**Before AI vs. After AI!**

EDUC 121: Multicultural Children's Literature

Transformative, Dynamic, Practical (Anthropic, 2024)

I used AI to come up with these three words!!!

Reflection on Instructional Change:

I have been hatching out a plan about a class activity while working on this AI FLC. I want my students to tease out biased responses from GenAI while investigating specific themes of sexism, misogyny, racism, ableism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. in children's picture books. Students’ big fat incentive will be a fairly easy (and hopefully fun?) way to complete an assignment with AI. Plus, my whole multicultural children’s literature class revolves around these themes and are clearly documented in the academic articles I use as well as oodles of fabulous diverse children’s books, oh, and some really awful ones! So in my SYNCH class we started doing a pretty cool game: Bust this Book! I walked through the Same Same but Different example with my students and they were intrigued! They liked the fact that I was messing with their stodgy idea of Artificial Intelligence!

I then let students loose on a really obvious racist book Tikki Tikki Tembo. I felt the students were engaged and interested in pursuing this type of assignment in the future. I took a quick poll and here are some of the responses:

I think it is definitely interesting way to use the tool. I think I would even use it outside the class.
I do like it! Yes I think it’s awesome. I really thought Rikki Rikki Tembo was so culturally diverse - mind blown!
I think AI could be useful, but it can miss the nuances in children’s books and their influence on kids.
I think this would be a great assignment; it would help students to think critically about children’s books as well as utilize AI. I think seeing the AI response and then challenging it is very helpful.
I think it is such an interesting way to critically analyze the books. It can show other perspectives and allows you to argue with the things that are inappropriate without offending someone.
I think it’s interesting to see AI’s perspective and gain more knowledge on the books. It was cool to read what AI thought.
It does seem like an interesting way to use AI in this class.

The Effective Prompt Writing module pushed me from an uninspired 2-D space into a big real world when it comes to AI. I have dabbled with AI and but did not understand my power! I would ask a general question and then click “retry” or type “elaborate” or “simplify”. KEY DISCOVERY: Specificity baby! Task, format, tone & voice, context – those are my tangible tools. They force me to take my fingers off the keyboard, close my eyes for a couple of minutes and truly set the stage in order to get robust results. Magic? Maybe! I am now trying to convey the importance of amazing prompts to my students in our Bust this Book assignments. With the help of AI I have provided students some in-roads/ideas regarding good prompts. Bust this Book- General Prompts Bust this Book- General Nuanced Prompts Prompts Bust this Book- Your Prompts

A very easy take-away from my incredibly astute observers when I presented my Bust this Book idea - chunk this big idea into smaller pieces so everybody gets what you are trying to do! My goal is to hep students understand the power of AI to help them critique bias children's books - to challenge the misogynistic, racist, ableist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc. messages of this incredibly influential media source! But we all agreed - a SYNCH version of this assignment will really take some thought!

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
My students began to understand the importance of careful and critical prompts to to use with AI.	Here's a book summary from ChatTube The video presents a read-aloud of the children's book "Same Same but Different," highlighting the similarities and differences between two boys living in different parts of the world. The story emphasizes their shared experiences, such as family, school, and friendship, despite their contrasting environments. It concludes with a message of connection and understanding, celebrating diversity and commonality. https://www.youtube.com/watch? *Here is a more frank appraisal after* we Busted this Book!** "Same Same but Different" presents a story about two boys, Elliot and Kalash, who come from different cultural backgrounds. While both characters share similarities in their interests and experiences—the story contrasts their environments significantly. Elliot is depicted in a modern, thriving setting, while Kalash lives in a more simplistic and quaint environment. This stark contrast raises important questions about representation in literature. The differing depictions can unintentionally reinforce stereotypes and create perceptions of inferiority regarding Kalash's culture. narratives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?	I let my students loose on this biased book! Busted! "Tikki Tikki Tembo" attempts to convey elements of a traditional folktale but is based on cultural inaccuracies. This portrayal is a fabrication that does not accurately represent Chinese naming customs and can perpetuate stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings. https://chattube.io/watch?

Practice and Reflect Teaching and Learning with AI:

My teaching practices have been totally impacted - in a really good way - because of this FLC. I use AI all of the time! I construct quizzes, rubrics, prompts, policies academic article summaries - the list goes on! That's all for me. What I am really working on now is how I can celebrate AI with students in my writing intensive class because they just really want to use it to write their essays. I want my students and I to embrace AI in a way that works for my classes. And I don't want to be a cop and have to suss out elicit use of AI. That's not the kind of relationship I wish to have with my students!

Course Syllabus:

EDUC 121 Syllabus Fall 2024 SYNCH

Post FLC Gen AI: I now have a clear AI policy as well as concise rubrics for major assignments and weekly lecture & article quizzes. Thanks Claude.ai (AKA: Claudia)!!!

**Faculty Bio**
	I have worked as a Lecturer in Education for eleven years. I absolutely love what I teach and truly believe that authentic, Own Voice children's books can help save our world! *Own Voices authors and illustrators create not with an observer’s gaze, but with the cultural nuance from being an active member of that culture. https://littlefeminist.com/2021/02/22/	When a Bully is President

If you deny people their own voice, you'll have no idea of who they are. Alice Walker

Funding
	This work was supported by: US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project TECH4Equity US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012 *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.