Using AI to Reflect on My Reading Lessons

Term 3 Teaching Inquiry Update: Using AI to Reflect on My Reading Lessons

This term, I have been exploring new ways to reflect on my teaching practice, particularly in relation to my inquiry question:

“How effectively am I engaging my learners in extended, meaningful discussions about a text?”

To support this, I trialled Vosaic, a platform where I uploaded recordings of two of my reading lessons. The unique feature of Vosaic is that it uses AI to observe, analyse, and give feedback on my teaching. I also provided the AI with my inquiry question as a prompt, which meant the feedback was directly aligned to what I wanted to focus on.

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Lesson One Feedback

The AI feedback highlighted several strengths in my teaching:

• Encouraging Participation: I invited students to share their prior knowledge, such as asking “Who can tell me what they know about Area 51?” This gave students an open platform to contribute and set the tone for discussion.

• Clarifying Concepts: By unpacking terms like “conspiracy theories” and “reconnaissance,” I ensured all students had the vocabulary needed to participate meaningfully.

• Facilitating Critical Thinking: Questions such as “Why do you think the government kept Area 51 a secret for so long?” pushed students to think more deeply.

• Setting Ground Rules: I established discussion expectations, such as listening respectfully and asking questions, which supported a productive dialogue.

• Encouraging Diverse Perspectives: I prompted students to consider arguments for and against government secrecy, helping them see multiple viewpoints.

• Reflection on Goals: At the end, I reflected with the group on how well they engaged and what they could improve, encouraging ownership of the learning process.

Areas for Growth in Lesson One

While the feedback was largely affirming, two areas stood out as next steps:

• Extending Discussions Further: I could build on students’ answers more deliberately with probing or follow-up questions to deepen their thinking.

• Students Asking Each Other Questions: At this stage, most questions came from me. A next step is encouraging learners to ask questions of each other during discussions, which would shift ownership and create more authentic dialogue. This could be supported through strategies such as discussion roles, question stems, or modelling student-to-student questioning.

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Lesson Two Feedback

In my second lesson, I continued to explore strategies for building extended discussions. The AI observed:

• Encouragement of Participation: Open-ended prompts like “If you were allowed to visit Area 51 for one day, what would you do and why?” encouraged personal connections and expression of opinions.

• Building on Prior Knowledge: I linked back to previous discussions, such as conspiracy theories and Neil Armstrong, helping students connect ideas.

• Clarification and Definition: Again, I ensured all students understood key vocabulary, which allowed for more meaningful contributions.

• Encouraging Critical Thinking: Questions about government secrecy continued to drive reflective, analytical conversations.

• Setting Ground Rules: I reinforced expectations like “let everybody have a turn of talking” and “look at both sides of the topic,” which supported inclusivity.

However, the AI also identified areas for growth:

• Inviting Responses: While participation was encouraged, I could do more to explicitly draw in quieter voices. I acknowledged this in class, but I need to more actively implement strategies for it.

• Follow-Up Questions: After students shared ideas, I sometimes moved on too quickly. Asking further questions (e.g., “What do you think aliens would be like?”) could have deepened the conversations further.

The overall feedback suggested that my methods are effective but could be refined to create even richer discussions.

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Reflection

Using AI for feedback has been an interesting and valuable experience. The analysis affirmed the strategies I already use to foster extended, meaningful discussions, while also pushing me to think about areas I can improve, especially around inviting all voices into the conversation, encouraging students to ask questions of each other, and extending discussions with follow-up questioning.

As I move forward, I want to be more deliberate about drawing in quieter students, supporting student-to-student questioning, and practising deeper questioning techniques to extend their thinking. This inquiry continues to give me valuable insights into how I can create more engaging and meaningful literacy discussions.