Here is the unit I created with three texts from ChatGPT Family Unit, a unit that incorporates the French version of the film Encanto.

When the Director of World Languages in my district first suggested Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool for developing teaching material, I paused, not in hesitation, but in genuine reflection. The question wasn’t simply whether AI could accelerate my work, but whether the assist was truly what I sought.

On reflection my true goals for myself as I develop teaching materials are as follows:

1. Incorporate multiple opportunities to hear and use vocabulary structures
2. Use comprehensible language for a Novice Mid learner for more effective instruction
3. Hold students accountable so they keep up their motivation
4. Engaging students so interest is high level

Some decisions are best left to humans. Some decisions, of course, belong exclusively to people. When my colleague who is younger and cooler suggested we anchor a unit on the topic of family around the Disney film Encanto, I recognized the value of her insight. No algorithm could have offered what her intuitive understanding of student interests provided. Certain creative choices demand the lived experience and cultural fluency that only humans possess.

Use all the resources available to you, not just AI. Straight off the Internet without even using AI, I found a handful of great activities, both slides and worksheets, on the topic from the site Le Point du FLE. That saved a great deal of time. I think this step in the process was the most fruitful because Le Pont du FLE curates resources that are effective and makes it easy to access them. Then on a different website I located an authentic reading on the main character from the film, which was my second great find. I asked ChatGPT to rewrite the text at the right level for my students. Supplemented by carefully selected purchased chat mats from Teachers Pay Teachers, the foundation was laid.

The creative process is the responsibility of the educator. My core understanding on working with AI is that the creative process is my contribution. I spent maybe more than 20 hours creating a unit by first identifying what I wanted the students to do and then creating the teaching materials. This labor of intellectual and emotional investment transformed the unit into something authentically mine, the Intellectual Property (IP) rests with me. Had I asked AI to write the unit, the tool would have relied on the IP of others. I discovered that I want to be the one who makes the decisions both because I owe the originality to my students and because I want the control over the decisions.

Beware that AI can make mistakes. I had two texts that I wanted AI to write. I couldn’t recall which Artificial Intelligence tool I was expected to use, so I asked ChatGPT to help me out, as that was the only one I could remember. The first was a summary of the plot with descriptions of the characters in the movie at a Novice Mid proficiency level. When I then tasked ChatGPT with crafting a summary of one of Encanto’s songs, the algorithm delivered but misidentified the song entirely. I adapted it and still included it. The incident illuminated that artificial intelligence can stumble, and educators must remain vigilant.

Human interaction is (obviously!) found elsewhere. My next step was to go on to Facebook and post on the French teachers in the US page with a request for editing help. A teacher named Juliette Darmon replied and helped me with edits to make my French more authentic and correct. Maybe this could have been done by AI, but it was far more rewarding to interact with Juliette because she affirmed instincts I had begun to doubt, reminding me that intuitive pedagogical choices often transcend current trends. This was by far the most rewarding step in my process, true human contact!

Better results from relying on an AI tool dedicated to your needs. I spoke with the Director of World Languages and found out that educators in my district have access to Gemini and a tool within Gemini for creating teaching materials called Brisk Teaching. I may have done this step backwards from how most teachers would use the tool. I asked Brisk to write the unit plan after I had written the teaching tools, delegating the genuinely tedious work of documentation.

Brisk created the following documents to flesh out this unit:

1. Unit Plan
2. Vocabulary List
3. Guided Notes: Encanto quotes
4. Matching quiz of characters and quotes
5. Comprehension questions for a summative assessment

When relying on AI significant time is spent editing. While Brisk Teaching generated a unit plan, vocabulary list, guided notes, and assessment material with respectable competence, each one demanded substantial refinement, a labor-intensive process of editing, correcting, and reimagining. AI accelerated certain dimensions of my work, but the subsequent editing consumed considerable energy. It turned out that the drudgery of correction demanded vigilant attention.

As I contemplate my next venture into AI-assisted curriculum development, I find myself drawn toward Brisk Teaching’s capacity to help. I would like to rely on artificial intelligence for genuinely mechanical tasks though know that the necessary editing might be more work than if I had written the materials myself. Maybe I could ask for help with different types of documents than the ones I have requested so far. For example, the Director of World Language has shown us how to create a reading with illustrations to support literacy development in World Language. This has led me to conclude that the volume of work teachers must accomplish becomes more sustainable when we strategically deploy AI, not to replace our creative vision, but to amplify it. I am aware that I don’t have to choose between doing the work all myself or completely accepting the work of AI, but will attempt to discover the delicate, intentional balance between the two.