Strategies from Laura B. Fogle, former elementary and middle school educational technology facilitator and director of the College of Education’s Media and Educational Technology Resource Center (METRC). Krista Glazewski is a former middle school teacher and executive director of the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. Scott Summers is a former middle and high school English teacher, former high school librarian, and deputy director of METRC.
3 tips for differentiating your instruction
1. Question your educational goals.
All teachers must consider their own educational goals. That is, what are they trying to accomplish with their instruction? What are their learning goals? How do they want their students to participate and interact? Additionally, it is important to critically evaluate the output of AI before implementing it into lesson plans. Is the product appropriate for the student’s level? Are there other resources that can help students engage and understand the material more effectively than what AI suggests?
2. Carefully craft prompts for your AI tools.
When using AI tools, provide context and roles, and be specific about grade levels, standards, and lesson goals. This saves time and allows for fine-tuning through chats with a chatbot, rather than a piecemeal, conversational approach from the get-go. Research shows that AI users who have multiple interactions with a GenAI chat bot produce higher quality responses than those who accept the first response. The AI for Education website provides an extensive prompt library, list of prompting strategies, and guides for integrating generative AI into math, reading, and writing that teachers can use to develop prompt generation skills.
3. Collaborate to set expectations around the use of AI.
Discuss your expectations for AI with your professional learning team and departmental colleagues to ensure a unified approach. School or district technology services departments often also provide guidance to help set standards for AI use in the classroom. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has a powerful guide for teachers to learn about best practices when implementing AI tools for use with students or when using AI in your professional capacity as an educator.
Additionally, students are more likely to follow guidelines when participating in creative writing. Therefore, if teachers start by building students’ AI literacy with developmentally appropriate resources, they can have meaningful conversations about the benefits and risks of AI, including over-reliance and lost learning opportunities. Teachers need to be clear about the motivation for learning activities and how the use of AI can support or undermine learning objectives.
