Teaching With AI in Classrooms 

The student leaned in over the page, his forehead wrinkled in concentration. He was doing everything we hope young readers will do: asking questions, looking up vocabulary, rereading tricky passages, and pushing himself to make meaning. Yet the cognitive load of decoding English, his third language, was so heavy that it eclipsed the deeper comprehension he was fully capable of. 

So I opened an AI translator. 

Within seconds, the text appeared in Punjabi. He read silently, then looked up and smiled. He finally had full access to the ideas. What followed was not about language at all. It was about interpretation, accuracy, and how well technology can convey meaning. 

Moments like this reflect current research showing that when teachers integrate AI thoughtfully, they can broaden access, reduce barriers, and support multilingual learners without lowering expectations (Filiz, 2025; Jamshed, 2024). They also echo what scholars in AI literacy emphasize, which is the importance of giving students opportunities to evaluate and critique AI rather than accept it without question (Sperling, 2025; Burriss, 2023). 

Here are four real examples from my Grade 10 English classroom that continue to shape how my students, and I, think about learning. 

1. When AI Helped Remove a Literacy Barrier

The decision to translate a text for my multilingual learner did not lower expectations. It raised access. Once English decoding was no longer the primary hurdle, he demonstrated sophisticated comprehension. More importantly, he critiqued the translation itself. He identified inaccuracies, questioned tone, and explained how he would revise the wording to make the meaning clearer. In that moment, he was not a struggling reader. He was a multilingual critic of technology. 

This experience reflects what recent research highlights about the role of AI translation supports in education. Zayyanu and Ahmed (2024) note that AI-powered translation systems can promote communication equity by removing linguistic barriers and allowing learners to participate more fully in academic tasks. They also argue that “a significant positive impact of AI translation is its role in increasing accessibility” because students with limited proficiency in dominant languages can access a broader range of educational resources (Zayyanu & Ahmed, 2024, p. 25). When students gain this access, they can contribute more confidently and engage in deeper conversations about meaning, interpretation, and accuracy. In this case, AI did not diminish the cognitive work. It opened the door for him to do it.

2. Turning a Dry Policy Document Into a Podcast

At the start of each semester, students are asked to review the school’s Code of Conduct. They rarely enjoy the task, and they often do everything they can to avoid it. 

This time, I used an AI tool to convert the text into a seven-minute podcast. Students put on their headphones and listened. There was no resistance and no negotiation. Many teenagers prefer consuming information through audio, especially when the source text feels dense or institutional. The format allowed them to engage with the content without feeling overwhelmed. 

Recent research suggests that AI can make learning more accessible when teachers use it to shift the mode of delivery rather than the content itself (Giannakos et al., 2024). That is exactly what happened here. The information remained intact, but the audio format made it easier for students to engage with it. 

3. Using AI Songs to Reduce Test Anxiety

A few days before the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), the high-stakes literacy test, the anxiety in my classroom was unmistakable. Students were exhausted from practising reading and writing strategies, and they had heard every tip I could possibly give. 

To reset the mood, I used AI to turn all the OSSLT tips into song lyrics. I asked the tool to create a chorus, verses, and a bridge. Then I used a second AI program to generate four musical versions: a rock track, a country version, a children’s song, and a techno remix. 

The shift in the room was immediate. Students laughed, sang along, and reviewed the strategies four separate times without realizing they were studying. Research on AI-mediated multimodal composition suggests that playful and creative formats can meaningfully reduce stress and support engagement (Azuaje et al., 2023; Smith et al., 2025). In this scenario, playfulness did not dilute the learning. It deepened it 

One student told me, “That children’s song is stuck in my head forever.” I smiled. “Good. So are the strategies.” 

4. When Students Used AI to Brainstorm and Then Chose to Create by Hand

For a culminating activity, students needed to design a symbolic image that expressed a theme from our course text. The goal was to assess their ability to identify a theme, choose symbols, and compose a meaningful image, not their artistic skill. 

Students began by prompting an AI image generator. They brainstormed symbols and colours, adjusted their prompts, and compared the results with what they had imagined. Over time, they refined their ideas and deepened their understanding of the relationships among theme, colour, and symbolism. 

In the end, every student chose to draw the final image by hand. 

Their explanations were remarkably consistent. The AI versions came close, but not close enough. They wanted more control. They preferred their own ideas. This matches recent research that shows AI can spark creative thinking and support idea generation while still maintaining, and even strengthening, students’ sense of agency (Doshi & Hauser, 2023; Smirnova, 2025). 

