AI literacy, grades 4–7
Class handbook
The year books will have the lesson scripts. This page says how class works: how a week is organized, practice without AI, how we grade, safety, the rules for school, home, public posts, and a job, and the printed materials we will make from this outline.
Three classes of 45 minutes, or two classes of 60. Extra work for students who are ready happens in class, during the time they are doing the work. It is not extra homework unless the teacher decides otherwise.
15% · Opening
The teacher starts with a short example and the question for the week. Students hear how people did this before AI, how it works now, and what may change. They know what they will make.
70% · Doing the work
Students do the activities, use the course tools, make the piece of work, and check it with a partner. The teacher helps them. The teacher does not lecture through this part of class.
15% · Closing
Students say what can go wrong, and what they still have to do themselves. They answer a short question before they leave. Then they practice for a few minutes without AI.
Ten minutes, without AI, every week. Rotate the activities. These are not extras. Students do them so they keep the knowledge themselves.
Memory
Remember something without looking it up. A poem, facts the student chose, or a diagram from last week.
Looking carefully
Draw or describe what is actually in front of them. They don't ask AI to describe it.
Stating a position
For two minutes, with no notes, the student says what they think and why. A classmate answers. The teacher or a classmate says whether the reasons hold up.
Mental math
Students practice math in their heads so a calculator doesn't replace their number sense.
Handwriting
They write a paragraph from their own thoughts, on paper.
Explaining it back
They explain the idea to a classmate without using the AI that helped them. If they can't explain it without AI, they don't own the knowledge.
Trying before asking
They work on a hard problem for a set time before they ask a person or AI.
Talking to a person
They talk with a classmate or an adult and pay attention to that person. AI is not a friend.
Quiet time
A few minutes with nothing to fill the time. Students practice paying attention without a screen.
Making it by hand
Paper, cardboard, clay, or string. Students finish an idea with their hands, not with AI.
We grade whether the student understands the work. We don't grade how much writing they can get AI to produce. If the student can't explain their work without AI help, they don't own their knowledge.
“Time doing the work” means how class time is spent. The percentages below are how the year's grade is calculated. They are different numbers.
AI Lab wrote this for 42 lessons of 50 minutes: tests in lessons 14, 28, and 40, review in lesson 41, and the exam in lesson 42. A Compass year is 40 weeks. The grade percentages stay the same. Test 1 is week 14. Test 2 is week 28. Test 3 is week 39. The exam is week 40.
| Part | When | Share of the grade | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test 1 | Week 14 | 15% | The start of the year: what AI is, how to use it safely, and the first skills. |
| Test 2 | Week 28 | 15% | Making something, working with information or simple programming, and the skills from the middle of the year. |
| Test 3 | Week 39 | 15% | The student uses the year's skills together. This test also shows whether they are ready for the exam. |
| Projects and classwork | All year | 25% | Work from the whole year: projects, a portfolio, a written record of what the student did and what AI did, and tasks where they make something, explain it, or teach it. |
| End-of-year exam | Week 40 | 30% | The student shows what they learned this year, without help during the exam. Passing this exam is required for the year's certificate. |
Knowledge
The student explains the main ideas of the year in their own words, including the terms the course expects them to know.
Using AI on a new task
The student uses AI or another digital tool to finish a task they have not seen before. The task matches what that year taught.
Spotting problems
The student finds a mistake, a risk, a weak source, or a use that is not allowed. They say what to do instead.
Making something
When the year requires it, the student makes or improves a piece of work, a program, an analysis, or a first version of a solution.
Pass
The student met the year score, the exam score, and the safety rules.
Pass with distinction
A higher pass. The standards use this name. They don't give a separate percentage for it, so this course doesn't make one up.
Not passed yet
The student has not met the year score, the exam score, or the safety rules. They can finish the missing work and be tested again. The AI Lab name for this result is “Not yet certified.”
This certificate comes from the course. It is not a government certificate. The school does not call it one.
A written record
Dates and steps: what I tried, what AI did, what I changed, and what I checked.
Explaining without AI
The student explains the work without AI help. If they can't, they don't own the knowledge. This is used in writing, math, code, and final projects.
