Professional learning · Teachers, Coaches, Librarians · 70 minutes
Personalization with Guardrails
Teachers design AI-supported versions of one reading task for different learners, then judge every version against the same learning target, a fact check, and a privacy line.
AI tools can quickly produce leveled texts, bilingual glossaries, chunked questions, and read-aloud audio, and paired with long-standing assistive technology like text-to-speech and speech-to-text, they can open grade-level content to more students. They can also quietly lower expectations, introduce factual errors, or expose student information. In this session teams first catch an error in a mock AI-leveled passage, then design supported versions of one science reading for fictional learner profiles and judge every design against four guardrails: same learning target, verified accuracy, protected privacy, and evidence of learning.
In this packet
- Handout A: The Monarch Waystation: Original and Mock AI-Leveled Version (reading)
- Handout B: Learner Profile Cards (cut-apart cards)
- Handout C: Guardrails Rubric (rubric)
- Facilitator key (last page)
TCEA ELE indicators
- AI3.1 I know how to leverage AI tools to personalize and enhance learning experiences.
- AI3.3 I am aware of how AI can support diverse learning needs and styles.
- AI4.1 I know how to promote critical thinking skills in relation to AI-generated information.
- AI2.1 I know how to apply ethical principles when using or developing AI for education.
Full facilitator guide: mglearn.github.io/eles/activities/personalization-with-guardrails.html
Handout A for Personalization with Guardrails
The Monarch Waystation: Original and Mock AI-Leveled Version
Learning target: Explain why a school garden with milkweed helps monarchs during migration. Compare the two versions line by line. The school is fictional; the second version is a MOCK AI output written for training.
1ORIGINAL (grade 5–7 science reading). Every fall, monarch butterflies from much of eastern North America begin a long migration south to forests in the mountains of central Mexico, where they spend the winter. Many of them pass through Texas on the way. In spring, the journey north takes several generations of butterflies to complete.
2Monarchs depend on one group of plants: milkweed. Female monarchs lay their eggs only on milkweed, and monarch caterpillars can eat only milkweed leaves. Adult monarchs drink nectar from many kinds of flowers, which gives them energy to fly.
3Milkweed and nectar flowers have become harder to find in many places as land is cleared or mowed. That is why students at Maple Hollow Elementary planted a monarch waystation in their school garden. A waystation is a place with milkweed for laying eggs and nectar flowers for feeding, where migrating monarchs can stop, refuel, and reproduce.
4The students keep a journal of what visits the garden. Last fall they recorded monarch caterpillars on the milkweed for the first time, and they now share their observations with a community science project that tracks monarch migration.
5MOCK AI-LEVELED VERSION (fictional output, contains errors on purpose). Monarch butterflies fly to Mexico in the fall. Many fly through Texas. They like warm places.
6Monarchs eat milkweed flowers. They lay their eggs on many kinds of plants. The caterpillars eat leaves.
7Students at Maple Hollow Elementary made a butterfly garden at school. It is very pretty. Butterflies like to visit it.
8The students write about the garden. They saw caterpillars last fall. Now they share what they see with scientists.
Handout B for Personalization with Guardrails
Learner Profile Cards
All students are fictional. Design for the need described. Never put real student names or IEP details into an AI tool. Backs are design hints.
Profile 1 · Decoding
Seventh grader with dyslexia. Strong vocabulary and ideas when talking; reading grade-level text is slow and tiring. Writing is short because spelling takes so much effort.
Profile 2 · New to English
Sixth grader who arrived from Honduras four months ago. Reads well in Spanish, knows a lot about butterflies from home. Beginning English speaker.
Profile 3 · Attention
Fifth grader who loses focus on long text blocks, but engages when tasks are short and active. Often knows the answer orally.
Profile 4 · Ready for more
Sixth grader who finishes early, reads well above grade level, and asks "but why?" about everything.
Profile 5 · Vision
Seventh grader who is blind and uses a screen reader. Fluent reader with the right tools.
Profile 6 · Background knowledge
Fifth grader reading about two years below grade level who has never seen a monarch and doesn't know what migration means.
Profile 7 · Anxiety
Sixth grader who reads fine but freezes on written responses and often turns in nothing.
Profile 8 · Limited home access
Seventh grader with no reliable device or internet at home; does homework in the school library before the bus.
Handout C for Personalization with Guardrails
Guardrails Rubric
Score each design. The target is the same for every learner: Explain why a school garden with milkweed helps monarchs during migration.
| Criterion | Beginning | Developing | Proficient | Exemplary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Same learning target | Task has been swapped for an easier, different one. | Target is present but the student product no longer requires the explanation. | Student still explains why the waystation helps during migration. | Same target, and the design lets the student show it through a chosen path. |
| Support matched to need | Support is generic or based on a label or "learning style." | Support loosely fits the need. | Support directly addresses the need on the profile card. | Support addresses the need and builds the student's ability to choose tools independently. |
| AI output verified | AI output used as-is. | Verification mentioned but vague ("look it over"). | A specific check against the original or a trusted source is named. | Specific check, plus how errors would be corrected and target vocabulary protected. |
| Privacy protected | Prompt includes a name or disability details. | No name, but identifying details remain. | No names, diagnoses, or identifying details in any AI prompt. | Privacy-safe prompt and the design uses only district-approved tools. |
| Evidence of learning | No student product named. | Product named but not tied to the target. | Product clearly shows whether the target was met. | Product plus a plan to compare with other students' work to judge whether the support helped. |
Facilitator only for Personalization with Guardrails
Answer key and notes
Handout B: Learner Profile Cards
- Profile 1 · Decoding
- Hint: text-to-speech on the ORIGINAL keeps full access to grade-level ideas. Speech-to-text lets the student dictate the explanation. Don't give a watered-down text to a student who needs access, not simplification.
- Profile 2 · New to English
- Hint: a bilingual glossary of target terms, the original in Spanish (AI or human translated, then checked by a fluent reader), and a sentence frame in English. Let the student draw on home knowledge.
- Profile 3 · Attention
- Hint: chunk the original into four parts with one question each; AI can draft the chunk questions, and you check that they build toward the target. Offer an oral or dictated final explanation.
- Profile 4 · Ready for more
- Hint: extend thinking, not just add work. AI could draft three follow-up questions about why the trip north in spring takes several generations; the student verifies answers with a trusted science source.
- Profile 5 · Vision
- Hint: check that every material, including AI-generated ones, is accessible to a screen reader (real text, not images of text; described diagrams). The target doesn't change at all.
- Profile 6 · Background knowledge
- Hint: build background first (a photo or short video of monarchs, a map). An AI-leveled version can be a bridge, only after you correct it and keep target vocabulary like migration and milkweed; then return to the original with support.
- Profile 7 · Anxiety
- Hint: offer response choices (talk it through, sketch, or write), and let the student rehearse the explanation with a partner first. AI isn't needed here; relationship and choice are the support.
- Profile 8 · Limited home access
- Hint: any AI or audio support must work at school or on paper. A printed glossary and chunked questions travel home; don't build a design that only works online.