Episode 78: Utilizing AI to Differentiate for Gifted and Advanced Learners

Welcome to A Meaningful Mess, a podcast for educators who want to And empower gifted learners. Whether you specifically serve gifted learners, have gifted learners in your classroom, Just want to know more about what gifted learners need from the school experience, you are in the right place. I'm Edie McNair and I'm a keynote speaker, author, educator, and mom of my own gifted kiddos.

And I know that teaching gifted learners can be challenging. But you know what? It's also incredibly rewarding. Throughout this podcast, I'll share practical ideas and strategies that will help you create a meaningful and engaging learning experience. students. I'll also talk about Genius Hour, a powerful approach to learning that can help learners explore passion and purpose as they develop their talent.

So, if you're looking for ways to reach your gifted learners, I invite you to join me on this journey. Thanks for listening. I'm so glad that you're here. Welcome to episode seventy eight of a meaningful mess podcast. I'm just gonna be completely honest here and tell you guys what a mess up. I just recorded ten minutes of this episode.

with my microphone on mute. So here we go. Take two. On today's episode, I am excited to talk about something that to be completely honest, I'm a little bit uncomfortable talking about because I am not a specialist I don't claim to be. It's not something that I'm kind of moving toward. However, there are some really cool resources out there. And as I was thinking about what I was gonna record this week in the community and this week uh

on social media, I'm really focusing on differentiation. And so as I was thinking about what I wanted to record for the podcast, I thought I have to talk about differentiation, but I wanted to talk about it from a different perspective. And so on today's episode, we are going to explore artificial intelligence. And how it can be used to differentiate content, to differentiate learning experiences for our gifted and advanced learners.

Now, first of all, if you've heard me say artificial intelligence and you're a little freaked out by this whole thing, don't worry, join the club. We're all a little freaked out. That being said, there are some really great tools out there that can make your life as an educator. so much easier. And that's what I want to talk about on today's How can we use some of these tools?

To take things off of the plate so that we can make sure we keep the important things on the plate. I get asked all the time as a digital innovation specialist about whether AI going to replace us as educators. Well gosh, I hope not because artificial intelligence isn't able to right now, there's no relationship, right? There's no So many of the things that are so important in the classroom, AI doesn't do. It is a great place to kind of see. I always think of AI.

Right. It's a great place to get ideas and then to think about your learners, your classroom, your content, your standards, and use that springboard to create some really meaningful stuff. for the class. So that being said, I want to first of all say that I think it's so important that we have Conversation. About how to use AI ethically and to remember that it's not the end-all-be-all. It will say things that are not true, that are not.

And as educators, it's important that we know what we are doing, what we're teaching, and what we are providing to our learners. So that if it does give us something that is inaccurate or not the case, that we're able to kind of through that is that a word siphon through that and know whether or not it's something that we should use.

And just remembering, AI doesn't know your learners. It's not in your classroom. So that being said, it it's not going to be able to always create things that are relevant for your It needs you for that. You have to be able to put in that information. So as far as us as educators, there are so many things that we do that AI can't do that. No, I don't think we should be completely intimidated by this idea.

And I do think it's important to have conversations around what it can do and what it can't do. So, all of that being said, what we're going to talk about on today's episode are five ways to differentiate for gifted and advanced. using AI. And these are really simple ideas. Like I said, I am not an expert in this field. But I do know that there are some really cool resources out there. And I wanted to make sure that I share Okay, here we go. We're gonna jump right in.

And as I think about artificial intelligence and what it's capable of doing and the assistance that it can give educators. I can't help but remember my own time in the classroom and some of the things that were really difficult for me or some of the things that took up most of my time. Now I look at AI and I'm like, oh my gosh, why couldn't that have been a thing when I was in the classroom?

So let's just talk about the idea of creating extended thinking questions, higher level, higher order thinking questions, and higher level text. Because I remember, you know, when I was in the classroom, especi specifically the general education And I had learners who were struggling to read. I had learners that were well beyond the reading level that we were reading at. And I had everything in between.

And so thinking through that, oftentimes it didn't make sense to give my learners the exact same test. But what was I gonna do, right? I wasn't gonna rewrite it in several different levels. That wasn't possible. I didn't have the time or the ability to do that. Well now using AI we have resources that will actually take any text and it will uh level it for your readers. Let me explain what I mean.

