students ask MagicSchool to rewrite the skit in the style of William Shakespeare using Early Modern English.
• Students will then perform the skit. 

Exercises like this make Shakespeare more accessible and leverage a proven literacy strategy, Readers Theater, for building comprehension and fluency. Emily, an early adopter of MagicSchool, has enjoyed mixed results with using MagicSchool to give students feedback on their writing. On the one hand, students seem more inclined to incorporate feedback generated through MagicSchool. On the other hand, Emily has noticed that MagicSchool feedback often looks similar from student to student, and students habitually accept suggestions without thinking them through. Regardless, she is impressed with how MagicSchool has promoted student agency and empowers students to ask questions about the skills they need to improve in their writing. 

Her advice for teachers getting started with MagicSchool is: “Play! AI is not going away. It’s possible to teach students how to use it and still show the importance of having your own voice and thinking for yourself.”

Kristin Patrick

Blended Learning Coach 

* I Used to Think … Now I Think is a core routine within the Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero Thinking Routines Toolbox.