What These Stories Have Taught Me 

These four classroom moments help me understand something important. AI can enhance learning, but the teacher decides how. In my classroom, AI has created new entry points for multilingual learners, offered more accessible formats for required content, fostered multimodal thinking, reduced anxiety during high-stakes preparation, and encouraged creative iteration rather than shortcut thinking. 

Recent research confirms that effective AI integration depends not on the tool, but on the teacher’s pedagogical purpose (Creely & Carabott, 2025; Tan, 2024). 

AI did not replace my teaching. It expanded it. 

Takeaways for Teachers: Using AI With Purpose 

• Begin with your instructional goal, not the tool. 
• Use AI to remove barriers, not reduce rigour. 
• Treat AI outputs as texts to analyze and critique. 
• Reinforce that AI output is not the final product, it’s part of the process. 
• Encourage students to iterate and revise prompts to understand how AI produces results. 
• Help students see AI as a thinking partner rather than a shortcut. 

A Final Thought 

AI has not made my work easier. It has made it more intentional. It has given me new ways to reach learners, shift modalities, break down barriers, and foster creativity. Most importantly, it has reminded both my students and me that technology does not erase the human elements of learning. 

In each of these stories, AI amplified human thinking rather than replaced it. That is the story I hope we continue to tell as we learn to teach, and learn with, AI. 

Reflection question 

• What is one way that AI might expand your teaching practice?

Reference List  

Azuaje, G., Liew, K., Buening, R., She, W. J., Siriaraya, P., Wakamiya, S., & Aramaki, E. (2023). Exploring the use of AI text-to-image generation to downregulate negative emotions in an expressive writing application. Royal Society Open Science, 10(1), Article 220238. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220238 

Burriss, L. L. (2023). Exploring the ethics of multimodal composition with AI: Student and educator perspectives on evaluating and using generative models in the classroom. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 25(2). https://citejournal.org/volume-25/issue-2-25/english-language-arts/exploring-the-ethics-of-multimodal-composition-with-ai-student-and-educator-perspectives-on-evaluating-and-using-generative-models-in-the-classroom/ 

Creely, E., & Carabott, K. (2025). Teaching and learning with AI: An Integrated AI-Oriented Pedagogical Model. Australian Educational Researcher, 52(6), 4633–4654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-025-00913-6 

Doshi, A. R., & Hauser, O. P. (2023). Generative artificial intelligence enhances creativity but reduces the diversity of novel content. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2312.00506 

Filiz, T. (2025). Understanding the factors influencing AI integration in K-12 education. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-025-13463-2 

Giannakos, M., Azevedo, R., Brusilovsky, P., Cukurova, M., Dimitriadis, Y., Hernandez-Leo, D., Järvelä , S., Marvrikis, M., & Rienties, B. (2024). The promise and challenges of generative AI in education. Behaviour & Information Technology, 44(11), 2518–2544. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2394886 

Jamshed, M., Ahmed, A. S.M. M, Sarfaraj, M, & Warda, W. U. (2024). The Impact of ChatGPT on English language learners’ writing skills: An Assessment of AI feedback on mobile. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies, 18(19), 18–36. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v18i19.50361 

Smith, B. E., Shimizu, A. Y., Burriss, S. K., Hundley, M., & Pendergrass, E. (2025). Multimodal composing with generative AI: Examining preservice teachers’ processes and perspectives. Computers and Composition, 75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2024.102896 

Smirnova, L. (2025). Developing students’ agency and voice by using generative AI in an online EAP module. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2025.2538781 

Sperling, E. (2025). Perspectives on AI literacy in middle school classrooms. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-025-00560-1 

Tan, H. (2024). Artificial intelligence in teaching and teacher professional development. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2024.100297 

Zayyanu, Z. M. & Ahmed, U. (2024). Bridging linguistic divides: The impact of AI-powered translation systems on communication equity and inclusion. Journal of Translation and Language Studies, 5. https://doi.org/10.48185/jtls.v5i2.1065 

Meet the Expert(s)

Dr. Sunaina Sharma

Assistant Professor, Brock University

Dr. Sunaina Sharma, a seasoned high school educator and school leader with over two decades of experience, prioritizes the needs of her learners above all else. When faced with disengaged students, she adopts a proactive approach by questioning, “What if?” This enables her to implement interventions, evaluate their effectiveness, and refine her teaching strategies accordingly.

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