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How Much Writing Do You Read? (Themes Notebook)

Carrie Emmerson

Hi there - 

Getting ready for another school year, and bracing myself for the writing.  I'm looking at the Themes Notebook questions in each section, as well as the LEQ and DBQ prompts.  I love writing as a means of having students think critically and process their thoughts.  I always find myself bogged down, though, trying to read it all, and am therefore a little hesitant about incorporating the Themes Notebooks into my practice.  Do any of you have effective strategies for managing the tension?  

  •   OK. Don't roll your eyes at this right away, but...  I've been using AI to help.  You can now take a picture of writing and AI can read it.  Which means you can listen to kids writing while doing something else, or have AI assess parts of the assignment for you, or just provide you with summaries of each assignment, then you read the ones you need to.  I like to read everything my kids write, and to avoid them using AI to write, I have them write on paper, then upload them to the computer by taking a pic.  AI can help you offer feedback too.  Get ahold of me if you want to know how I use AI to help give feedback. Key points- I 'read' everything my kids write and all writing (or speaking) gets my feedback.

  • Eleven Reader is one app I use to read things outloud for me.  You can get 2 hours free each week.  My ChatGPT account gives me a lot more time.  I do use this reader for online texts, then record them using my phone, then upload the audio to my Google Drive and put it on classroom for students.  I can also have the reader read general feedback comments for the whole class.  Kids will listen to the feedback more than read it!

  • in reply to Bryan Dibble

    Thanks,  .  I'll admit I've been a little head-in-the-sand about AI usage in general.  I am hoping this week's webinar, AI-Powered Minds, will jump start me a bit.  A question:  when you talk about using the ElevenReader, is it for texts outside of the OER WHP texts, which already have audio recordings?  How's the voice(s)?

  • in reply to Carrie Emmerson

     I agree with you as I am registered to attend the seminar to gain insights on AI use.  is very knowledgeable about AI and definitely ahead of the game.

  • in reply to Bryan Dibble

     the process you describe seems to take time. What is the advantage of taking all these steps? Also, do you use the free version for ChatGPT? 

  • in reply to Carrie Emmerson

    The voice(s) are excellent, you can pick.  I use "slower" voices for somethings, and faster ones for others.  The voices are different speeds, so using a fast one sometimes messes with kids' comprehension.  When there is a recording from OER, sure, I use that.  But for everything else, there is AI.  I use it to read my own writing, especially my feedback to the classes.  

  • in reply to Carrie Emmerson

     This is a partial recording of a section of the directions for a class activity. You can hear the cadence and the voice type—it went along with the printed directions, so it was basically reading them for the students. I can’t use this enough; it makes such a difference for kids. Many times I just have AI read material over the classroom speakers while I walk around and see who is listening.
    Recording.m4a

  • in reply to Laura Massa

    There is so much I'm still learning, but what I have discovered is gold for my students.  We are not making our jobs faster, we're doing the same amount of work, but we're able to bring a lot more to students by using AI.  Quality of lessons and planning and documentation is SKY HIGH with AI.