AI Tools for Teaching English in Australian Schools — A Practical Guide

English is one of the most resource-intensive subjects to teach well. The range of what an English teacher produces in a week is significant — reading passages pitched at the right level, comprehension activities, vocabulary exercises, essay scaffolds, grammar tasks, discussion prompts, model texts, assessment rubrics — and most of it needs to be specific to the text or topic at hand rather than generic.

AI tools are genuinely useful for English teachers, but the tools that work well depend on what you're actually trying to do. This guide covers the AI tools worth knowing about for English teaching in Australian schools, what each does well, and how to use them in practice.

What English teachers actually need from AI

Before getting into specific tools, it's worth naming what English teaching in Australia actually requires that generic AI tools often miss.

Australian Curriculum v9.0 English strand structure. The AC v9.0 English curriculum is organised across three strands — Language, Literature, and Literacy — each with its own content descriptors at every year level. Resources need to address the right strand and the right descriptors for the year level being taught, not just broadly cover English skills.

Text-specific resources. English teaching is fundamentally tied to specific texts — a novel, a film, a news article, a speech. A worksheet about persuasive language needs to be based on the actual text students are reading, not a generic example. AI tools that can work from a specific source text are significantly more useful than those that generate generic content.

Writing scaffolds and model texts. English teachers spend considerable time creating model texts — a model analytical paragraph, a model persuasive introduction, a model narrative opening — pitched at the right year level and complexity. AI can generate these quickly but needs to understand year-level appropriateness.

Reading level differentiation. A mixed-ability English class might have students reading two or three years apart. Resources often need to be adapted for different reading levels — the same text or task at different levels of complexity.

Assessment alignment. In senior secondary English — particularly in Queensland under QCAA — assessment tasks have very specific requirements. AI tools need to be used carefully here to ensure generated content aligns with assessment criteria rather than cutting across them.

LessonCreator — best for complete English lesson packages

What it does for English teachers: LessonCreator is particularly well-suited to English because so many of its tools are text-based — they work from a source text you provide or one it generates, which matches how English teaching actually works.

For any text you're teaching — a novel extract, a news article, a speech, a poem — you can paste it in as source text and generate a full suite of resources from it simultaneously: a lesson plan with AC v9.0 alignment, PowerPoint slides covering the text's key features, a three-level reading guide with literal, inferential, and analytical questions, a cloze activity with key vocabulary removed, a worksheet with comprehension and analysis tasks, and a vocabulary-based crossword or find-a-word.

Every resource is generated from the same source text and the same lesson blueprint — so the vocabulary in the crossword is the same vocabulary discussed in the PowerPoint, the comprehension questions in the worksheet match what the reading guide addresses, and the lesson plan documents the AC v9.0 descriptors that cover what's being taught.

Specific tools useful for English:

Three-Level Reading Guide — generates literal (what does the text say), inferential (what does the text mean), and analytical (how does the text work) questions from any source text. This is one of the most-used comprehension frameworks in Australian English classrooms and LessonCreator generates it from your actual text in seconds.

Cloze Activity — removes key vocabulary or phrases from a passage to create a focused reading task. Useful for teaching close reading, vocabulary in context, and grammar. You can configure which word types to remove — key vocabulary, verbs, adjectives, or a combination.

Worksheet Creator — generates mixed question types from a source text including multiple choice, short answer, extended response, and vocabulary matching. For English, the extended response option generates paragraph-length analytical questions appropriate to the year level.

Resource Text — generates model texts including analytical essays, persuasive texts, narratives, and expositions pitched to the year level you specify. Useful for showing students what a model response looks like before they attempt their own.

Adjust Reading Level — rewrites any source text to a different reading level. For differentiation in mixed-ability English classes, this means you can use the same text with all students but provide versions pitched to different reading levels.

PowerPoint Creator — generates teaching slides from your source text covering key features, context, vocabulary, and discussion prompts. For a novel study unit, this produces a lesson-by-lesson set of slides that actually engage with the text rather than generic English skills slides.

AC v9.0 alignment: LessonCreator searches the v9.0 English curriculum database and surfaces relevant content descriptors from the Language, Literature, and Literacy strands for your year level. You select the ones your lesson addresses and they're embedded in your lesson plan and used to shape resource content.

Pricing: Free — 5 complete lesson packages per week, no credit card. Plus — $10 AUD/month, unlimited.

ChatGPT — best for flexible English tasks

What it does for English teachers: ChatGPT is useful for open-ended English teaching tasks that don't fit a structured resource format. It's good at generating discussion questions for a specific text, explaining a literary device at different levels of complexity, drafting a variety of model sentences or paragraphs demonstrating specific techniques, brainstorming essay topics, or generating a range of example quotations to illustrate a point.