So, the resource that I am going to share for this specific idea, creating higher-level text and higher order thinking questions, is called diffit.me, d-if it.me. Don't worry if you're driving and you can't write that down, you'll be able to go to andymacnair.com slash seventy-eight and I will make sure that I have all of these resources.

So Andy McNair dot com slash episode seventy-eight. You guys can check it out. So diff it.me. What happens on this website is you create a login. It's free, but you do have to have a login. And when you um Get there, it will say literally anything, um, a website, a URL, or um t any text or excerpt from And so then there's a box. So your choices are you can type any topic. So I could say the water cycle, I could say the Alamo, and it's going to create text for my students to use based on that.

I could also copy and paste a Wonder Obelisk link or any link for that matter and it will pull that article. into diff it or I could copy and paste any text. I don't just have to put the URL. I could copy and paste any text and I could copy it and paste it into diffit.com. And so then you're going to uh kind of click create or whatever the button says for you to say, okay, it's time for you to do something.

And what diffit is going to do, oh, what you do next actually is it's going to say the different reading levels. And so you can choose, hey, I need this on a second grade level, I need it on a fifth grade level, and I need it on uh an eighth grade level. And I love this because they're all reading about the same content. It's just at a different level. And that makes so much sense. It's just difficult to do.

And now AI does it for you. So you choose your reading level, then you wait for it to create the content. And when it creates the content, not only does it give you the different levels, or not only will it give you that specific level. You can then kind of look underneath and it will give you vocabulary for that article or for that text. It will also give you questions. Multiple choice questions. It'll give you a summary. It will also do open-ended questions, short answer questions.

But wait, it gets better, right? It's like, but wait, there's more. You can also uh when you after you create the question. You can create more questions and you can differentiate the questions. So you can say, I want strategic thinking questions, I want extended thinking questions. And I love this because as a new teacher So often when people would talk to me about higher order thinking skills or thinking questions, it sounded great in theory.

But I didn't always know how to write those. And so I like the idea of kind of looking at this as training wheels. It's a great way for us as educators to see: hey, here are some extended thinking questions, here are some strategic thinking questions. And really use what we learn from this resource to be able to create those on our own. But as far as creating higher level text and those higher order thinking questions.

Diffit.me is definitely where it's at. So you guys check it out. See what you think. I think you're gonna love it. Um, very cool resource. Just something that I think allows us as educators to take something off of the plate. So again, we can keep all of those. Okay, so number one, higher level text and those extended text.

Number two, we're going to be talking about choices. Look, I'm gonna be completely honest choice boards were mine. when I was in the classroom. I just was not a fan. I think just because sometimes for me it was difficult enough to think of one meaningful learning experience, to have to create more than one, it was like, seriously, like I don't I don't know how to do

So sometimes I think choice boards can be overwhelming. I've shared this recently. I think it was Ian Bird that I saw in his blog post said that two choices are a choice, right? You don't have to have nine. Honestly, I think nine choices can be a little bit overwhelming for not only us as educators, but also for our learners. So whether you're creating two choices or nine choices, artificial intelligence can play a big role here and be super.

So, I am a big fan of Canva. It's not a secret. I absolutely love what Canva has done for educators. one thing that they've done is make their platform entirely free for educators. So if you go to Canva for Education or Canva for Educators, you can log in with your school email and access all of their content for free, which I just So amazing. I'm a big fan. Um, but I am also a big fan of the artificial intelligence that is built into campus.

And so when we think about the idea of choice boards, uh you may have heard of the idea of like a menu choice board where you um, you know, your appetizer, your main dish, and your dessert. Well, I don't have like the bandwidth to think through all of that, but my friend Terry Eccoltz, uh,

But she has a great blog called Engage Their Minds. You guys definitely want to check it out. And I'll actually include the link in the show notes. She wrote a blog about this, but I love this. So in Canva, you can create these amazing graphics. digital tools and so in Canva you could create a menu so you just go in Canva search menu and you could find so many different options and then using Canva Magic Rite is what it's called So that's Magic ride.

And you could have it create the different choices for the specific topic that your choice board is around. So you would just tell it specifically, can you create nine different choices if you want to have that? Nine different choices about the water cycle for a choice board. And you could even be as specific and say, can you make it in the form of an appetizer main dish?

