EDUC 5313 Week 4 Blog Assignment

 Week 4 Blog Assignment

VISIT Magic School AI: https://app.magicschool.ai/tools. 

Part 1:  Use the Lesson Plan generator to create a lesson for the grade level/content area you teach using a specific standard/objective for your state as well as ISTE Student Standards. 

1. Evaluate the quality of the lesson.  Is it well aligned with the standard that you provided? Is the lesson sufficiently rigorous? Are assessments aligned with the objective and the lesson procedure/content?

2. What improvements might you suggest? (Feel free to answer #1 and #2 together.)

The lesson I asked Magic School to create for my 9th Grade Language Arts class centered around “The Interlopers” by Saki, and I asked it to address two standards: the California State Standards for Language Arts Reading Literature: Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor and ISTE Student Standard 1.1c Feedback to Improve Practice: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. The quality of the lesson is sufficiently rigorous for the Language Arts Standard, but the assessments were not very creative no matter how I worded the objective. Every lesson it offered was either an essay or a graphic organizer such as a Venn Diagram. The final assessment asked the students to complete a graphic organizer where they list examples of differing points of view between characters and the audience and then write a short paragraph explaining how these perspectives create suspense or humor, using textual evidence to support their claims. While I think this offers teachers a starting point, I would not use this lesson the way it is written. I would use the graphic organizer to record the students’ ideas about Georg’s and Ulrich’s point of view with examples from the text that show suspense, but a paragraph that just summarizes or reflects on this seems redundant. I would rather the students write a paragraph about bias and how changing point of view would change the story or have students rewrite a section of suspenseful text from one character’s point of view rather than the omniscient point of view it is in. I think I would use the choice board tool rather than the lesson maker for additional activities and assessments. 

3. In your expert opinion, is the tool useful for the creation of rigorous lesson plans?  Support your answer with evidence.

I think that this tool is a great starting point for teachers to create lessons, but I do not think it offers enough variations in assessments. The lesson creation tool did not seem to recognize the ISTE standards, so none of the lessons I planned using Magic School included technology implementation other than using something like Google Docs or Slides. I also think the writing assessments were surface level and most were reflective in nature rather than writing assessments that require critical thinking and students using textual evidence to support their claims. For a beginning teacher who is required to turn in extensive and tedious lesson plans, this would really cut down on the amount of writing they would need to do. So if these teachers knew what their learning objective is, how they want to meet the object, and how they want to assess it, this would fill in all the boxes for them quickly. 

4. Share the lesson plan that was provided and include it with your post. You can do this by selecting the share option at the top left of the lesson plan page. If you agree to share publicly you will be provided access to a link to copy.  

https://app.magicschool.ai/tools/lesson-plan-generator?share=2528d38d-1084-42ab-a436-f2226f5abd1b

Part 2: Interact with at least one AI powered tool of your choosing on the Magic School page.

1. Which tool did you choose?  What does it do?

I chose the YouTube Video Summarizer and the YouTube Video Questions. These tools take a YouTube Video and create a summary in whatever length you want and whatever format such as bullet points or paragraphs or take a YouTube video and create a quiz with either multiple choice, True or False, or Free Response Questions. 

2. Is it useful? Justify your answer.

These two tools were incredibly useful because I use YouTube often to introduce background information about an author or provide historical context to a text my Language Arts class is reading. Tools like these could provide me with an efficient way to assess whether my students watched the videos before beginning to read. Then I know that as we read, I can refer to information in the videos to discuss in greater detail the elements of the story or text. For example, my class watched a biographical video on Anne Bradstreet before we read three of her poems, but understanding her experiences in early America and the tenets of her religious beliefs, allowed students to comprehend the way she processed loss compared to the way they might process the loss of their home or someone they loved. 

3. Would you use it to deliver instruction or assess learning with your students? Tell me about how you might use it.

I would use this tool to create informal assessments that would allow me to quickly check students for understanding. YouTube videos allow teachers a way to supplement instruction–students do not want to hear from the same person every time and educators all over the world have created content specific videos that deliver great information. When we assign videos for homework, we need a way to know that students actually watched them without adding unnecessary grading like worksheets and quick writes that would better assess more meaningful content, such as the text itself, that you teach them. 

Part 3: Reflection

1. What are your thoughts? Is Magic School a resource you would use with your students? Would you share it with colleagues? Why or why not?

While I would not use this with students until I was thoroughly familiar with it and it was approved by my district, which is unlikely, I would share it with colleagues now. The platform is user-friendly, and I had no problem navigating through their tools and quickly learning which of them would benefit my students almost immediately. I know my colleagues who teach ELL students and Special Ed would benefit from the way in which you can adapt most of the tools for special learning needs. I also see the time saving tools as an asset, such as the email generator and letter of rec writing which I spend a lot of time doing if they could be personalized appropriately. I think I would spend additional time working in the writing feedback tool in order to assess whether the system could actually give useful and accurate feedback on student writing which would mean that I could implement more writing practice in my ELA classes. 

2. What challenges do you see that would discourage you from using Magic School, if any? What concerns do you have, if any?

I had several concerns when delving into Magic School. The most important thing is that you cannot just print and go. Because this is AI and it is based on what exists on the internet, not all information is accurate, so teachers need to use their own content knowledge to double check everything that Magic School creates. While AI gives general information, more in-depth knowledge is needed to make classroom teaching successful. Also, the free version as of right now does not integrate with Canvas, so if you have it generate something like a quiz, you would have to type in each question. I think using this program with students can also be concerning because an over-reliance on AI tools might stifle critical thinking and problem-solving skills if students become too dependent on technology for answers. 

3. What benefits do you see in Magic School, if any?

Magic School could be a valuable resource in a teacher’s tool bag, but it is only one tool because nothing can replace a highly educated teacher with superior content knowledge and a whole bag of teaching strategies. The best feature of Magic School is that it can streamline administrative tasks like writing emails for teachers, allowing them to focus more on teaching rather than excessive paperwork. It even has a tool for teacher gift giving! For students, Magic School can personalize learning which can be adapted to a student’s pace which is especially useful for students with special learning needs, and Magic School has tools to make learning more engaging and fun. 

4. Do you have experience using other AI tools in the classroom?  If so, describe.

I have been attending an after school professional development called AI Learning Series where company representatives, piloting teachers, or district subject facilitators have been leading bi-weekly sessions on all things AI in education. The most recent session was on schoolai. Schoolai allowed students to use these incredibly informative and interactive spaces through Canvas, and chats with famous people in Literature and History. After looking through Magic School, they share many of the same tools, such as quiz writing, rubric creating, and giving student feedback, and I’m looking forward to exploring both of these platforms to improve my teaching and my time management.