As World Language teachers, we’re constantly creating materials. I have set out to attempt to automate some of that creation. My district has supplied me with a tool that seems worthy to explore, Brisk Teaching, which is a teaching-specific large language model with full Google Drive and Canva integration.

My secondary agenda here is that I want to be able to answer the question, how are you as a teacher going to use AI? I want to answer that question for myself but also show others where my first attempts have led me. Perhaps you will be able to answer that question for yourself based on my thoughts. Or, maybe you will decide after reading this that AI isn’t the advantage it is made out to be.

Make good use of the Rewrite Feature

The best advice that I have for you is that the first draft is rarely perfect, so use Brisk’s rewrite prompt to refine the results. You’ll need to edit heavily. While Brisk may handle the heavy lifting of structure and some content, you bring pedagogical expertise.

Where Brisk has limitations: Brisk consistency doesn’t populate presentations with the  images I ask for or gives me images I can’t use, so I create those myself, like this presentation to get students talking about the weather. The biggest disappointment is that we can’t ask a Large Language model for screen shots to make a Movietalk like this one. While Brisk can read all of the documents in my Google Drive, it can’t interpret video. The one work around is that YouTube has an AI generated transcript, so you can capture the dialogue from a video.

To be very specific, use AI to tell the story in a video where the dialogue is the content, but realize that AI can’t interpret or work with the images. And, while Brisk can be asked to put pictures into a presentation, the best pictures you will find on your own, like the one in this presentation. So I make Map Talks, Picture Talks and Movie Talks myself.

Getting Started

1. Set up your accounts: Ensure you have Brisk Teaching and Canva access

2. Prepare source materials: Start with a document containing vocabulary, a reading, or content you want to transform. While Brisk can generate a list for you or write a story or article, your own content will always be more engaging and better suited for your students

3. Choose your template: For presentations, select a Canva template before prompting

4. Write a detailed prompt: See the examples below

5. Refine through rewriting: Use the rewrite feature to automate the repetitive changes

6. Edit and finalize: Apply your expertise. This is the step where you will put in the most of your time. You will put in the refining that makes the product usable.

I have found that Brisk Teaching can be helpful, handling the work of drafting activities, organizing content, and formatting documents. The key is understanding where AI excels and where your expertise is irreplaceable. The product that it generates is a draft, a starting point for you to perfect.

Activity	Prompt
Presentation Game – Identify the number	Create an 18-slide interactive Canva presentation for 6th graders to practice French numbers 16 to 31 without translation. Include activities like counting objects and choosing the correct sequence, focusing on recognizing, naming, applying, and comparing numbers in French.
Presentation Game – Circonlocution Bingo	Create a French food guessing game in a Google Doc using vocabulary clues about food categories, colors, shapes, tastes, and meal times to help 7th graders identify foods through French descriptions.
Graphic Organizer Chart to be completed by sorting into categories	Create a French sorting activity focused on food and meal vocabulary with three columns labeled “un repas,” “fruit ou légume,” and “plats.” Include a word bank of fruits, vegetables, meals and dishes. Include clear directions to practice sorting familiar vocabulary terms.
Presentation – Guessing game Game – Guess the month	Create a guessing game where the months are the answers. Include clues about weather and seasonal activities. Use the Canvas [pick one] template.
Presentation – Grammar rules Practice writing the date Note: Brisk generated the list of holidays that I used as a start. My prompt was to write a list of nonreligious holidays.	Create an 18-slide Canva presentation, using the holidays and dates from the Holidays document. Teach French date format and word order with guided examples, then help students apply the format to new dates.
Document – Guided notes Who said it	Create guided notes in a Google Doc. Use each of these lines and ask the students who said it in the film and what it means.
Article annotated with vocabulary translations Tu aimes le sport? Le vélo de Nicolas Note: AI can rewrite an article or a story to the language proficiency level that you request.	Compile a vocabulary list of essential French words from the article [choose one] that might challenge Novice-Mid 7th grade students. Add footnotes with English translations for words that support understanding of the main ideas.
Cloze activity Game of six	Create a cloze activity from this story. Remove key words and put them in a word bank. Replace the words with an underline. State the directions at the top of the page.
True false statements The Marker Game	Create the Marker Game by writing true false statements from the article. Include directions at the top of the page.
Comprehension questions Game – The unfair game	Create a game for students. Ask comprehension questions from the reading. Assign points to each question, either negative or positive to create The Unfair Game. If students answer correctly, they will decide to keep or give away their points.