Tired of Lessons That Don’t Work? Elevating Educational Design with AI Can Help!

Are you tired of lessons that aren’t working? Do you feel like you’re pouring time and energy into planning only to face disengaged students, inconsistent progress, and widening learning gaps? Are you struggling to differentiate learning experiences and respond to individual student needs?

Time is the Biggest Barrier

In my work with teachers, the biggest barrier to shifting instructional practices is time. Many of the teachers I work with recognize that the one-size-fits-all lesson isn’t meeting the needs of most students. They have a wide spectrum of skills, abilities, language proficiencies, learning preferences, and interests in their class, but they don’t have time to design learning to meet that diversity of needs.

AI provides a new way to design learning experiences. I am not talking about the AI-powered education tools that allow teachers to plug in a standard or a learning objective and spit out a lesson. Those AI-generated lessons are usually the same whole group, teacher-led lessons we have used in education for years—the same lessons that don’t meet the needs of our students and trap teachers at the front of the room, transferring information to the whole class and orchestrating every part of the learning experience. These lessons often position students to spend long periods passively receiving information. And, of course, at the same time, the teacher does the lion’s share of the cognitive work.

Saving Time & Elevating Design with AI

Dr. Katie Novak and I have co-authored a book, Elevating Educational Design with AI, to guide educators in leveraging AI to design with a higher level of intentionality, creating learning experiences that are accessible, inclusive, and equitable. We want teachers to have a clear design pathway they can move through to create learning experiences that honor the variability in their classes and also free them to spend their finite time and energy working directly with students to differentiate and personalized learning. We want to help educators be responsive to students’ needs, ensuring that all learners progress toward firm, standards-aligned goals while having opportunities to develop the skills necessary to be resilient, self-directed learners.

A Sneak Peek at the AI-Enhanced Design Pathway

At the heart of Elevating Educational Design with AI is a four-step design pathway that helps educators leverage AI as a partner in crafting meaningful learning experiences. This framework empowers teachers to design more intentionally while saving time and ensuring students feel supported.

Here’s a quick look at the pathway:

Step 1: Identify Desired Outcomes
Begin with clarity. Define what students should know or be able to do, and outline how progress will be measured. This step keeps the end goal in focus, ensuring every design choice serves a purpose.

Step 2: Design Equitable Learning Experiences
Use AI tools to streamline the creation of universally accessible and inclusive lessons that meet the diverse needs of your students. Move beyond one-size-fits-all by designing experiences that remove barriers and foster engagement.

Step 3: Adapt and Personalize Instruction and Support
Let AI help you respond to individual student needs by analyzing data and identifying trends. Adjust your approach to provide targeted instruction, enabling all learners to make progress.

Step 4: Cultivate Resilient Learners
Finally, focus on helping students build skills, like self-direction, critical thinking, and perseverance. AI supports your ability to design opportunities for students to practice and develop these essential life skills in the context of your lessons.

By following this pathway, you’ll not only create lessons that work for today’s classrooms, but you’ll also free up time to focus on what matters most—your direct interactions with students.

Reframing AI in Education: A Thought Partner, Not a Replacement

AI isn’t a substitute for your expertise, creativity, or deep understanding of your students. Instead, it’s a powerful thought partner—a tool to streamline the parts of the design process that consume your valuable time and energy. By assisting you in cognitively challenging tasks like differentiating your instructional materials, generating standards-aligned assessments that provide flexible pathways, and analyzing data trends manually, AI allows you to focus on what matters most: building connections with your students and creating meaningful learning experiences tailored to their needs.

Dr. Novak and I want to help educators do this work in a way that is both sustainable and impactful, meeting the needs of all students without sacrificing their well-being. Instead of viewing the diversity in our classrooms as a problem or threat to traditional ways we’ve done things, we just need to learn how to design for that reality.

By designing intentionally for the variety of skills, experiences, and perspectives our students bring into our classrooms, this diversity becomes an asset–a source of creativity, connection, collaboration, and deeper learning for everyone. Together (with a little help from AI), we can create classrooms where every student has the opportunity to thrive.

Pre-order and Unlock Two Bonus Chapters

Complete this form with evidence of your pre-order before the book is released on January 14, and you’ll gain exclusive access to exciting bonus content and resources designed to enhance your experience with the book.

Here’s what you’ll unlock when you pre-order:

• Two Bonus Chapters: Get early access to two additional chapters not included in the book, giving you even more content.
• Be the First to Receive the Book: As a pre-order customer, you’ll be among the first to get your hands on this book as soon as it’s released.
• A Comprehensive Book Study Guide: Dive deeper into the content with a companion study guide that will help your department, PLC, or book study group discuss and implement the ideas in the book with confidence.

Pre-order today and join a growing community of educators reimagining lesson design and creating inclusive, equitable, and engaging learning experiences for their students.

Pre-order the book on Amazon!

Submit your pre-order and unlock two bonus chapters!

Need support to create inclusive classrooms?
Dr. Tucker designs customized, hands-on professional learning experiences that help teachers develop a robust teaching toolbelt of flexible instructional strategies for delivering high-quality Tier 1, 2, and 3 instruction. Contact us to learn how we can support your team in creating classrooms where every student thrives.

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