[ REUSABLE LEARNING ROUTINES ]
Agents & shared skills
Teachers can turn a well-defined teaching routine into a skill students can use again.
Start with one learning move
A useful skill has one job, such as giving increasingly specific hints, asking a student to defend a claim, or checking a draft against a rubric.
Write the boundaries into the skill
The teacher defines the instructions, allowed tools, and point where a student should ask a person for help.
Share after testing
Try the skill with typical answers, incomplete work, and off-topic requests. Share it with a class only after its behavior matches the lesson.
Package a repeatable teaching routine
A skill is useful when you want the same instructional pattern across several conversations. For example, a reading skill can ask students to state a claim, identify a passage, and explain how that passage supports the claim.
Keep the purpose narrow
Write what the skill should do, what it should ask the learner to supply, and when it should stop and ask for clarification. A focused routine is easier to evaluate than an instruction to "be a great tutor."
- Define the learner's input.
- Define the kind of help permitted.
- Test a successful case and a misuse case.
Share the version you have reviewed
Publish and install the intended skill version for a class. When you change the instructions, review the new version before sharing it. Class access and installation permissions should remain part of the workflow, including when a skill is revoked.
Treat actions as a separate decision
A tool that reads school material and a tool that changes an external system have different effects. Enable only the tools required by the task, with the school's access controls. A shared instruction is not permission to send messages or change records.