Creativity has always been a job requirement for Wendy Penn– especially when searching for materials to support her multilingual students. But now, with artificial intelligence, that search process looks very different. Within the last year, Wendy has pivoted from AI-hesitant to expertly flipping between ChatGPT, MagicSchool, and Canva Magic AI Studio to create custom visuals and texts.
Wendy is a Multilingual Learner Collaborative Teacher at Promise Road Elementary. Teachers at Promise Road have been piloting Amira, an AI-powered learning platform, to support their emerging and striving readers. Amira uses speech recognition and natural language processing to listen to students read aloud, provide instant feedback, and adapt lessons based on their progress. Multilingual learners in grades 3, 4, and 5 have been interacting with Amira as part of their daily morning routines. While students have been showing gains, the program isn’t perfect. Wendy explains that sometimes Amira struggles to detect a student’s voice if they have an accent from knowing a non-English language.
Translation tools are helpful, but their usefulness is limited when students aren’t reading in their home language at grade level. Wendy still thinks Google Translate is the best option on the fly, though accuracy with Arabic remains challenging. MagicSchool has been especially good for generating high-interest texts that match a specific grade-level skill. For example, fifth-grade Indiana academic standards ask students to find two main ideas within an article. To keep things relevant, she asks Magic School to draw from a popular topic like Taylor Swift, World Cup soccer, or skin care. Many Wendy’s students do not read at grade level but still need the content. In this case, she uses MagicSchool to help summarize texts or change to a simpler reading level.
Canva Magic AI Studio has been her go-to for illustrations and visuals. However, she admits that finding and creating visuals for students can monopolize her time if she’s not careful. She warns about going down too many rabbit holes. Advice for not letting these fun tools steal our evening time? I’m not sure… maybe we should ask ChatGPT? ;)
Kristin Patrick
Blended Learning Coach
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