And it will create those choices for you. And even if it doesn't do it perfectly, it will do it in a way that you as an educator at least, like I said earlier, have a springboard. For your ideas, so that you're not just starting with nothing. So often I think that's the most difficult part. Like I'm starting with nothing. Where do I go? So using Canva to create choice boards, it could be a menu, you could create um

Gosh, the possibilities are endless. There's so many different choice boards you could create. You could do a tic-tac-toe board. You could do a this or that. They have lots of this or that um different um kind of templates in Canva as well. So again, creating choice boards and one more thing I want to say. Sorry, it's like my brain just won't stop. It's going 90.

One of the things that you can do with choice boards is to align the choices with depth and complexity. So you could specifically say, could you align the choices that are created with the depth and complexity? So that there is a variety of different ideas. And then you're making sure that you are providing choices that are that do give your learners an opportunity to reach a deep I haven't tried the depth and complexity idea.

Canva. I have tried that in Chat GPT and it works like a charm. So definitely something to check out. But again, that's a perfect example of when you as the teacher need to know your stuff because. It might give you something that doesn't align with that specific action. So it's important that you know the depth and complexity icons well so that you can make sure that the suggestions that it gives. makes sense. If you're listening to this right now and you're What are depth and complexity icons?

Do me a favor, go to depthcomplexity.com. Again, I'll put that in the show notes so you can check it out. But I'm a big believer in using the depth and complexity icons to design meaningful learning extensions for gifted and advanced learners. So check it out and think about how you might be able to utilize those icons to create choice boards that will help your learners not only make connections, but to also reach that deeper level of understanding.

Okay, number three. Um, oftentimes when we think about rubrics, I rubrics are another thing that it was just like, oh my gosh, they're so hard to create. And finding the time to create. over and over again or using them consistently can be really difficult. And again, sometimes I just needed a spring Just don't know like where to start. What would one be? And um, so you can use so many different resources.

To make this happen, but I'm gonna share two. First of all, ChatGPT is a great place to create root. So you would just go in and you would explain exactly what the assignment is. Look, when you're using artificial intelligence, the more details you can provide, the more specific you can be in your app.

the better the response is going to be. And so you want to make sure that if you're asking it to create a rubric, that you are very specific in explaining what the assignment was that your students are being that you're giving feedback on. So that being said, we can talk about this from two different perspectives. We can think about your traditional rubric where you have a one, two, three.

Or you could use Chat GPT to create a single point rubric. If you haven't heard of single point rubrics, do yourself a favor and check these out. Again, I'll put a link in the show notes. You guys are definitely if you don't usually visit the show notes, today is the day to visit. So you'll go a single point rubric is where in the middle you put your extra.

So, I typically talk about this from the Genius Hour perspective. If I was going to use a single point rubric to give feedback on a Genius Hour project, There are three columns and in the middle column you list those expectations. So I would have passion, plan, pitch, project, product, presentation, and I would explain what the expectations were for each part of the project.

On one side of that column, you have a way to go, right? These are the things that you did really well. On the other side, you have ways to grow. These are some things that you could have done better. I am a huge fan of single. rubrics because I think it's really authentic feedback that can be really meaningful for our So whether you're looking to create that criteria and you just want kind of a partner to help you think through that, chat.

can do that. You could ask it to create specific expectations for each part of a process. Or if you're looking to create a tradition a traditional rubric. Where it is kind of that one, two, three, four. um type of setup in Chat GPT you would go in, explain the assignment, and then ask it to create that rubric. Now often with our gifted and advanced learners, they need like a number five.

Right. They need to be able to take it a step further. They may the expectations need to need might need to be a little bit different than for the rest of our learners. And so using chat. To create not only the rubric for all of our learners, but then asking it to create a call. For the gifted and advanced learners is a really cool idea, and again, can take something off of your plate. So, something to think about. Another really great resource for creating rubrics is Magic School AI.

I'll put a link to that. You guessed it in the show notes, and you guys can check it out. But in Magic School AI, you can actually click rubrics. It's a little bit more detailed than ChatGPT. And Magic School AI is created for education. And so this is for the classroom. It will blow your mind when you get in there and see some of the things that it can do. So whether you use Chat GPT,

or you utilize magic school AI. I love the idea of differentiating rubrics for our gifted learners, which oftentimes is not something we want to do if we're having to create the rubric ourselves. But utilizing AI, it can make this a little more manageable and honestly can create rubric ideas that we just don't think about. So definitely something to check out. So expectations on a rubric is number Number four.

