I’m a 6-8 electives teacher who’s about to start using the Generative AI curriculum in my classroom. I’m grateful to have premade resources for this topic, but from reviewing the lessons, I have some doubts that the timing and lesson complexity will work smoothly in middle school. If anyone has any experience, I’d love to know what you learn. If I’m one of the first, I’ll try to share my experience here. Thanks!
I’ll give an update here. I’m currently on Unit 1 - Lesson 4: Embeddings. So far, in 7th and 8th grades, the curriculum is working alright, but I’ve been simplifying it. I have 40 minute class periods and to fit a lesson in a period, I’ve stuck with whole class discussion over small group and turn and talk. The transitions into and out of those dynamics just take too long and only a small percentage of the conversations are relevant.
6th grade is a struggle. I don’t think I’m going to continue using the curriculum with them as the engagement/comprehension just isn’t there. So much of the curriculum is based in conversation, and they’re just not capable of sustained discussion about technical topics. Even the character worksheet (which I like as an activity - I think Lesson 4 is the strongest of the ones I’ve used) was a bit of a mess. A single curriculum for 6 - 12th graders isn’t, in my opinion, realistic because there’s just a massive developmental gap there. I’ll provide another update as I learn more.