Click, Plan, Teach: Harnessing AI as a Thought Partner for Early Literacy Lesson Planning

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming instructional planning, creating opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and equity in early literacy education. Teachers are discovering how AI can generate creative lesson ideas, support differentiation, and spark new approaches to engage students with a variety of texts. Yet these opportunities also bring challenges, including inaccuracies, bias, and ethical concerns. To navigate this evolving landscape, educators must build AI literacy, a set of competencies that enable teachers to know and understand AI, use and apply AI tools, critically evaluate outputs, and engage in ethical considerations. This AI Literacy framework helps teachers harness AI as a supportive partner in lesson planning while maintaining professional expertise and pedagogical judgment.Participants will engage in interactive activities to explore how AI can be used to generate and refine early literacy lesson plans for reading and writing instruction, critically evaluate outputs for developmental appropriateness, and revise plans to meet diverse learners’ needs. The session will also highlight ways to integrate culturally responsive practices, align AI outputs with curriculum standards, and design lessons that foster student-centered early literacy learning. Ethical considerations, including issues of privacy, authorship, and compliance with school or district policies, will be addressed.By the end of the session, attendees will leave with: (1) innovative strategies for designing AI-supported early literacy lessons that save time while deepening instruction; (2) tools for evaluating outputs for accuracy, cultural relevance, and equity; and (3) guidelines for addressing ethical issues such as privacy, authorship, and policy compliance. This session empowers educators to lead with innovation in early literacy education by using AI as a thought partner in instructional design.