Making it relevant. So often for our gifted learners, they have to have a connection. Look, I would say that's true for so many of our learners in general. There has to be a connection. Between I I say it all the time, we have to connect to there right now. We have to make it relevant. And as I was playing around with the rubric on Magic School AI, I actually saw a button that said make it relevant. What in the world is that? And so when I clicked on make it

It actually asked me like what are you teaching? And then tell me a little bit about your students. And so I said my students like video games, they like being creative, and I can't remember what else. Uh I I might even say like they're advanced learners or they're gifted learners. You want to give all the details.

And then what happened was it took the concept or the idea or the standard that I was teaching and it gave me all of these connections, all of these ideas that I could use to make it relevant to the learners that I describe. You guys, that is very cool. So again, that was in Magic School AI, which is absolutely free. There are, I'm sure there are paid apps.

But Magic School AI is a really cool resource. And clicking on making it relevant or make it relevant gives you just those ideas of how to connect to their. Now that's a great example of partnering with AI. So again, it's saying like I don't know your kids. You've got to tell me what they enjoy, who they are, describe them to me, and then I'll put the pieces together.

So, your role as an educator is really important in knowing your learners and describing them so that that artificial intelligence tool can use that information to create. Uh I do want to be clear. I I personally would not put personal information into any of these tools. I wouldn't put student names. I wouldn't put school names. I just don't think we know enough about AI yet to be doing that.

Know if I'm alone in thinking that. I don't know what everybody else thinks, but that's my perspective. It's something I would be really careful about. I wouldn't include names, I would be very broad, but I would definitely describe kind of who my learners are as far as what they enjoy, what they talk about. All right, so making it relevant is number four, and then number five is creating

I don't know about y'all, but I just, I don't know why on this episode I'm telling you like all of the things that I suck at. But creating essential questions sometimes is difficult. Like, oh my gosh, I've just got to think through. And and sometimes after I've designed a learning experience, that's one of the hardest things to do is to go back and think through that big lens to get to

But essential questions are really important for our gifted and advanced learners because those are the questions that get them to think critically and to make important connections. And so there is another cool resource called Question Well. And question well has just so many really cool uh resources for you to create different things, different ideas around questions. It will also create text.

Different texts for your students. You have the opportunity to explain what outcomes you want, and then you can say what question type. Um, there is a paid version of this as well. But what I love about this is that it will create, I actually created one and it gave me the essential question. For that specific topic. And I love that because those essential questions, like I said, are so important because it's what gets our learners to that place of critical.

and really being able to make the connections between what they're learning and why it matters, why it's important. So creating essential questions is number five and question well is a great

Or to be able to do that. Okay, so let me just kind of go over these one more time. Uh first of all, if you're looking to create higher level text and extended thinking questions, diffit.me is check out creating choice boards that align with depth and complexity. Canva is a beautiful, beautiful place to make that happen. Expectations on a rubric. You could use Chat GPT to do this, and you could also use Magic School AI.

Making it relevant for your learners. Again, Magic School AI is a great resource for that. If you have not checked out Magic School AI, I seriously would love to hear from you when you do. It is like it's such a great place for education. And then finally that last resource, create essential questions. You can do that in question web.

Gosh, you guys, we went really fast. I was talking really quickly. I hope that all of this makes sense and I hope it gives you some new ideas to kind of jazz up your classroom and to take some things off your plate so that you can focus on the things that matter most. And one of the things I always say is it is 100% okay for learning to be messy as long as it's meaningful.

But if there are so many things on our plate that all we're focusing on is managing, then we don't ever get to the meaningful part. So I think some of these things can really help us as educators. to get to the things that really matter. So you guys check out these resources. I would love to hear which ones you use. You can always connect with me through my website at andymacnair.com. As always, thank you so much for the work that you do.

Hope that you have a wonderful day, wonderful evening. I don't know when you're listening to this, but as always, thank you so much for listening. I'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of A Meaningful Mess. I hope you found inspiration and valuable insights for engaging and empowering gifted learners. If you'd like to connect with me and explore more resources, please visit my website at andymacnair.com.

You can also follow me on Instagram at a underscore meaningful underscore mess for regular updates, discussions, and a vibrant community of educators dedicated to making a difference. Your support means the world to me, and I appreciate you being a part of this journey. If you have any questions, feedback, or topics you'd like for me to explore in future episodes,

Don't hesitate to reach out. Remember, you have the power to create meaningful and impactful learning experiences for your gifted students. Keep up the fantastic work and thank you for joining me on a meaningful meeting. Until next time, keep finding meaning in your mess. Happy teaching and learning. I'll talk to you soon.