Using AI to get insights on paper assignments?!?
On Monday, I told you how I was getting more out of my students’ paper assignments …
I scanned student work (with names redacted) as a PDF.
I uploaded them to Google Gemini in my school account (because EDU accounts have added data privacy).
I told my AI app what I wanted to learn.
It gave me insights I could use to support my teaching.
Today, I did it again — twice.
1. Weeks ago, my students did a graphic organizer — a version of the 8pARTS EduProtocol. I scanned them and got an overview of what they were doing well (and not well).
Today, we did 8pARTS again. I scanned this one to get AI insights … AND to compare how their writing had changed (improved / declined).
2 . My students brainstormed “memory hooks” (aka: mnemonic devices) for new vocabulary terms. They wrote them on mini dry erase boards. This morning, I scanned them with the Google Drive mobile app. I put them into Google Gemini and asked for a summary of their memory hooks — plus suggestions for the terms they didn’t address. The guide it created is great — and it’s rooted in the hooks my students came up with themselves.
It’s incredible!
I realized that there’s a pattern to all of this … a framework that can be followed in a variety of different ways — Make / Capture / AI / Amplify.
Sooooooo … we turned it into a FREE DOWNLOADABLE GUIDE! It has a page for each step AND a “One-Page Lesson Plan” at the end to gather all of your ideas.
The beauty of all of this? Learning is at the center — AND human thinking comes first.
In today’s 💡 Big Idea, I’ll walk you through the framework.
Inside:
🛠️ A look at what you can build in Kira
👀 DTT Digest: 4 resources worth checking out
👥 Community: Something new is starting this week
🎯 Quick Teaching Strategy: Printable student collaboration role cards
💡 The Big Idea: Framework: Make / Capture / AI / Amplify
😄 Smile of the day: Not quite enough coffee ☕️
👋 How we can help
🛠️ A look at what you can build in Kira
Ask for the lesson you want and Kira builds it — standards-aligned, ready for you to shape.
Adapt materials you already have, and assign without leaving the platform
Give every student their own guide, one that knows what they're working on
Same lesson, three reading levels, a few clicks
Assessments that mirror your state tests in content and in format
See where your class stands on every skill, then assign practice that fits
Curriculum, assessment, and intervention, working together as one.
Follow Kira on LinkedIn for classroom ideas, teacher stories, and what's new on the platform.
👀 DTT Digest
4 teaching resources worth checking out today
📔 Google Slides interactive notebooks + 20 activities to fill them — Remix a classroom classic with a techy overhaul! This template will get you going.
🎥 Math explainer videos — Follow Howie Hua, a college math instructor dedicated to helping you understand math with engaging short videos.
📜 Resources for Constitution Day — Check out resources from Retro Report to help your students understand the compromises and debates that have shaped American history and government.
ICYMI 💻 Register for the FREE Teach Forward Summit — This virtual event brings together 1,000+ teachers from leading schools across the US and Canada to explore what great teaching looks like today. September 22nd–24th, every day from 3:00 to 5:00 PM ET
👥 FROM THE COMMUNITY 👥
🟢 Something new is starting this week
Whether you've been meaning to get back into the DTT community this fall but haven't quite made it there yet, OR you’re brand new (as over 300 of you are!) - we’re here to tell you that this is your sign. That yellow box right above this paragraph? Yea, that’s it. We've got a few new surprises rolling out over the next couple of weeks, starting with two new weekly threads in the #TeacherLife channel.
Every Sunday, we'll open the week simply enough by asking: what are you teaching this week? The first one kicks off this coming Sunday. 🤓
Then, on Fridays, we'll ask: what's one thing you learned this week? This one we will actually begin this Friday, tomorrow, Sept 18.
Just two check-ins to bookend your weekly thinking - nothing too fancy, just a place to pause, reflect, and share. Come on in and get reacquainted!
📔 Check out the Newest Lesson on the Library Shelves!
Today we want to shout out community member Kim Turri’s latest edition to the Lesson Library: the Famous Failures Choice Board. Created for 6th grade (but can certainly be adapted), this board challenges students to think about how failure impacts us and how we should respond. Click the link above to take a look, and don’t forget to let Kim know what you think in the comments!
Remember, you can join the free DTT Community to read ideas like this, connect with other educators, discuss, and share ideas of your own.
🎯 QUICK TEACHING STRATEGY 🎯
🖨️ Transform group work with printable student role cards
We’ve been talking a LOT lately about student collaboration. One big piece of the puzzle? Student roles.
Looking for a visual way to help students settle into meaningful roles when collaborating?
On pages 14–16 of The DTT Ultimate Guide to Classroom Collaboration we created 12 printable cards designed to give every student a clear, meaningful purpose during group tasks.
Connector: Finds relationships between ideas.
Expander: Pushes promising ideas further.
Challenger: Tests assumptions respectfully.
Organizer: Structures and categorizes group ideas.
Gap Finder: Identifies missing angles or perspectives.
Evidence Seeker: Demands data, facts, and reasoning to back up claims.
Perspective Seeker: Shares overlooked viewpoints.
Questioner: Drives investigation with thoughtful questions.
Prioritizer: Helps determine what needs immediate focus.
Skeptic: Looks for weaknesses or unintended consequences.
Consensus Builder: Uncovers common ground during disagreements.
Synthesizer: Combines contributions into a final summary or solution.
💡IDEA: Give your students all of the cards you want them to use for a group project and let THEM decide which roles are needed and which to take on.
Simply print, cut, and laminate these cards to reuse year-round, empowering students to take ownership of their specific role in any group activity.
💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡
📋 Framework: Make / Capture / AI / Amplify
Use this framework with student assignments — even paper ones!
I’ve been dabbling a LOT in the “paper + tech” arena lately.
Why? Well, for one, lots of us are looking at our use of technology more these days — and making sure that it’s worthwhile.
Even if some of the loud voices on social media (and the authors of some popular books) are making some spurrious claims about edtech, it’s something we should always analyze and critique.
In my own classroom, we do a combo of paper assignments and tech-based activities. (And in some cases, paper + tech activities!)
One place this has been extremely helpful: Getting AI insights from my paper assignments.
How I’m using AI to analyze students’ paper assignments
Here’s a workflow I shared on Monday …
Students turn in a paper-based assignment.
I scan it. (Use the scan feature on your photocopier — my favorite! — or the scanner in the Google Drive mobile app.) No student names on the scans though!
I upload it to Google Gemini in my school account. (School EDU accounts get better data privacy protections.)
I ask it to analyze my students’ work and give me suggestions.
I realized that this workflow can be used even more broadly in lots of different ways! Let’s look at it as a framework …
✍️ STAGE 1: Make (Students learn by making something on paper OR digitally.)
📷 STAGE 2: Capture (Turn student work into a digital file.)
🤖 STAGE 3: AI (Ask for patterns, suggestions, possibilities.)
♻️ STAGE 4: Amplify (Use tech to transform, extend, deepen the original lesson.)
Let’s look at all four stages.
✍️ STAGE 1: Make
This is where students share their learning on paper or digitally.
Ask them to: write, solve, draw, annotate, sort, categorize … or, more specifically:
Complete a graphic organizer
Create a diagram
Build a model out of paper, cardboard, Play Doh, aluminum foil, etc.
Respond to a prompt
Explain their thinking
Collaborate on paper
Examples: Quick writes, annotated reading passage, vocabulary sort, timeline, sketchnote, etc.
👋 HOW I USED THIS: Students filled out graphic organizers and did timed writings on notebook paper.
📷 STAGE 2: Capture
Turn student work into a digital file of some sort. Here are some suggestions:
Scan with Google Drive / OneDrive app
Use the scan feature of your school photocopier
Export digital work as a PDF
Take pictures or screenshots
Export from an app as a CSV or spreadsheet
Privacy and security items to check first:
I'm using my school's approved AI tool/account.
I've removed student names or identifying information.
I've removed sensitive/personal student information.
I'm not uploading student work that contains valuable intellectual property.
This use of AI follows my school's policies.
👋 HOW I USED THIS: I asked students to write their names on the back of their work (instead of the front). I put their work through the scanner feature of the school’s photocopier. It emailed a PDF to me. (Even without that, the Google Drive mobile app has a great scanner tool.)
🤖 STAGE 3: AI
You’re not asking it to grade for you — or provide feedback — or be the human teacher.
You’re asking it to notice things for you. There’s a ton of data in that student work. You might pick up on a couple trends or patterns. But AI is made for this kind of work — and, honestly, it’s better at noticing it than our human eyes are.
Here’s what you could ask it:
🔎 Find Patterns — "Identify patterns, trends, strengths, weaknesses, and common misconceptions in this student work."
🎯 Find What Needs Reteaching — "Prioritize the five concepts, skills, or misconceptions I should emphasize or reteach based on this student work. Explain why each one matters."
💪 Find Strengths — "What are students demonstrating successfully? Identify patterns in what they understand or do well."
🧩 Group Students by Need — "Based on this work, identify 3–4 instructional groups I could create. Describe the learning need for each group and suggest an appropriate next step. Do not identify students by name."
📈 Look for Growth (Multiple Assignments) — "Compare these two sets of student work. What has improved, declined, or stayed consistent? Look for changes in accuracy, complexity, vocabulary, reasoning, or misconceptions."
🚦 Find the Hidden Insights — "What important patterns or insights might a teacher overlook if they only looked at overall scores?"
📝 Turn Data into Next Steps — "Based on these patterns, recommend 3 possible instructional next steps. For each, explain what students should do and what the teacher should emphasize."
Then, based on what you see, you use it to help plan your lesson.
👋 HOW I USED THIS: I asked for patterns, what needs reteaching, strengths, etc. Then I had it recommend what I could do to address those issues. (Even if I didn’t use those recommendations — or if I was already planning to do them — it’s good to see suggestions.)
♻️ STAGE 4: Amplify
Take the original learning and transform it … extend it … deepen it somehow.
Here are some ways:
🔄 REVISIT — Use student work to build warm-ups, reteach concepts, design intervention groups, create review activities, or build a "common mistakes" lesson.
🖼️ TRANSFORM — Turn work into comic strips, infographics, slides, digital flashcards, audio explanations, video prompts, interactive activities, stories, or games.
🧠 EXTEND — Have students critique AI interpretations, correct AI mistakes, compare work with AI examples, revise work, or teach the concept to someone else.
🎮 PRACTICE — Create review games, retrieval practice, choice boards, station activities, bell ringers, exit tickets, or challenge problems.
👋 HOW I DID THIS: After AI helped me identify some patterns in my students’ writing, it suggested some next steps for reteaching content where they weren’t showing mastery.
The cycle continues …
As I use these insights to better address my students’ struggles, it helps me to create better assignments and activities … and then those activities get used in the cycle, too!
😄 Smile of the day
☕️ A little on the small side but otherwise accurate.
👋 How we can help
There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:
Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.
Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.
Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!
