AI help – A 7th-grade English teacher describes how AI supports formative assessments—while stressing careful review to avoid errors and “hallucinations.”
Teaching already demands fast decisions: what students understood, what they missed, and what comes next—often all inside a packed school day. For one middle school English teacher, AI has become a practical tool to build assessments faster and free up time for feedback.
Misryoum reports from the classroom on how teacher Katie Durkin uses AI as an “assistant” for assessment design. especially for formative checks and targeted practice.. The focus is less on replacing teaching and more on speeding up the brainstorming and drafting work that typically falls on teachers after class—work that can quietly stretch into late nights.
Why assessment design takes so much time
Durkin frames assessment as a constant workflow rather than a one-time event: pre-assessments to gauge readiness. formative tasks to steer instruction. summative checks at the unit’s end. and short practice bursts for small groups.. Like many teachers, she says the real challenge isn’t effort—it’s time.. The teaching day is tight, while the “back end” of assessment creation, differentiation, and revisions can be relentless.
In her approach, AI is used after she reviews student work herself.. That step matters to her because assessment isn’t just about generating questions—it’s about knowing where students are right now.. She describes using AI as a planning partner: once she understands students’ needs. AI helps generate assessment ideas. worksheet prompts. and practice activities that she can refine.
The rules: human review first, AI second
Durkin also includes a candid warning: AI can be wrong.. She references the term “hallucinations,” explaining that systems sometimes produce inaccurate content instead of reliable options.. Rather than treating AI output as final. she treats it as a draft—something she checks against her knowledge of her students and the skills being taught.
She emphasizes due diligence in three ways.. First, she personally examines and evaluates student work before using AI to plan the next step.. Second, she expects AI mistakes and builds in time to correct them.. Third. she uses a platform designed for classroom use—SchoolAI in her district—so the tools are meant for teachers and classroom workflows. not open-ended guessing.
That balance—speed plus accountability—is central to her argument that AI can help without compromising the teacher’s role.
Formative assessments: faster drafts, customized practice
Her process for formative assessments revolves around regular classroom routines, particularly weekly grammar work.. Students complete worksheets targeting grammar skills. and AI helps her generate ideas for specific components like “Homophone of the Week” and “Correcting Grammar.” The key is that AI prompts become starting points. not final products.
For example. Durkin uses AI to create practice tasks for 7th graders on homophones such as there/their/they’re. grammar error correction activities that include run-on sentences and comma rule scenarios. and questions that distinguish independent from dependent clauses.. She describes a back-and-forth rhythm—using AI suggestions, then revising the difficulty level to match what students can handle.
A detailed example centers on students struggling with independent and dependent clauses, and the difference between simple and complex sentences.. Durkin says she prompted AI for weekly worksheet activity ideas and also received concepts for a small-group task.. One activity involved pairing clause types written on paper strips—an approach she edited to better fit her students’ abilities.. Because the idea arrived quickly, she was able to print, cut, and use materials the next day.
Quick reviews and student-level support
Beyond worksheets, Durkin uses AI to generate “quick reviews,” including half-sheet question sets for targeted concepts. After grading, she can turn what students need into short practice sets—comma rules, homophones like affect and effect, and other grammar targets.
She also describes creating study guides for students preparing for tests.. When a student asked for extra practice at the end of class. she used AI to produce a small set of sentences to practice the F.A.N.B.O.Y.S.. comma rule and send them immediately.. The practical payoff is obvious: she could respond in minutes rather than searching her existing materials or building something from scratch on the fly.
For her, this is where time savings translate into instructional value. Faster turnaround means more responsiveness—especially for students who need an immediate bridge from what was taught to what they’re still trying to master.
The bigger implication for classrooms
Durkin’s story points to a wider education trend: teachers are increasingly using AI tools not only for content generation. but for assessment workflows—drafting. differentiating. and accelerating feedback cycles.. The advantage is not just speed; it’s the possibility of staying closer to the student’s immediate learning needs.. When assessment prep becomes less time-consuming. teachers can spend more time on the human side of instruction: conferencing. noticing patterns. and giving feedback that actually guides improvement.
At the same time, her emphasis on verification matters for the ethics and reliability of AI in education.. If AI can misunderstand or fabricate. the classroom solution is not to trust blindly—it’s to build a system where the teacher remains the final editor and evaluator.. Misryoum highlights that this distinction is likely to determine whether AI becomes a sustainable classroom support or a source of frustration.
Durkin ends by describing herself as still in an experimentation phase, aiming to use AI efficiently and ethically. Her goal is familiar to any educator: reduce the noise around planning so the work that matters most—helping students grow—has more room to happen.
Monarch Butterfly Teaching: Stages That Transform Learning
Growth Discourse: Teaching Students to Handle Hard Talks
Josh Newman’s plan for California superintendent: literacy, math, careers