Note: This is the third part of a five-part series exploring how artificial intelligence tools might be effectively integrated into the AVID Focused Note-Taking Process.
Step 3 of AVID’s focused note-taking process involves connecting thinking. Once again, AI can become a thought partner in strengthening student engagement with this step.
Connecting Thinking
During this phase of the process, students must stretch themselves and think beyond their notes. They should analyze the notes they’ve taken using inquiry to make connections and deepen content knowledge. They do this by asking questions and adding their own thinking to the notes. When done effectively, this should help them create greater understanding, identify gaps or points of confusion, and connect their new learning to what they already know.
The process of connecting thinking is a key part of making new learning stick and in moving that new learning into long-term memory.
Key Considerations
In this step, a key overarching theme continues: AI should be used to deepen student thinking, not replace it. Students must be the ones who are doing the hard work of analyzing captured ideas, asking questions, making connections, identifying points of confusion, and building understanding. AI can support this stage, but only if it is used as a thinking partner and not a shortcut.
As with the previous steps, a key strategy is to always have the student do the thinking first and last, with AI sandwiched in the middle. In this strategy, students think, AI supports or prompts, and then students reflect.
Integrating AI
Consider the following seven strategies for integrating AI into the third step of AVID’s focused note-taking process.
1. AI Expands on Student Connections
For this strategy, begin by having students write two or three connections that link their new learning to prior learning. What are they thinking about in their notes that connects to what they already knew before taking the notes? The new notes might reinforce, challenge, or even make them rethink that prior learning.
After making their own connections, students can then turn to AI for feedback using a prompt similar to the following: “I learned about ecosystems today. Here are my three connections to prior learning. Based on my ideas, suggest one additional connection I may have missed.”
This works because students are doing the initial cognitive work, with AI providing feedback and helping them extend or fill in potential gaps in their thinking.
2. AI Expands on Student Questions
This strategy is similar to the first, but it focuses on questions instead of connections. This time, students would write down the questions that they have about their notes. Then, they can turn to AI and use a prompt like: “Here are my questions about photosynthesis. Give me two more higher-level questions that I didn’t consider.”
Again, this works because students are doing the initial inquiry work. The AI is providing feedback and extension questions for the students to consider, which can both stretch their thinking and give them example questions they might use in the future.
3. Detect Points of Confusion
For this approach, students review their notes and jot down ideas that they find confusing. After spending time trying to resolve this confusion for themselves, perhaps with the help of a learning partner in class, they can turn to AI to help clarify points that remain confusing.
In a science class, for example, they might type in a prompt like: “I’m confused about the difference between mass and weight. Explain it simply and give me an example.”
This approach can be useful because students are recognizing their own learning gaps and then seeking further clarification and understanding. Again, you might have them use other resources to find the answers to their questions before turning to AI, but AI remains an option for support.
4. Compare Thinking
Here, students would again do their own thinking first. This might be an attempt to write out an answer to the Essential Question for the lesson, or it might be to write up a summary of their notes, identifying the key points from a lecture or article.
Once students have generated their own thinking, they can turn to AI and ask something along the lines of: “My explanation for the causes of the Civil War is pasted below. Search the web for other explanations and tell me what ideas I’m missing.”
In this example, AI once again becomes a source for feedback and additional ideas, not a replacement for student thinking.
5. Cross-Curricular Connections
This approach is similar to making connections to prior knowledge. However, this time, students consider their notes and find relevance and connection to another subject or content area. This additional content area might be provided by the teacher or generated by the student. In either case, the students write down ways that they feel the new learning connects, extends, or deepens understanding of a concept from another curricular area.
Once students have generated these potential connections, they can turn to AI to help them evaluate and deepen their thoughts. Here are a few prompt examples that could work here:
- “I think ecosystems and economics are connected through scarcity. Ask me three questions to help me deepen my thinking.”
- “I think that inertia and seatbelts are related, but I’m not sure. Give me hints only to help me connect them and make sense out of this connection.”
- “Here is a connection I’m seeing. Ask me two questions that will help me to strengthen my thinking.”
In each of these scenarios, the student is making a connection on their own. They are then asking the AI for feedback about that connection as a way to strengthen their original thinking.
6. Defining Relevance
For this approach, students begin by reviewing their notes and recording ways that the content and concepts connect to their own lives.
They can then input their ideas into an AI chatbot, along with one of the following prompt structures:
- “Here are my two examples of how the concept of supply and demand impacts my life. Suggest one more that I may not have considered.”
- “Based on my example, ask me three questions that push my thinking deeper.”
- “Is my scenario accurate? What needs improvement?”
In each of these examples, the students are doing the original thinking, and the AI is reviewing, suggesting, and prompting an extension of that original thinking.
7. Point Out Weak Logic
Another way that students can use AI to strengthen thought processes is to help them find weaknesses in their own thinking. As they are making sense of their notes, students should be applying new learning to other concepts. For this approach, they would share their thinking with the AI and ask for an analysis and identification of weaker areas of thought.
They could use a prompt like: “Here is my connection between democracy and group projects. Identify any weak logic or gaps without rewriting it for me.”
Notice that the prompt specifically instructs the AI not to do the rewriting. This allows students the necessary space to rethink and revise their own reasoning instead of simply receiving a completed answer.
To add in some positive reinforcement, the prompt could be slightly revised to request a list of strengths in addition to weaknesses. This could take the form of: “Here is my connection between democracy and group projects. Identify strengths in my argument as well as any weak logic or gaps. Give me ideas but do not rewrite it for me.”
In each of these seven approaches, the student is generating, reasoning, defending, and revising. That’s deep thinking that can help make the content stick long term.
While the student continues to do the heavy lifting, the AI is assisting in this process by questioning, critiquing, hinting, and challenging, much like a skilled coach or teacher would.
When used in this fashion, AI can help to strengthen students’ connection to their new learning.
AVID Connections
This resource connects with the following components of the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework:
- Instruction
- Rigorous Academic Preparedness
- Opportunity Knowledge
- Student Agency
- Insist on Rigor
Extend Your Learning
- The Five Phases of the Focused Note-Taking Process (AVID)
- ChatGPT (OpenAI)
- Gemini (Google)
- Copilot (Microsoft)
- NotebookLM (Google)