Using AI to Help Make Summary Pages for Students

The other day my coworker showed me how he was using AI in meetings.

When he started talking, I was kind of bored. Oh, yeah, you're talking minutes with AI. Cool. 

Then, as he kept explaining, I realized he was onto something. 

He is the"action coordinator" (or something along those lines) for our PYP program. He meets with PYP teachers during their units to help coach them about how they can add action to their units. 

It sounds like a cool job. 

Back to AI and meetings. 

When he meets with the teachers, he records the meetings. He then takes the recording and puts it into AI and asks for a summary, the main points, and action points. 

When I heard him explain this to me I knew I had to try it. 

Students miss information so the time. 

Students miss class. 

Students forget what was said. 

When I work with teachers I tried to help them understand that students are not listening for the full time that they are in the class. Much of what they say is missed and will need repeating in some way.

Often when a teacher starts to lecture, especially if the lecture is not interesting or if the teacher talks for too long, students will tune out and they will miss information. I tune out and miss information.

This is why I think that either flipping or blending your class is a good teaching strategy because it gets them the chance to review information. 

My coworker had this idea for the meetings and I saw its usefulness in lessons. I saw that students could get a quick handout after each class highlighting the main points and giving them some vocabulary to think about and giving them some questions to look into - promoting inquiry and giving them a little more ownership in their learning.

Below is my first attempt at this. 

I asked for a summary of the lesson. 

I asked for the five takeaways. 

I asked for some key vocabulary. 

I asked him some action points.

I plan on version 2, or version 2.0, to change the action points to some questions that students should find the answers to after the lesson. Hopefully this will help them build background knowledge.

Funny enough, when I showed this to the teacher, she said that the action points are exactly what she is teaching next.

Activities with Second Language Learners and Working Memory

I was back at tennis this past weekend. I go every weekend, so it is not surprising.

Photo by Lucas Davies on Unsplash

Tennis lessons always start with a warm-up. If this were a part of my own lessons, I might call it retrieval practice. We usually practice backhands and forehands for a few minutes at a fast pace. 

After warming up, we usually take a drink of water and then gather as a whole group to see what we will be doing. This part of the lesson is a station rotation model where we break up into four groups and practice different skills on different parts of the court. 

Then we play a match or a match-like game.

But, I want to focus on direction-giving here and how it can affect students.

The coach usually gathers us as a group and often numbers us off. Then we get the directions for the activities. Remember, this is up to four different stations that are explained to us. It can take a lot of effort to try to remember what is happening and how many balls we play until we change players. Finally, we need to remember which direction to rotate when changing stations.

The other day I found myself daydreaming during the directions. I have been taking lessons long enough to know what each station was, but I missed the details. 

I think it is best to number off after directions are given. That way groups will be able to concentrate on remembering the important part - the skills they are supposed to be practicing.

When I used to use the station rotation in my grade 1 classroom, I made videos of me telling the students the directions of the station and what they should be learning there. It helped keep them independent.

My Experience Spacing Out in a Lesson

I have been taking tennis lessons for over ten years here in Japan. I initially started to improve my Japanese ability, and it eventually grew into a "love of the game".

Photo by J. Schiemann on Unsplash

It's been more than 10 years off and on of this Japanese language learning strategy. It is helping me understand more vocabulary in tennis and kinesiology, but it is also reinforcing what good, inclusive teaching looks like; albeit through non-examples.

Definition from DuckDuckGo, attributed to Wordnik

Non-examples are examples that are shown for a clearer example, ie, it's not this, but this. The first time I saw it was in the Frayer Model and I think it fits in well with this tennis lesson since the lesson was not designed to be inclusive.

In this lesson:

Non Example 1 - Not using Visuals

The coach mostly spoke his directions and pointers. Occasionally he would draw on the sand to show positioning, but that was for whole-group instruction.

Non Example 2 - Not Modeling

Only occasionally would the coach actually do what the skill was we were practicing. Modeling how to move your body when you hit the ball, where on the racket to hit the ball, and where to position yourself on the court are all things that I think could have helped me understand.

Non Example 3 - Long Explanations

Sometimes the explanation went long. During these times I found myself thinking about other things -- important things I might add -- and suddenly, we were told to get into position. At these times, I was often lost. It made me think about how often I get mad at students who are not "paying attention" in class. However, since transitioning to a learning support role, I have noticed how long explanations have been in some classes. Teachers could be more effective if they limit their delivery.

Non Example 4 - High-Level Vocabulary

Along with long explanations, using high-level vocabulary is a way that can confuse learners. It has happened, that I will be in a lesson, and the coach will use a word I do not know. Sometimes when that happens, I try to understand the word I did not understand. This happens to some students as well. 

Non Example 5 - Not giving us time to practice

Sometimes I will be corrected in how I hit the ball. (Actually, this happens often.) When this happens I need to practice what I had been shown to try to understand the coaching. It does not always happen and I am often left to try to remember what was said.

Non Example 6 - Low Volume

The tennis club I attend has three, indoor courts. With the fans, AC, and other lessons happening when the coach is speaking, I can sometimes miss what is said. Modeling and using other non-verbal methods of teaching could help with the low volume during the lesson.

What they do well - 

The above aside, I have learned a lot from the way these lessons are run. The two best methods they use are station rotation and repetition.  

Station Rotation Model

The tennis lesson is broken into 5 parts.

1. Warm-up - stretching
2. Warm-up - hitting
3. Station Rotation - one of the stations is the "teaching point" for the day where the coach can "confer" with the participants.
4. Rotation Game
5. Game

The majority of the lesson uses a kind of station rotation model. This gives students a chance to practice many skills in a shorter amount of time. It also gives the coach a chance to confer with students and give them more individualized instruction. 

Repetition

Each lesson follows the same structure - the station rotation model I outlined above. This helps me to predict what will happen in the lesson and decrease the cognitive load I need to understand the directions. 

While I think that repetition is important, I also it is important for students to maintain their cognitive flexibility. 

This post was meant to help me better think about UDL and how it could fit into my own experience.

A plan for the school to integrate BML, or EAL, teaching in all subjects

Last year I took the course, BILINGUAL & MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS FROM THE INSIDE-OUT. 

A plan for the school to integrate BML, or EAL, teaching in all subjects