Questions about right and wrong
Who could be hurt? Did people agree? Is it honest? Is it fair? Can you undo it? Students are scored on real situations, not on nice-sounding answers.
A use and a problem
Every major project shows both a real use and a real problem. A project is not finished if it only shows what AI can do and never shows a problem.
Portfolio
One portfolio each year. Continuing students also keep a four-year portfolio in Grade 7.
These words are how teachers say what a student can do. The certificate means the student can do the skill, not only recognize the word. Later years ask the student to use the skill on new work, take it apart, judge it, make something, and explain their choices.
Recognise. Point it out when you see it.
Describe. Explain it correctly in your own words.
Use. Do it correctly on a task you have practiced.
Apply. Pick the right method and use it on a new task from this year's work.
Analyse. Take it apart and say how the parts fit, or what is wrong.
Evaluate. Judge it using the rules you were given, and using proof.
Create. Make something that meets the requirements. It has to be the student's work.
Defend. Explain your decision. Say what is weak about it, and what else you could have done.
A new student is not placed only by age, and not only by school grade. A short placement test shows where they should start. They may start in an earlier year if they need the basics. They don't have to finish Grade 4 before later work if the test shows they are ready.
AI ideas
Can the student explain what AI is, what an AI that writes or makes pictures does, and one basic limit, at the right level for that year?
Giving AI instructions
Can the student get a useful result, improve the instructions, and say whether the result is good enough?
Checking information
Can the student check whether a claim is true, and tell a stronger source from a weaker one?
Safety
Does the student keep personal information out of AI, and know which uses are allowed?
Data
Can the student organise or read data at the level where they would start?
Programming
Can the student use block coding, or Python, if the year they would enter expects it?
A new task
Can the student work on an unfamiliar problem with the right digital or AI tools?
If the student can't explain their work without AI help, they don't own their knowledge.
AI can help a student organize their own life. It cannot be used to trick someone, to share private information, or to replace a person.
Say when AI helped. A person is responsible for the quality. Don't sell something that isn't true.
Before you share something in public, check that it is true, and say if AI made the picture or the voice.
What students never type into AI
A full name with an address, a password, a school ID, a photo of a child's face in a public AI, health details, family money, or someone else's secrets.
Younger students don't use a public chatbot
The course tools run on the school's system. Grade 4 does not use an open public chatbot. Students get more freedom when they show they can use it safely, not just because they are older.
Scams and fake messages from someone in charge
Students learn about phishing, a fake message from a principal, and a copied voice of a parent. In Grade 6 they practice on a fake inbox. They never try it on a real person.
Fake pictures, video, and audio
Students learn this in Grade 5 and use it again in Grade 7 when they look at public posts. They make labeled fakes so they can spot unlabeled ones.
AI that can take actions, not just write text
In Grade 7, students use a practice tool that only allows a short list of actions. They look at what those actions could do if the AI were allowed to do more.
Getting around safety rules is not a game
We don't teach students how to break AI safety rules for fun. “The AI said I could” is not an excuse.
This outline is the first document. After it is agreed, we write the rest as printed books. The course tools are the computer part of class.
Course outline
This page. It says how the course is built, what happens in each of the four years, and which tools we will build. We finish this before we write the lessons.
Year books (grades 4–7)
The week-by-week teacher book: how to start class, what students do, the closing questions, extra work for students who are ready, and the materials.
Student journal
A written record of the work, a Help Map of real people, the student's own honesty rules, a list of skills they will keep practicing without AI, a practice tracker, and reflection pages. These start on paper.
Family guide
A short guide each year, written in plain language. It says what the class will do, what it will not do, how to talk about it at home, and the privacy agreement.
Tool specifications
One page for each course tool: what students should learn, the use and the problem, the age limit, the rules about data, and notes for the people who will build it.
Rubrics and cases
Scoring guides for the three tests, the end-of-year exam, explaining without AI, right and wrong choices, the research record, and projects. Case cards teachers can print.
Acceptable use and student rights
A draft school policy that students help write in Grade 7, and a simpler agreement that starts in Grade 4.