{"id":537780,"date":"2026-03-22T02:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/537780\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T02:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:06:17","slug":"how-a-prince-william-co-teacher-is-using-ai-to-offer-students-immediate-feedback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/537780\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Prince William Co. teacher is using AI to offer students immediate feedback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince William County Public Schools approved a tool called Newsela. The software, Betancourt said, is helping her group of nonnative English speakers gain confidence in their writing skills.<\/p>\n

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How AI is getting Va. elementary schoolers excited about writing<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon in Diana Betancourt\u2019s third grade class at Neabsco Elementary School, students read an article about raccoons that are smarter than cats and dogs.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re learning about animal behavior in the current part of the curriculum, and the small group was tasked with writing paragraphs describing what the text is about.<\/p>\n

Students worked to determine the main idea, evidence and reasoning, among other things. After they write a sentence, they can receive feedback and tips by simply clicking a blue button on their tablet screen.<\/p>\n

Betancourt started using artificial intelligence two years ago, using the technology to help create lesson plans. But she also wanted a tool that offered more analysis and would be more meaningful for her students.<\/p>\n

Then, Prince William County Public Schools approved a tool called Newsela<\/a>. The software, Betancourt said, is helping her group of nonnative English speakers gain confidence in their writing skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rare that a student wants to write,\u201d Betancourt said. \u201cBut the engagement and the instant feedback, they don\u2019t need me to tell them, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re doing this or you\u2019re missing this.\u2019 AI is telling them what they\u2019re missing or what they\u2019re doing great, so they can continue working by themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

After using the tech, Betancourt said, students have demonstrated growth she can discern through hand-evaluated data. It\u2019s also a time-saving tool, enabling her to quickly assign articles and make changes.<\/p>\n

The software is also able to convert articles for different student reading levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a student \u2026 coming to the country or you\u2019re learning the second language, it\u2019s positive feedback,\u201d Betancourt said. \u201cThis encourages them to continue. AI doesn\u2019t make fun of them. AI doesn\u2019t tell them, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re doing it wrong.\u2019 It\u2019s actually helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the tech is able to provide instant feedback, Betancourt said she can work independently with students who need the most one-on-one support.<\/p>\n

One of her students, she said, didn\u2019t like to write with a pencil, but \u201cwith AI, it\u2019s amazing what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Calles, for one, said the tech helps him learn \u201cif I have a correct answer or if I\u2019ve done a good sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahona Barua, also a third grader, said the AI tool \u201cdoesn\u2019t judge on how we type.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ailee said the software is \u201cjust trying to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the AI tech is evolving, Betancourt said it \u201cwill not replace me. It cannot replace me. They need still the human contact. AI cannot give them that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince William County Public Schools approved a tool called Newsela. The software, Betancourt said, is helping her group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,240972,240973,240974,240975,240976,8242,40523,74],"class_list":["post-537780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-early-language-learning","tag-neabsco-elementary-school","tag-newsela","tag-prince-william-county-schools","tag-pwcps","tag-reading","tag-scott-gelman","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}