For English teachers comfortable with prompting, it can act as a fast thinking partner — "give me 10 discussion questions about the power dynamics in Chapter 3 of The Outsiders" or "write me three model topic sentences for an essay about identity in Looking for Alibrandi, pitched at Year 10 level."

Where it falls short for English: It returns raw text with no formatting. It has no knowledge of AC v9.0 English strand structure. It can't work from a source text in any structured way — you can paste text in and ask questions about it, but it won't generate a formatted three-level reading guide or a properly structured worksheet. Quality depends heavily on how well you prompt.

Best for: Brainstorming, generating discussion questions, producing model text variations, drafting feedback templates, writing parent communications.

Diffit — best for reading level adaptation

What it does for English teachers: Diffit is a US-based tool that takes a topic or text and generates a reading passage at a specified reading level, along with comprehension questions and vocabulary support. For English teachers dealing with significant reading level variation in their classes, it's a focused tool for producing differentiated texts quickly.

Where it falls short: It's US-focused and has no understanding of the Australian Curriculum. The comprehension question formats it produces are fairly basic. It's a narrow tool — useful for differentiation tasks specifically, but not for broader English lesson planning.

Best for: Quickly producing the same content at multiple reading levels for differentiation.

Google Gemini — best for Google Workspace English teachers

What it does for English teachers: If your school runs on Google Workspace and students submit work via Google Classroom, Gemini's integration is useful — it can draft feedback directly in Google Docs, help with lesson planning in Google Slides, and summarise or respond to emails. For English teachers who spend significant time writing individualised feedback, Gemini's ability to draft feedback within Google Docs is a genuine time-saver.

Where it falls short: No AC v9.0 alignment, no structured resource generation, no text-based activity creation. It's a general assistant embedded in Google tools.

Best for: Drafting feedback on student writing, planning within Google Docs and Slides, schools deeply embedded in Google Workspace.

Practical AI workflows for English teachers

Here's how these tools fit together in a typical English teaching week:

Planning a new text study unit: Use LessonCreator's Unit Planner to build a week-by-week unit structure for the text. Enter the title, year level, number of weeks, and any specific focus areas (e.g. "analytical essay writing" or "close reading of key scenes"). Review and edit the generated lesson sequence before generating resources.

Building resources for a specific lesson: Paste the relevant extract, article, or passage as source text in LessonCreator. Select the resources you need — lesson plan, PowerPoint, three-level reading guide, cloze activity, worksheet — and generate them simultaneously. All resources are based on your actual text.

Differentiating for reading levels: Use LessonCreator's Adjust Reading Level tool to produce versions of a key text at different complexity levels. Alternatively use Diffit for quick level adaptation if you just need the text without associated activities.

Generating model texts: Use LessonCreator's Resource Text tool to generate model analytical paragraphs, model persuasive introductions, or model narrative openings at the appropriate year level. Use ChatGPT for quick variations — "rewrite this model paragraph at three different levels of sophistication."

Writing discussion questions for a specific scene or chapter: Use ChatGPT — paste the extract and ask for discussion questions at literal, inferential, and evaluative levels. It's faster for this specific task than going through a full lesson generation workflow.

Drafting written feedback on student essays: Use Google Gemini if you're in Google Docs, or ChatGPT with a simple prompt structure: "Write constructive feedback on this student essay paragraph. The student is in Year 9. The task was to write an analytical paragraph about symbolism. Identify one strength and two specific improvements."

A note on senior secondary English

For Years 11 and 12 English in Queensland (QCAA), New South Wales (NESA), Victoria (VCAA), and other state systems, AI tools need to be used carefully. Senior secondary assessment tasks — particularly in Queensland where internal assessment contributes to final results — have specific requirements around task design, conditions, and marking criteria.

AI-generated resources are useful for building teaching content, model texts, and formative activities leading up to assessment. They should not be used to generate summative assessment tasks without careful review against the relevant syllabus and marking criteria. Assessment design at senior level requires teacher professional judgement that AI tools don't replace.

Summary

ToolBest for in EnglishAC v9.0Text-based resourcesFree tierLessonCreatorComplete lesson packages from source texts✅ All strands✅ Reading guides, worksheets, cloze, model texts5 lessons/weekChatGPTDiscussion questions, model text variations, brainstorming❌❌ Text onlyLimitedDiffitReading level differentiation❌Limited✅Google GeminiFeedback drafting, Google Workspace integration❌❌Via Workspace

English is one of the subjects where AI tools can have the most immediate practical impact — because so much of what English teachers produce is text-based, and text generation is what AI does best. The key is matching the tool to the task: LessonCreator for structured, curriculum-aligned resources built from your actual texts; ChatGPT for flexible brainstorming and drafting tasks that don't need a formatted output.

Start with LessonCreator's free tier at lessoncreator.com.au — 5 complete lesson packages per week, no credit card required. Paste in a text you're currently teaching and generate a full set of resources to see how it fits your workflow.