Since entering education in the early 2010s, I’ve seen countless education technology trends come and go. From smartboards to the more recent one-to-one device rollouts, each initiative has set out to ‘revolutionalize’ learning as we know it. So it’s no surprise that educators, including myself, have been skeptical about the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom.
So when I attended the most recent Spring CUE education technology conference with my hackles up, I was truly blown away by how AI has already been steadily reshaping how we teach, assess, and support students.
Unlike past tech fads, AI’s real-time adaptability, personalized feedback, and data-driven insights have the potential to directly address some of the biggest pain points in reading instruction. From tailoring interventions to streamlining assessments, AI offers practical solutions that genuinely lighten the instructional load and enhance learning outcomes.
In this post, we’ll explore 3 ways AI can support your reading instruction—not with gimmicks but with meaningful, measurable benefits for students and teachers alike.
1. Targeted Resource Creation
I will admit to spending copious amounts of time searching for that ‘just-right’ reading passage or book. And while my efforts were 100% well-intentioned, the stress this goose chase caused me left me feeling spent.
Here’s where AI can save us time and stress!
AI platforms have the ability to create target resources that target specific skills, saving teachers from falling down a rabbit hole chasing after a resource that might not exist.
To create a targeted resource, the first thing you need to do is prompt your AI platform with clear directions. In The AI Classroom: The Ultimate Guide to Artificial Intelligence in Education, Dan Fitzpatrick and Amanda Fox discuss the PREP/EDIT approach to using AI prompts.
Let’s do an example together. Let’s say you are a third-grade teacher and notice from your recent running record data that many of your students are struggling with decoding multisyllabic words, specifically multisyllabic words that contain an /ar/ blend.
Here is what a prompt for creating a reading passage could sound like for the situation above:
- Create a reading passage for a third-grade student that is between five and seven sentences long. The reading passage needs to include at least 10 multisyllabic words that contain the /ar/ sound.
Once the AI tool is prompted and you have your information, you would go through the passage and tweak and revise the wording to best match your readers.
Here are just a few reading resources you can create using AI:
- Fluency passages
- Decodables
- Word lists bound by a specific spelling pattern
- Vocabulary and word study activities
- Reading passages with differentiated levels and languages
2. Reading Data Analysis
It truly feels like we are drowning in data sometimes. When I finally have time to sit down and understand the story behind my students’ scores, the data is already outdated, and I’m back to square one. It’s a Sisyphean struggle that MANY educators of all grade levels deal with.
Here’s where AI can save us time and stress!
- AI platforms, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, can analyze patterns in student errors and comprehension struggles across a single assessment or multiple assessments.
- These platforms flag specific skill gaps (e.g., inferring meaning, decoding multisyllabic words, or identifying main ideas).
- Based on the data and any standards linked to the assessment, AI recommends personalized practice or targeted interventions.
- From here, you can decide how to plan for this practice, including when and who to support.
It is very important to address the ethical and legal considerations. While each state and school district will likely have a different set of expectations when it comes to AI safety, here are a few tips from the California Department of Education:
- Ensure you are within compliance with FERPA + COPPA
- DO NOT include any personally identifiable information when using an AI tool. Instead, remove all student names altogether, with the option to use a numbering system instead.
- Review your computer and site’s data security measures
- Communicate data privacy guidelines with students and families
3. Engaging Comprehension Activities
Let’s switch our focus now to ways our students can engage and interact with AI to boost their reading comprehension. We often check our students’ comprehension through:
- Turn and talks
- Stop and jots
- Longer writing responses
- Graphic organizers
- Drawings
- Group discussions
Here are a few ways AI can engage our students in comprehension work
- Designing images to represent content themes and main ideas from texts
- Crafting story retellings with generative voice and movie platforms
- Plotting out word maps to represent high-level vocabulary terms
- Creating a podcast to discuss and/or argue different points of view within a text
These are some of our favorite go-to platforms for comprehension work:
- AdobeExpress
- Canva
- Genmoji
- Google Vid
- Wick Editor
So remember…we are just scratching the surface here. The world of AI shifts fast. If we were to have a conversation about reading and AI in two months, there would be new developments we probably can’t even fathom yet.
Our best piece of advice when it comes to getting the most out of AI in your reading instruction is to continue your own professional learning! Stay connected with us as we go on this learning journey together.
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