Kseniia Mikhailova & Sasha Radford

Goblin.Tools Formalizer

Slides

Thanksgiving Dinner Skits Handout

Padlet for Skits

goblin.tools is a collection of small, simple, single-task AI tools, initially designed to help neurodivergent people with language tasks they find overwhelming or difficult.

It has a variety of functions:

• Formalizer - focus of this lesson

• Magic ToDo - breaks down large projects into smaller step-by-step tasks

• Judge - helps discern the tone or inherent meaning of a text

• Professor - provides explanations and summaries of difficult texts

• Estimator - estimates the time needed to complete projects

• Compiler - creates a list of tasks based on a 'braindump' of information

• Chef - creates a recipe based on an input of ingredients

goblin.tools is offered free and available to all.  Mobile apps of the tools are offered at a low price.

goblin.tools/formalizer is an tool which allows you to make your text 

• more 

• professional

• technical

• accessible

• polite

• informal/formal

• sociable

• to the point

• passionate

• sarcastic

• less emotional

• less snarky

• easier to read

• grammatically correct

and includes additional functions to generate

• bullet points

• synonyms (thesaurus mode)

Sample Lesson

Short description:  Students will be given a handout with a writing prompt about Thanksgiving dinner; a cast of characters with a brief description of their varying personalities and moods is included. Students will first write a family conversation meant to sound impolite or rude based on the characters' descriptions. Then they'll use goblin.tools/Formalizer to transform the lines into language more appropriate for a heartwarming family meal. 

Contextualization:

Target Age: 13 and up

Target Language Level (based on CEFR): B1/B2

Location: Classroom

Lesson Aims based on CEFR:

Production: Students can write clear, detailed texts on a variety of subjects related to their field of interest or studies, synthesizing and evaluating information.

Reception: Students can read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading to different texts and purposes.

Communicative Language Competences (Pragmatic): Students can structure the text logically, maintaining a clear development.

SWBATs:

• Students will be able to create a written text based on a prompt and pragmatic goal

• Students will be able to critically engage with the AI tool and evaluate the relevance of texts produced with the help of AI

Preparation: If this is used in a Writing class at a university level, the teacher needs to find an appropriate text that students can work with. If this tool is used with students with a lower proficiency level, the teacher needs to create a writing prompt (a scenario, characters and stimuli) and a post (on Padlet or any similar website) for students to post their responses.

Materials: Thanksgiving Dinner Skits Handout

Brief Description of Activity Steps:

• Pre-task (5 min): Students are introduced to goblin.tools/formalizer and a writing prompt.

• Main task (10 min): Students work in small groups to create a family conversation according to the prompt, then transform their lines using goblin.tools/formalizer.

• Post task (5 min): Debriefing, reading the scripts, discussing the outcome and the effectiveness of the goblin.tools/formalizer tool at repairing a family conversation.

Samples of materials in use: Thanksgiving Dinner Skits Handout

Other Links:

Slides

Goblin Tools Academic Tone Worksheet - used in ESL 112: Introduction to Academic Writing II