Kira can create lessons in a matter of minutes, and whole courses in under an hour. You can learn more about using Lesson Studio to generate content in our Lesson Studio Article.
Once you’ve made the lesson, though, you are going to want to make sure that you can make it fit your classroom needs. There are a million ways to run a classroom, and a million ways to teach with Kira. Luckily, nothing made in Kira is set in stone - it can all be changed, adjusted, and modified to fit your needs.
Prompting Tip: Read Only Mode
You can use the AI to help you talk through what you are doing before it starts making changes. Instead of beginning with a prompt, start with this:
You are in read-only mode; answer only in the chat without editing the lesson material. I want to make a lesson about [SUBJECT/TOPIC], but I’m not sure how to describe what I’m looking for. Could we talk about what we might need to know about this lesson so it’s really fleshed out before we make a prompt that we can run to create the lesson?
Anytime you ask the chat to be in read-only mode and to respond only in the chat, it won’t make changes to what’s happening on the page. This is a great way to ideate before or as you work, and as you’ll see in our Quality Assurance section, you can even use it to help write your prompts!
Make Changes Manually, or with AI
You are able to make all changes in Kira manually, or you can use the Ask Kira AI button (lower right when viewing a lesson in a course) to get an AI assist on making changes. The question then becomes: when should you use AI, and when should you not?
| Paths to Refinement |
Manual Change | Change with Prompt |
You know exactly what you want to change.
| You know the outcome you want but not the exact wording |
Fixing a single question, typo, or answer choice
| Adjusting rigor, tone, scaffolding, or generating variants |
Fast for small, precise changes
| Fast for broad, structural changes |
Sometimes, you may end up using a mix of manual and prompt-based changes. For example, you may have a primary source, favorite video, or other resource that you really want to see used in your course, but you aren’t sure where it should go. In that case, you might upload the material in the AI chat and work with the chat to find a good place for it and high-quality surrounding activities.
Working with the Chat
It’s best if you can treat the Ask Kira AI like a conversation. If you notice there is something you want to change, or something that is lacking, tell it directly, the way you would communicate with a co-teacher.
The more specific you can be, the better your initial outcome, but even if you make fairly vague requests, you can keep going until you’re happy with the final result. Working with AI is always an iterative process, and you’ll learn a lot along the way!
We recommend keeping a log of your ‘best’ prompts that you may want to reuse during the edit process. While this will eventually be a feature in Kira, for now, the notes doc on your computer is a great place for them!
Kira AI Prompts for Common Changes
Teacher Change Wanted | AI Prompt (Copy/paste this into Kira AI) |
I want my lesson to look more like a presentation. | Restructure this lesson for whole-group instruction, where informational material is at the beginning in a presenter-friendly way, and activities are at the end. |
I want my lesson to be more like a worksheet that compliments instruction I do off Kira. | Restructure this lesson to serve as a worksheet with only some reminders and review about content - assume most learning will happen outside of this lesson material. |
I want a specific title/naming convention/color code at different points in the lesson. | This lesson needs to be clearly labeled with [title/naming convention/color code] at [location]. Please go through the lesson and add accordingly. [Provide more/less detail depending on how specifically it must be applied.] |
I want a specific primary source/reading/video/image/resource added to a lesson. | [If you have a specific resource on hand, click the + in the Ask Kira AI, then select the file to upload. Send with the prompt:]
We must incorporate [file name] into this lesson. It is [describe] and should be presented as [describe - this can be Kira components like interactive videos, action tiles, reading experiences, etc or just plain text/images/etc]. Please add it to [location OR ‘the most logical place in the lesson for it to fall’]. You must use this artifact exactly.
|
I want this lesson to be more/less collaborative. | Make this lesson [more/less] collaborative by [adding/subtracting] activities like [Kagan structures, gallery walks, chalk talks, etc]. [If adding only] Make sure that the instructions are clear and explicit and the partner or group work is clearly labeled. Interactive components on Kira should serve as notecatchers during this work or reflections and/or checks for understanding at the end of a collaborative component. |
I want this lesson to be longer/shorter. | This lesson is currently too [long/short]. By my estimate, this would take students approximately [time] to complete, when in reality this needs to be for a [time] block. Please correct this by [adding/subtracting] practice and additional activities like [list]. |
I want a different sort of assessment or activity. | Right now, the [assessment/activity] in step [#] is [complaint]. We want something that [goal] for students. Please redo this [assessment/activity] and prioritize making something that is more like [exemplar]. This is only an example and not the one you should use; please use it for inspiration only. |
I want many things in this lesson to be slightly different. | There is currently a trend in this lesson where [describe issue]. Please fix this by doing a pass through the lesson and ensuring [describe fix]. When you are done, share a report of changes you’ve made in the chat. |
I want to change how point values are weighted across the lesson. | Please do a pass of this lesson in full to adjust the number of points each question is worth. The final assessment questions in [step num] should be worth significantly more than all other questions in the course.
[Note: you can also make rules like ‘All questions should be worth # points, except…’ or similar] |
Manual Adjustments for Common Changes
Teacher Desire | Manual Adjustment |
I am not finding this step/component beneficial at all and don’t want it in the lesson. | You can delete any step you’d like by clicking the three dots that appear when you hover over the step name on the left side of the screen. You can also delete any component from a step using the trash can icon when the component has been selected. |
I wish this lesson/step/component was in a different location in the unit/lesson/step. | You can drag and drop anything - components within steps, steps within lessons, lessons within units - to change their order. You can also prompt the AI to help with this, but it is sometimes faster to do it yourself. |
I want an additional lesson/step/component. | Lessons → select ‘Add Resource’ at the bottom of your selected Unit, then determine how you would like to build that resource.
Step → select ‘Add Step’ at the bottom of the steps in the lesson.
Component → use the Text, Media, and Interactive menus to add what you would like and drag it into place.
You can also prompt the AI to assist with the step and components, depending on your needs and whether you have a clear vision vs would like the AI to assist. (Ex: ‘Add a new step between [#] and [#] that is a visual dictionary of important vocab from this lesson.’) |
This question/activity/call out would be stronger if it said something different. | If you have the subject expertise and a vision, you can change it yourself - anything in a Kira-created lesson or course can be changed by you at any time. |
Reminders: Publish & Republish
Lessons and Courses on Kira can be continually edited, even after they have been assigned to students. Before assigning work, you will want to make sure to hit Publish. If you make changes later, you can Republish to push them through to students.
When assigning work, you can also determine the ‘Available Date’ for every lesson in a course. Lessons not yet made available are hidden to students, meaning the teacher can continue making changes that may need to happen based on prior class activity. Teachers can even add whole new resources to the lesson or course as they see fit!
Note: If you make a change, it will only change your copy of a lesson or course. If you have shared a course with another teacher and they have made their own copy, they will not see your changes, in much the same way they won’t see changes you make in a Google Doc that you have made a copy of.
If you intend to edit with a co-teacher or teaching team through the year, ensure everyone is working off of the same course copy, and everyone has been shared as an editor.