AI Literacy in Year 1 English: Simple Sentences
You already teach pupils to spot sentence patterns and reread their writing. These activities connect that work to AI systems that use examples and patterns to produce guesses.
- A computer can make a useful guess without knowing the meaning of a drawing.
- A model can give different outputs when its examples change, so an AI output needs a human check in English writing.
- Pupils check an output against rules they already know: capital letter, spaces, full stop and sensible word order.
- AI: a computer tool made by people to do a task.
- Pattern: something that happens again and again.
- Example: one thing that shows what to do.
- Check: look again to see if something is right.
- AI4K12: Pupils observed a drawing classifier match visual features to a label and compared the output with the intended drawing.
- OECD AILit: Pupils compared AI outputs with sentence rules and explained when an output should be checked or rejected.
- UNESCO: Pupils explained why a person should check and control a sentence checker's output.
- Australian GenAI Framework: Pupils designed a helper in which the writer remains responsible for choosing and checking the final sentence.
A short selection. A full guide maps every activity to the frameworks you choose for your region.
Your activities
Open a card to see how to run it in class.
Reference & support
Ranked most to least accessible. The top entries are strong entry points for any class.
- What Did QuickDraw Guess?: a teacher-led shared-screen demonstration with spoken answers, pictures and a capital-letter sentence frame.
- The Sentence Model's Example Tray: a physical role-play with large sentence cards, repeated instructions and partner rehearsal.
- The Sentence Checker Hearing: a circle-time hearing with simple role briefs, a visual speaking order and a written alternative to speaking.
- The Human-Checked Sentence Helper: a paper design task with a worked example, a picture box and a three-part checking strip.
The activities in this guide are designed to support your professional planning. Before using any AI tools with students, speak to your SLT and DPO, check tool age limits and your school’s Acceptable Use Policy, and never let students enter personal information (names, photos of themselves, school name, anything identifiable) into open or unvetted AI tools.